Summary
MechWarrior 5: Clans centres on a rookie ‘Star’ from the Smoke Jaguar clan. Honour- bound and fanatical, the Clans have their own notion of how the Inner Sphere should be governed.
MechWarrior 5: Clans is a companion to Mercenaries that doesn’t just drop in a new roster of bipedal tanks. The developer now wants to deliver on a bespoke, handcrafted MechWarrior campaign.
MechWarrior combat remains intact, with the layers of armour and substructure translating to long times-to-kill on most mechs. Management of your heat build-up is still front and centre, with powerful energy weapons generating more heat than good old-fashioned bullets and missiles.
After landing my 75-ton Timberwolf on my bum leg a few too many times, the old girl gave up the ghost. CEO Bullock is very proud of how Piranha has been able to represent the progressive destruction of both mechs and environments.
In Mercenaries, Piranha focused on travelling anywhere in the Inner Sphere with the fantasy supported by procedural generation tools for both environments and missions. Each of the planets will have multiple story missions associated with them, all with a new level of focus and polish in their design.
Piranha Games is crafting towering megacities reminiscent of Akira for us to do battle in. The faction has drawn on Imperial Japanese influences since the tabletop days.
Mercenaries’ proc gen system largely precluded Inouye’s team being able to do things like crafted sight lines, vistas, showing players a specific shot at a specific time. “It’S about bringing that control back into the level designers hands,” Inouy says.
Clan and Inner Sphere have different tech bases, with the Clanners usually being the climax. Their stuff is usually lighter, it shoots faster. Tranq darting and crouch walking gets replaced with frantic horseback riding.
The Clans’ OmniMechs are inherently more modular than their Inner Sphere counterparts. Players can swap out their limbs and associated ‘hardpoints’ or weapon mounting locations. The fact that their loadouts and roles can be changed up so easily has proven difficult to balance.
The soundscape of MechWarrior: Mercenaries and Clans will be very different. The Clan mechs are going to have a starker, cleaner sound to them to match their technology profile.
Clans was the first numbered instalment of the series in almost 20 years. The music is reminiscent of John Carpenter and Nine Inch Nails.
