First Look & Impressions - MechWarrior 5 Clans 

I have to disagree. The mechlab is half the game for me. Being able to go in depth with how you build your mechs has always been one of the big draws for Mechwarrior in my opinion. If they skimp on the mechlab and bring it down to just bare-bones weapon swaps, I'll be very disappointed.

I was literally just thinking we had yet to hear anything about MW5: Clans. I have to admit, only a few minutes into the vid, and I'm really liking how much more cinematic this game looks compared to MW5: Mercs, including the animated com feeds.

MechWarrior2 is one of the most pivotal games ever made. Even the market for these types of games has essentially disappeared, i'm so glad there's still a niche band of players of these games. Armored Core 6 sales can attest.

The BattleTech cartoon's Enhanced imaging was meant to resemble MW2 and MW2:Mercs since they were the latest games at the time and would have been recognizable by fans.

I wish the enemy combined arms would behave more tactically, instead of just driving/flying directly to you.

That's how we issued commands in mw3. It was the best. So glad it's coming back better than ever.

I hope to see a improvement in the AI from Mercs 5.

This is the best thing since the original mechwarrior 2. I was introduced to Battletech via the Clans and all the storied lore that went with them back in early 90's. I had played the full Jade Falcon campaign on a store display before I ever got my first computer. Nothing has come close to giving me a genuine clan story since and I am so down to get back to my absolute earliest gaming roots with Clans.

Stoked for this. It wasn't until MW5 that I realized all my favorite mechs were clanners

For their squad commands, they need to boot up a copy of socom 2 and play through the campaign. The commands you could give your squad mates in that game were fantastic. Their were quick commands, and extensive commands, with specific details. The ability to order your men to interact with pre set waypoints sounds like a small detail, but a military operation will have these prefixed locations, named in advance.

those radial menus are SUPER immersion breaking.

PGI's continued development of games in the BattleTech universe makes all the money I dropped on MWO money well spent. I still enjoy MW5 Mercenaries, buy the DLC and play often. This MW5 Clans game is more MechWarrior/BattleTech so there is no question that I will buy it and play it. I am glad it is taking another slightly different approach to gameplay and storytelling. I really looking forward to it as I will continue to play Mercs and integrate Clans into my gameplay routine.

First thing I noticed was how much better the tracers and missles look. One of the biggest complaints I have about MW5 is how big and cheesy the missiles looks sometimes. The explosions look really good too. CAN'T WAIT

Wishlist - ability to deploy tanks, aircraft, elementals, etc - conquest of some type - more ability to customize. - more variety in combat engagements. I love the idea of deploying light mechs for intel or specific missions for the smaller stuff All in all, I'm excited for it

The console way of doing things is a minus in my book, there is no question that keyboard shortcuts are way more efficient. Going into a pie menu for MASC is hell in and of itself. :)

MWO was my first Battletech video game. Back in the day you did a MechCommander walk-thru which included what you needed to do to make it run on modern systems. I'd like to see you do that with other BT titles, maybe starting with MW4?

Hopefully Clans will be better optimized then MW5 was at its beginning.

This looks great. Far more than I expected. It's nice to see Russ and the team throw the shackles off a bit and have more faith in their customer base.

Thanks for giving us a sneak peek and your thoughts, excited to see this come out!

Holy cow you can actually read that weapon status information this time. That was one of my biggest gripes with MW5 from the word go.

The new command interface is what interestes me the most. It kinda reminds me of Mech Commander in a simpler form. Would be cool if it is.

the ship drop off looks badass

Excited for this & some improvements I've been wanting them to make. I've been waiting to be able to give my star/lance more comex or useful orders & being able to designate targets.

So far this looks like a pretty important improvement over MW5 in terms of control, fluidity and optimization. If they have a proper mechlab with the sorts of features the community has come to expect of Mechwarrior titles, by this I mean they _do not_ dumb down the configuration of mechs like vanilla MW5, that would be an important improvement as well. I like that you bring up the quality of the voice acting and the dialogue, because it's been a very long time since we had a well-written game with tactical engagements and dialogue written from a professional military personnel point of view. To some degree, I am not impressed by the combat because from what I can see of the video it doesn't look like there are good tactical decisions to make and to keep things interesting, it still looks like disorganized brawling and close-spawning of enemy assets. I will be very interested to see how this develops over time, it would be nice to have a game where utilizing the tools you have tactically is more important than just building everything to be a brick that can survive being vastly out numbered.

Heck yeah! I was just looking for updates last night. Sooo excited to see what they do with this.

This actually looks like a huge improvement over Mercs. Looking forward to picking this up

The visuals and graphics are pretty damn stunning, and the cinematic cut scene was wonderful. Very much excited to play it

Love most what I have seen so far, tactical stuff. Clans in a STAR/ Mechs and/ or Elementals vs Inner Spheres LANCE of 4 mechs ++ Lore is a MUST for this kind of Mech Warrior game. Mr. Scarface have seen some SHIT! xD Tactical overview I love, the animated Star mates comms. MORE orders and hopefully better A.I x) For MW5 Clans we NEED at least an option for Zellbrigen/ duel for ownership of personell, mechs, vehicles, planet based and planetary territory etc Hope the Clan lasers gets color change, kinda like in MWO. If not saved for different types of lasers. I preferrably would have had Smalls be orange, Mediums be yellow and Large be purple. Using the color frequencys closest " neighbour " colors. I strongly wish for that (you) PGI show gameplay thats like 90% sure to be in be it details small, large and inbetween. Dont skimp on the details ;) DONT cut promising features!! Rather take extra time to have it in the game at launch! Example, LOVED the more weighty feel the early MW5Mercs trailers/ gameplay video had and that you could see the planetary system and the celestial object we choose to go on ( still can, just in background ) Hope to pilot an Cougar! My fav Clan Light mech ( thanks to Mech Commander and MW4 ) Also awesome to see the little badass IS bugger mechs Flea and Locust. Fleas for me!

My favourite thing about this and what has me most excited is that you're Smoke Jaguar. My first Battletech book was Exodus Road: Twilight of the Clans 1.

I am really curious to see if the “satellite” mode you called it can be used for the whole game or match. So it has more of an RTS feel. The game over all looks like a good step up from MW5 Mercs.

Both my first mechwarrior game & and my first online game was MW3 where the Smoke Jaguars were the villains that you had to fight which pissed me off as I wanted to play as Clan. This looks really good so far. Super excited. Hope they get this right.

Looks pretty good. The cutscene in the new trailer looked surprisingly great with great voice acting. I’m liking what I’m seeing so far.

I've been waiting 20 years for this.

Happy to see this. I am a PC user. I would like to see footprints left behind from the mechs

The way you said "commander's intent" man I felt that in my soul.

Thanks for sharing.

Beyond excited for this I’ve put a lot of time into mercs and this is everything I’ve wanted

I dont like the design choice of the big facetime window with dialogue. Copy armored core and use a symbol and give the pilots individuality in other ways. One of my biggest gripes with MW5

I started playing Battletech TT in I think 88. Sometimes playing campaigns over several weekends. After moving to where I live now and there not being anyone to play with I switched over to the computer in 94 or so. I'm looking forward to this.

You had me at "it looks like Tron" I cannot wait for this

A return of the Arena with the commentary ? Definitely a buy for me .

Between the "NEG" and the lack of contractions, they definitely got the dialog correct. I'm excited.

I will buy it, its the Clans..... But , if they were smart, they would make MW5 and Clans compatible for mission orientated multiplayer, much like a WW2 destroyer and Uboat sim game a number of years back. separate, but can be played head to head. Just a thought...

mw3 vibes for sure (I haven't played mw3 in a decade). Excited for the future of this. Hopefully the command wheel wont be the only way to control masc/teammates. Need standard keybinds too.

The top-down command mode is something MW5 has been needing for so long, and the attack queue is going to be really useful. Also glad that they finally added a compass heading.

"Needless to say... I'm odds and ends But I'll be stumblin' away"

I'm looking forward to this.

Im hyped for this, but I swear I will not think about buying it if it becomes another damn exclusive again for a year and some change. As much as a mechwarrior fan I am, I have my limit of things that irritate me.

i am looking so forward to playing this game. i hope the replay ability is good cause i do plan on playing more then once maybe with different mechs or choices

Hopefully lives up the hyper. I do wonder if it will be open-box if beyond the linear campaign is done.

Nice thing was the mech coming into combat from the elevator

Lets hope that, with this game, piranha took what they learned from MECH 5 Mercs and made this game the best it could be.

The command interface for your Star, complete with popping out to a top-down map, reminds me of the original Ghost Recon. That’s a good thing.

Tha k you gor this as someone who has played since MW2 was released all the videogames, the WizKids game & finally I've been able to get into the classic tabletop war game BattleTech & hopefully the tabletop RPG Drstiny soon I'm a huge fan despite how hard companies like Microsoft & now CGL can make it to support this amazing universe.

My favourite mechs, for the best faction!

Looks amazing and def see they were paying attention to the things fans were saying about Mercs. Though as an IS fan, I hope they plan a DLC for Clans that allows you play the side of IS with this beautiful upgrade to their system.

I've been saying since the early days of MWO: I want Mass Effect 1 set in the Battletech Universe. ME had all the storytelling depth I want in a game, and I see no reason why that can't be set in Battletech, including you as a lowly human running around among active 'mechs, to give a proper sense of scale.

A deep mechlab is a must. Has to be there. If I can't fully customize a mech, then I'll be bored.

Very cool, thanks for the share.

I thought you were late on April Fools, but now I’m excited. Piranha Games has my respect and I honestly think we’re going to get something good from this game.

Curiously, what do we think the 'Switch Campaign' feature on the main menu represents? Is it another way of saying/loading a different campaign playthrough? or...

Can't wait so hyped for this

Following the characters as you move through missions will be really interesting. MW3 had a decent amount of this and it will be nice to see another game do more

Did they change the way the arm / torso crosshairs worK? Looks like the camera is locked to the arm movement, instead of the torso like in MWO and MW5.

The 3D Tron look was called "Image Enhancement" was from Mechwarrior 2

I appreciate the new system for telling your starmates where to goand what to do. I have to get super creative giving my lancemates orders with the basic system and simple ai.

i cant wait for this game, ive been in love with the smoke jags since mech3, and me and my hubby play loyal smoke Jags in MWO, so bring it on, i cant wait :D

I hope we get to see some Elemental Power Armour in action. Atleast in either a cutscene or as support deployed alongside you in combat

I did not see a heat scale on the screen in any of that game play. That seems like an odd thing to add late in development. Are they just not worrying about heat for clans??? EDIT... oh, no there it is on the right side of the reticle area. That's pretty subtle for a thing you need to pay attention to or else die. =D

Hi guys! Do I understand correctly that judging by the size of the equipment, the size of the mechs has been brought back to normal?

A little sad I won't be able to carry on my MW5 Merc arsenal to fight the clanners but this is looking amazing and I will be probably putting as many hours into it as I did the previous.

I do like what appears to be a significant upgrade to the UI in terms of working with your AI team-mates. That was desperately needed. My biggest problem with Mercs is the AI of the enemy units. Specifically their "Zerg the Human" mentality. I really do hope that there is an improvement in the way the enemy units react and engage. It seemed better, but I was getting a feel towards the end of the demo when the number of enemy AI was ramping up, that I was seeing a bit of that same problem. It's early yet, and it's not a large sample size, so fingers crossed! I know I have been looking forward to this one for awhile now.

I like the fact they're using 5 unit stars. Since that is one of the differences in organization. Not sure if they bring 'batchall' in or not, I think it could be interesting.

Looks cool, but having been late to the MW5 scene, I'll be waiting until I beat all the dlc content. Thank you for the preview.

Looking good. Will love it even more if it is available on new Quest 3

It looks great!

I've been waiting for this since the day MechWarrior 5 came out :)

Holy crap this looks amazing.

MW2 also had enhanced imaging and missions that required scanning. Definitely callbacks to that, as much as the cartoon.

I can't wait!

Great take. Are they doing an engine update? Did you see a command for "Defend my target" instead of just attack options? I do love the 'Mechcommander' aspect of the commands and command queue.

Watching the coms chatter between the various pilots and their commander and seeing not a single contraction used makes me HAPPY. That and "aff" and "neg". Simple stuff like that, I love it.

Now, the question is if they are good enough to honor the zellbridgen.

What happened to the pre alpha screenshot hud?

Oooooooooooo. So stoked. 👍

This looks very good. I hope they can deliver on this quality upgrade over MW5. I have spent a couple hundred hours in MW5 through several campaigns and characters as each DLC was released. I am a billionaire... in MW5 8-)

the satellite view and the scanning reminds me of mw2.

When I saw MW2 31st century combat's flame effect in the steam trailer, they better not mess it up.

Looking forward to having more human characters in this game. I hope they continue a lot of clan lore and connect us with interestinf characters with good background stories.

I hope they improve the AI and in long run bring out multiplayer as well. The bigger maps looks fun to play on

I really really hope they keep omni 'mech customization to how it should be lore wise: Locked Engine rating, locked armor type and amount, locked structure type. Weapons being able to be swapped freely.

I've seen my fair share of demos. So as far as a demo goes.... This one looks great. -BUT- lets keep a cool head and wait for the final product. Not trusting anything else.

Clan smoked jaguar brings back good memories of MW3. Must've read the manual a dozen times. Cant wait for this game to drop.

I don't know why, but I always imagined the Clan aesthetic on a personal level looking much more like Khan and his Augments from Wrath of Khan.

Looking great and carnt wait to play it. I do have one consern, on the Hud bottom right we see C ER M Laser have a range of 400m ???. my undersnating is clan m lasers have a ranger closer to Intersphere L Laser, about 550-600m. in MW5 merc's M lasers (base, 0 star) range is 324, 1 star M laser 405m up to 5 star being 506m, C med laser range should start above this.

Would be cool, if they add some of this to Mercs!

7:00 "What? You call yourselves the "smoke" Jaguars. I figured it only appropriate to burn you all into smoke! AH-HAHAHAHA!" Good to see the dialogue won't be cringe. It's just like the Duncan Fisher DLC using memes that were 10+ years old. Maybe they'll say "This is Sparta" at some point in time.

Just worries about replayablility. I’m super stoked for narrative. But afterwords I would love to do a career mode like Mercs.

I would be willing to pick it up again and play. It got stagnant, this looks fresh.

As far as the plot goes, I think it would be a great experience to just lean hard into the Crusader mindset for the invasion.