MechWarrior 5: Clans – more than meets the eye (Piranha Games)
The pleasures of piloting giant robots has rarely been more fun in a video game, as MechWarrior embraces a more accessible new control system.
Enjoyable as first person shooters are, there’s nothing quite like stomping into battle inside a towering, heavily armed bipedal robot. Casually strolling through trees and buildings, and swatting away minor nuisances like attack helicopters and main battle tanks, the only real threats you encounter are other mechs, which demand more tactical use of cover and teamwork.
It’s been five years since MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries was released, and while there are other video game franchises with walking tanks in them, these adaptations of the BattleTech universe are the ones with the deepest roots. The lore comes pre-installed, and you arrive in media res, expected to understand why nobody’s allowed to speak using contractions, while nonchalantly bandying about words like ‘sibkin’ and ‘aff’ without any explanation.
BattleTech’s byzantine politicking is truly, relentlessly dull. MechWarrior 5: Clans trumpets its hour and a half of cut scenes but for all but the most dedicated fans those are 90 minutes of grim tedium. It’s polished and well acted, but also poker-faced and devoid of any sense of its own ridiculousness. A bit of humour would have gone a long way.
Mind you, nobody buys an action game for the story, even if in this case it is pushed to the fore. Where Mercenaries is open world, as you take on largely interchangeable contracts while tooling around the galaxy at your whim, Clans is a more linear and cinematic affair. It takes you through the story of Smoke Jaguar, which may sound like a default Xbox Live gamertag, but is in fact an ancient and noble clan of mech warriors.
Their job is to re-take Terra (or Earth, as it’s known locally), which is just a small piece in a far larger over-arching narrative, but feels suitably epic in this well over 30-hour campaign. Missions range from full-on battles to scouting missions where scanning facilities and protecting POWs are your main jobs, all the while accompanied by radio chatter from your teammates.
You can choose between a clunkier, more traditional control style, where you have to rotate the body and legs of your mech separately, or opt for modern controls, which make it more like a first person shooter. It’s a distinctly arcade style approach and while hardcore fans may lament the comparative ease of use, we rather liked it. Masochists will be pleased to learn there’s still a lack of checkpoints in missions.
Your mech can be viewed from a first or third person perspective, the latter letting you see its lumbering hulk snapping trees, and fiery booster rockets igniting when it takes off. Its size and configuration are also relevant while taking cover. With weapons attached to each arm, you have to be aware of which ones are hidden behind the building or rock formation you’re ducking behind, and which you can use to pummel …read more
Source:: Metro
