There are multiple layers to a Clans battle. There is your actual movement, which can take getting used to, with your legs moving on their own trajectory while you swivel your torso. There is your squad and how they’re deployed, which takes up many of your background thought cycles. And there is your mech, its heating levels, its armor condition, its speed, and everything else you set yourself up for during customization.
Your enemies and your copilots are, well, pretty dumb. There’s good variety in what you face and what you must do, but nobody besides you on the field seems to have a great sense of how verticality works or what the most important thing on the field is at that moment. Once you accept that your squad mates are powerful dummies, you’ll learn to let go of your own mech a bit and spend more time nudging them around or jumping into their cockpits and taking over for a spell.
The nature of mech combat in these games did not, after a half-dozen missions, click with me. On some level, it’s interesting juggling various weapons, positioning yourself with limited movement, and directing teammates. I’m going slow, and it feels like a slog, but I could go faster if I had made a different choice during loadout. I’d just have to make somebody else the heavy.
But it’s also a crunchy simulation game, simulating machinery that does not actually exist. Everything that stands between you and your sense of capable combat is a choice made by the developers.
Mecha culpa
Based on my conversations with longtime MechWarrior fans and reading lots of positive reviews to figure out if there’s something wrong with me, I think MechWarrior 5: Clans is a very juicy offering for mech fans who have been hungry for something new (and especially something set in this Clans-coming-back period) for quite some time. I’m just not entranced as a newcomer, and I’m now thinking something like Armored Core VI would be more my speed if I’m looking for rocking or possibly socking robots. I also didn’t engage with multiplayer at all, so my standard dismissal of combatant AI would only half-apply there.
By all means, though, tell me and each other how this game looks or plays to you. I was not bio-engineered for MechWarrior (I mean, just look at how many contractions I use), but I can still appreciate that it looks pretty good for those who fit better into the chassis.