I love this game. It is an ode to things that made some of the original games (MW2, MW2 Mercs, MW2 GBL) so excellent. It is not without its flaws, but the storytelling, characters, cut scenes, and missions scratch an itch that no other MechWarrior game has been able to since '95.

If you’ve ever asked, “Why don’t we get good MechWarrior games anymore?” – just take a long, hard look at this community. THIS is the best Mechwarrior since Mechwarrior 3 and people still whine: “Too short.” “Too much talking.” "Too linear."

It delivers a 30h campaign, constantly voiced missions, complete with high-budget cutscenes and solid production values. Yes, it's a more linear than the sandbox Mercenaries. And thats Good. That structure allows for better pacing, narrative depth, and mission variety. The campaign includes unique boss fights, diverse mission objectives and every mission is handcrafted. How is that a bad thing?

The story is deeply rooted in the established BattleTech universe, focusing on the highly militaristic Clans. This time, you're on the "bad" side — playing as the invaders going up against underdeveloped Inner Sphere worlds. That moral reversal is refreshing, and it adds weight to the story. You can tell the writers knew the source material — the lore, the factions, the tone — and they treated it with real respect. This isn’t some shallow sci-fi skin like Fallout 4; it feels like MechWarrior. (Looking at that guy complaining about Aff and Quiaff 🙄)

The Mechs are completely focused on Clan tech. So what?! There are fully customizable Omnipods for every weight class. Want a Timber Wolf (Mad Cat) with 3 ER PPC? 120 LRM? 12 Medium Laser? Why is that too restrictive?

I’ll give you one point though: The controls are definitely more dumbed down and misses the simulation feeling from the classic titles. Trying to make the game more accessible totally backfired here.

Then the devs release a massive DLC with content fit for an Addon for 20 Dollars and that is still too expensive for some. This update included a big update for the base game with quality of life improvements and graphic updates. They even went so far as to add full lip-syncing to the mission voiceovers — a quite costly detail to rerender. For me that looks like the devs still care and is much more than other publishers are willing to invest for a 6 month old single player game.

So the next time you’re sitting around wondering why all we get are lifeless AAA titles that play it safe and forget where they came from, take a look back at this Review section. Then scroll through the reviews filled with nitpicks and entitlement, reminiscing about the much more flawed and bare bones Mechwarrior Mercenaries.

This game has soul, respect for its roots, and delivers where it counts. If you’d rather play another mundane Assassin’s Creed Shadows or a by the book remaster Oblivion for 50 bucks, be my guest. But you are the first to complain when passion projects like this become rarer by the day.

I played through this. I played through the DLC. I've played the newer Mechwarrior games, and the older ones. This is by far the worst mechwarrior game I've played. Graphically its pretty nice? Everything else? Lame. Simplified for newer audiences or consoles or something it sucks. The gameplay loop is bad and it becomes super obvious whenever enemies are supposed to spawn because PGI mass pasted the same 'mech spawner' buildings across the entire level, failing that theres also obvious 'enemies jump into the map from here' points. This game isnt great narratively, the characters are all rude ass hard to care about people, though at least in the base game the characters interact and do things so I kinda liked or disliked some. The DLC they dont and it SUCKS. I wish I liked it more but theres no agency to not die or lose people, many controls are worse, the UI is worse in the mechbay and the HUD is cluttered messy lights in game. I just dont like it, and dont see the appeal especially from people who say they loved the old games. Mech 5 Mercs isnt a great game by a long shot but its more playable, moddable and can offer a lot more content with this game from a protagonist I can actually like.