MechWarrior 5 is pretty terrible (2019).

[(J)]

Since people are still bumping this years later. I want to return and say a few things. This review is out of date. Between patches, DLC and a massive number of community mods the game has improved a great deal. My review below no longer reflects the current state of the game, but I will leave what I originally posted below.

IMO the game has gone from from sloppy release to being a solid B, even more so if you are willing to take the time to flesh it out with mods. It can't earn an A with me, without having a proper multiplayer component (not just co-op).

-------------------------
Just thought I would let you all know.

The opening story is cliché.and fails to grab you at all. You have zero attachment to the "tragic" death that starts things off.

After that you will be treated to some of the worst voice acting that I have seen on a full priced game in years. Facial animations that will make you cry and half ♥♥♥♥♥ crew that do nothing but stand around like mannequin.

After that you will be treated to mostly procedurally generated missions. That are mixed in with the occasion hand crafted missions. The problem is, you probably won't be able to tell them apart. You will face off against endless (yes endless) waves of enemies until you complete most objectives. This seems to be PGIs way of handling the lackluster (terrible) AI. Since all they really do is charge at you.

To make manners even worse the spawning code seems to do stupid and immersive breaking things constantly. Like.. spawn enemies directly on your flank.

If that wasn't enough - anyone that uses a non-standard WASD keyboard layout will be treated to editing .ini files like its 1999. Since several of the in game keybinds can not be changed through menus. Many of the movement keys for navigating around you ship can ONLY be changed by editing the .ini. If you modify your movement keys to say ESDF (like some players do), you will end up with conflicting binds. Once again, forcing you to edit an .ini file that has no carriage returns in it. Looks like wall of text.

In short - if you get a refund you dodged a bullet. PGI has put forth a product Bethesda style (just worse). With the expecation that modders will fix it for them. Maybe by the time it ends up on Steam it will have plentiful third party support.

Cheers,

J

[Patty]

The mechwarrior stories have always been terrible both in the games and the books, it only exists as a vessel for cheesy nerdy stompy mech action and the series has never tried to hide that.

The voice acting is pretty decent for a mechwarrior game actually, I noticed some fairly famous voice actors.

The missions except from the random close spawn glitches are exactly the same as old mw games.

Dont know about the keyboard issue but who doesnt use WASD in 2019??

Honestly the game's a 7.5/10 dont know why people let the little issues ruin the game for themselves. Why did they expect a 10/10 from such a niche game?

I hope you are doing good, stay strong.

[LeftPaw]

Re-binded my keys the arrow keys with being a lefty. So I start the game and the arrows don't work when walking with your character. That was the first blow, and it did blow. Straight away you get the impression of shoddy work.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Patty:

The mechwarrior stories have always been terrible both in the games and the books, it only exists as a vessel for cheesy nerdy stompy mech action and the series has never tried to hide that.

Its fine if you don't like them, but they were far from cheesy or a vessel for nerdy stompy mech action.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Patty:

Are you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥?

Ahh, ad hominems.. the weapon of those without arguments.

Originally posted by Patty:

I have read a good number of the novels and they are all pure cheese, you wont be seeing any of them on the new york best sellers list for sure.

Its difficult to find bestseller lists for the nascent internet days... but given that Blaine Pardoe[en.wikipedia.org] is one of the Battletech writers, i am not quite sure your claim holds up.

Originally posted by Patty:

The funny thing is this game follows almost exactly the same story as the Grey Death series which are considered some of the better BT books.

Not in the slightest. Unless of course you don't know the meaning of the word exactly. The only thing these two stories have in common is the Dad running a mercenary company and dying.

Grayson was the sole survivor of his fathers Unit (Carlyle's Commandos), he didn't even have a battlemech left. Had to engage in gurillia, man vs mech, warfare until he managed to capture their first battlemech (Lori Kalmars Flea) then engaged in a month long guerillia campaign as part of the Planets resistance against the occupation, before he finally was able to capture a couple more Battlemechs and rescue a starship captain, who, after they beat back the occupation, took Greyson and the volunteers of the Guerilla Company (the Trellian Lancers) off planet. Only then did he found a new Merc Unit (The GDL) with the people that joined him.

This isn't even close to the story of the MW5 story, with exception that both the fathers die.

Originally posted by Patty:

Ishan you are a very special kind of basement dweller, ive seen you posting since atleast 2013 and you are always arguing with someone...

Ahh yeah... more ad hominems, because... well given that you have no arguments, what other fallback option would there be?

[Flippy]

Looks great to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMTvI5xk0Ws

[Scooty]

It's a near identical story to the battle tech game released just a short time ago.

Oh level 0 troll account I get it now.

Originally posted by Flippy:

Looks great to me.

[(J)]

Originally posted by Scooty:

It's a near identical story to the battle tech game released just a short time ago.

Battletech does a far better job making you feel part of what is going on. The initial death and then the twist that occurs later have a much stronger shock value. In addition to that the art, dialogue options, voice acting and music of Battletech are all superior.

That said, the gameplay of each are different genres. Battletech just wraps everything up in a nicer package.

[LumpiaGuy]

It seems that Piranha games used the extra development time to put more rocks and boulder into the levels and make to buildings crooked for some unknown reason. At one point I'm told that if <insert site name> receives anymore damage it will be non-functional while I am looking at a crooked fluid storage tank. Little details that add up to make the whole game off. Why aren't there any scurrying people running about in the cities? Or cars driving around?

[Flippy]

Originally posted by BiggsHoson43:

It seems that Piranha games used the extra development time to put more rocks and boulder into the levels and make to buildings crooked for some unknown reason. At one point I'm told that if <insert site name> receives anymore damage it will be non-functional while I am looking at a crooked fluid storage tank. Little details that add up to make the whole game off. Why aren't there any scurrying people running about in the cities? Or cars driving around?

I seen these guys and girls working on Mechwarrior Online and i am sure they are pouring every bit of effort into it regardless of budget limitations.

It botheres me the female captain couldnt have been more attractive and other budget limitations but what ever. Maybe next game with a big budget they can hire a more attractive NPC to be captain.

As for no little npc icons running around the citites, at that level of detail they couldnt be made repulsive enough for some of the design teams liking.

First comment serious, the rest are not. :)

[Nats]

I loved the older Mechwarrier 3 and 4 games. I have to say though the reviews I've seen of MW5 make it look pretty abysmal. Lets all hope it gets a few good expansion and changes before it comes out on Steam properly - large open play areas, better story, better character animations etc. Its not likely I have to admit. I haven't lost out hope for the game but certainly glad I didnt buy it on Epic, not that I was ever going to anyway.

I do think if everyone is positive about the possibilities for the future of the game we may possibly see some sort of turnaround for a year's time its been done before (No Mans Sky etc).

Of course a year is a loooong time. Who know what else I will be playing by then instead.

I feel its a great shame, a massively wasted opportunity, but its not ENTIRELY dead yet.

[Patty]

Originally posted by Nats:

I loved the older Mechwarrier 3 and 4 games. I have to say though the reviews I've seen of MW5 make it look pretty abysmal. Lets all hope it gets a few good expansion and changes before it comes out on Steam properly - large open play areas, better story, better character animations etc. Its not likely I have to admit. I haven't lost out hope for the game but certainly glad I didnt buy it on Epic, not that I was ever going to anyway.

I do think if everyone is positive about the possibilities for the future of the game we may possibly see some sort of turnaround for a year's time its been done before (No Mans Sky etc).

Of course a year is a loooong time. Who know what else I will be playing by then instead.

I feel its a great shame, a massively wasted opportunity, but its not ENTIRELY dead yet.

The reviews are good, most of the bad reviews can be put down to 'grrr epic bad'.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Patty:

The reviews are good

That depends on your definition of good, i would say. 3,5 out of 5 isn't really good... merely "okay".

[Defektiv]

Yeah lets keep holding the only mech games that do exist down.. because that will encourage developers to make more. People are straight up dumb sometimes.

[Mistasandman]

Originally posted by Defektiv:

Yeah lets keep holding the only mech games that do exist down.. because that will encourage developers to make more. People are straight up dumb sometimes.

Maybe you are

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Defektiv:

because that will encourage developers to make more

But that is just the thing... i do not want more of this. I want a developer that cares and puts in some effort... and isn't just shoveling out some pink slime in a low effort attempt to cash in on the loyality of fans and those that believe they have to buy substandard products for fear of not getting any at all.

Battletech and Mechwarrior deserve better than this.


And this is all the proof you need that there are people just waiting to throw money at a good product: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/450703636/battletech-clan-invasion

All those people are Battletech fans and they just threw money at this.