2 people found this review helpful
Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 8.0 hrs on record (6.7 hrs at review time)
Posted: 21 Oct, 2024 @ 2:39am
Updated: 21 Oct, 2024 @ 3:04am

This is coming from a long time 5: Mercenaries player

Pros:
- Guns are shootier, mechs are stompier, laser more pew pew, explosions more crisp, etc... Visually and mechanically everything feels great.

- More story focused. You play some great setpieces of the Clan Invasion and take part in the harrowing day to day of a Clan Star Commander, especially being the notorious Smoke Jaguar. Old school players will love this more.

- You don't have to worry about finance and hiring and logistics like in 5: Mercs because you're a Clan warrior and you have essentially infinite budget. Also the nature of Omnimechs mean it's essentially swapping boxes instead of tearing apart your mechs like before. Small downside is most of your firepower is on your arms (also due to the nature of Omnimechs) because Clanners are stupid and inflexible so you need to relearn engagements (can't really walk in there and torso-twist to block shots anymore)

- The battle map is a good step in the right direction (as opposed to having ♥♥♥♥-all), it gives more control over your lance. The original commanding interface (click there to go there) is still there. Combining both methods, IN THEORY it can lead to some pretty flexible tactical maneuvering, though it requires some time and learn and get used to commanding on the fly as you zip about and getting shot at. But you can mini-RTS some scenario, it's pretty fun.

Cons:
- You play as Smoke Jaguars.

- The characters absolutely suck. Even by 5: Mercs standard where you hire and control faceless goons, many of them still have more personality than the characters here. I guess that's lore accurate, considering they're Clanners, and Smoke Jaguars to boot.

- Career mode is non-existent. I love the sandbox of 5: Mercs, and people argue that there's no good story missions and most of it are fillers. That's not true, I still remember charging up the hill with the 2nd Crucis Lancers on Tikonov's moon, or dueling a religious fanatic with the mech in bloodied paint after a grueling raid. The whole point of career mode is to sell that soldier of fortune fantasy, and 5: Mercs does that in spades, though not as good as HBS did with Battletech. You don't manage anything here but pick some shallow skill points for your mechs and determined pilots.

- Teammate AI is braindead, still. Somehow after 5 years the devs have managed to make the teammate AI even worse. Most of the time they just suicidal-charge into encounters even when they obviously have the range advantage and geared with a generous amount of LRMs and long range lasers, and get torn up by two tanks and a Locust because they have no backups. Or if you tell them to guard a location they will mostly just stand there and get hit, or constantly running into your line of fire. Elite Clan warriors, my ass.

- The music in 5: Mercs were awesome. Simple and hard hitting, it was infused with its mythos and you can feel the bravado, the desperation, the triumph, the wonders and horrors of an Inner Sphere mercenary life. Here, none of that remains, and instead it's generic electronic music. Also in 5: Mercs there were the sounds of missile wizzing by, the hiss of laser burning your armor, PPCs striking your cockpit like a sledgehammer, etc... Most of which are neutered hard here. Most of the time you don't notice you're hit until you look at the paper doll.

Can recommend because it's fun for seasoned mechwarriors, though it might be hard to market this to anyone else but series veterans. Newcomers might be lost for a bit, but the learning curve isn't as steep as 5: Mercs as it is more accessible this time around, might be even a good stepping point to go back and explore 5: Mercs.
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