A friend of mine is a streamer, and showed off Mechwarrior 5 to me recently. I decided to buy it, because I like the idea of some live-action, coop big stompy robot fun. I've been playing for several days, and I do somewhat regret my decision. I've been scouring the 'net today, looking for other reviews, and I'm kind of surprised by how many largely positive reviews have been showing up on A friend of mine is a streamer, and showed off Mechwarrior 5 to me recently. I decided to buy it, because I like the idea of some live-action, coop big stompy robot fun. I've been playing for several days, and I do somewhat regret my decision. I've been scouring the 'net today, looking for other reviews, and I'm kind of surprised by how many largely positive reviews have been showing up on the some of the major game review sites. That said, even the positive reviews have hit some of the obvious flaws in MW5, so I wanted to bring up some that are less obvious.



1. Is the entire universe white people? I know this may be a touchy subject, but in Harebrained Scheme's recent Battletech game, they give us a universe where a substantial number of the characters are diverse. In MW5, the main character is a white man, on a ship crewed by white people of various European backgrounds, and every time I've gone on a recruiting drive, I'm pretty sure all the random pilots have been quite... pale. It just strikes me as odd.



2. What about customization? Most games these days at least offer the option of controlling your gender, as well as offering further options such as skin color, hair style, etc. It really doesn't matter a whole lot, as you never see really see the little blob of meat in your mech other than as a small picture when having important conversations with NPC's, but it does strike me as a pretty retro design decision. This extends to your mercenary team as well. For example, if you want a company color scheme, you have to repeatedly enter the paint scheme and color picker numbers in by hand for every mech. The ability to create a company scheme, or at least save paint jobs, would be great, and I'm surprised the game was released without this option. Likewise, although you are, at least, allowed to pick a name for your mercenary company, you're stuck with one insignia, a horse with a sword superimposed on its head.



3. A 3D environment of limited usefulness. So, after you're through with the tutorial/introduction and are finally flying free in your Leopard dropship, you constantly find yourself deposited on the floor of your dropship, standing near your engineer, after every mission. This initially annoyed me, because the nearest console in your field of view, from which theoretically you could start repairing your mechs, planning the next mission, etc., is dead. That is to say, it's not an interactive object. I'd keep running to one end of the bay, up the stairs, back to the command room, to get into the command interface. It turns out this was a waste of time; if you go to your engineer, the console near him is active, and you can do everything you need to do from there. The thing is, it's not the closest console to your starting position, nor is it in your immediate field of view, and it looks identical to every other console on the floor of the dropship. Why bother putting in a 3D environment at all if it is largely non-interactive? There are so many cool things you could do in a 3D space: get in a lift and inspect your mechs, check out the inner corridors of the dropship, hang with the other pilots, etc. None of those things are actually possible in MW5.



4. Artificial Unintelligence. I'm old enough that I started playing Battletech-based video games with Mechwarrior 2. I remember that as being challenging, but I don't recall details. I skipped Mechwarrior 3, but I did play Mechwarrior 4. I seem to recall that the AI had a weird propensity for sniping your left leg, so I developed the response of never putting anything explosive or useful in that leg, always making sure it was fully armored, and trying to keep it facing away from the enemy. I don't remember much else. Playing the recent Battletech game, the enemies are largely dangerous through numbers, and those godsforsaken SRM carriers, but they do take full advantage of the abilities of their mechs, such as using jump jets. In MW5, the only thing in the game that will ever use jump jets is you. You might as well strip 'em out of any mech your NPC pilots use and replace them with armor. Likewise, watch out in defense missions: your own team is more of a threat to the buildings than the enemy. This does go both ways: I remember a demolition mission where the enemy tanks and mechs ripped through more of their own city than I did.



Summary

The good: The game is fun, and battles look good, with special effects and lots of detailed carnage on the mechs and destructable buildings.



The bad: Players who like a diverse universe, or who like greater control over the identity and appearance of the characters and organizations in their games, are going to be disappointed and frustrated. Perhaps more importantly, the AI is really pretty bad.



The ugly: Save often and hit the Restart button if you feel that things went unfairly during a mission. I recommend installing 1 jump jet, because it is possible to get stuck on pieces of the terrain. … Expand