In the 31st century, Earth and the Inner Sphere, the planets that make up most of occupied space, are in decline. Feudal states have ruled the stars for hundreds of years, and endless wars, dominated by massive bipedal war machines called BattleMechs, drive humanity to cultural and technological regression. A new dark age seems inevitable until suddenly, from deep outside the habited periphery, a massive invasion force of unknown origin appears, and begins to systematically conquer the Inner Sphere.
In MechWarrior 5: Clans, you are one of these invaders.
Ahead of the game’s October 3 release date, Digital Trends visited Piranha Studios in Vancouver for two days of interviews and exclusive hands-on time with MechWarrior 5: Clans. It was eye-opening, as we saw a studio known for its wide-open action sandbox design spread its narrative wings and tell a human story in a world of building-sized robots.
Mech Ops: The Line
I’m sitting at a table with Russ Bullock, CEO of Piranha Games in a conference room at its office in Burnaby, just outside of Vancouver. We are joined by Paul Inouye and Alexander Iglesias, design manager and concept artist, respectively. Chris Lowry, narrative director, would join us via Zoom. This will be the third MechWarrior game the team here has created, following the online PVP focused MechWarrior Online from 2013, and 2019’s MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries. While MechWarrior 5: Clans shares a similar title as its predecessor, it’s an all-new game with very different goals in mind.
“Mercs from the get go was very much supposed to be the sandbox experience, where you drop in and have the entire universe to go and make your own story out of everything,” Lowry tells Digital Trends, “whereas this is very much in service of telling the story of the Clan invasion.”
The titular Clans are the descendants of Star League Defense Force, a military force that once unified humanity but disappeared into self-imposed exile before warring states tore the Inner Sphere apart. Their return, 250 years in the making, is one of conquest, and it’s the story of Clan Smoke Jaguar that takes center stage.
MechWarrior 5: Clans represents a shift away from a near limitless number of procedurally generated worlds of Mercenaries into a finite number of handcrafted levels with bespoke story beats and set pieces. That emphasis on story is the most significant difference between Clans and the other games in the series. It’s not just that they are adding story to it; it’s that a compelling narrative is specifically what they are trying to accomplish. As Inouye puts it, “The linear and more bespoke design mechanics allow us to be a lore more creative in terms of delivering story and narrative beats.”
It’s stories like All Quiet on the Western Front …
In Clans, players control Jayden. He’s one five pilots that make up his “Star.” Like the Spartans of Ancient Greece, they’ve all been trained since they were children for war, and it’s their journey from recruits trying to earn the right to be soldiers into the invasion itself that we follow. As Bullock puts it: “We’ve made improvements across the board, but the big addition to our toolbox this time was cinematic storytelling.” That includes nearly a full movie’s worth of cutscenes, fully voiced and motion captured.
The team shows me a story cutscene. Jayden is having a heated discussion about a recent mission that seems to have gone poorly with Mia, another Starmate. I’m struck by how cinematic it looks; the shots are well composed, artfully lit, and well acted. The style of presentation reminds me of Halo Reach, which was a massive leap from the “basic scenarios told largely through text” approach of MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries. The Unreal 5.4-powered visuals are impressive, capturing details down to the subtle narrowing of Mia’s eyes as she grills Jayden about the direction Smoke Jaguar is heading.
While it’s a fresh story in the MechWarrior series, it’s one that’s meant to fit into the existing lore. “We chose a canon unit, one that went from point A to B to C during the invasion,” Iglesias says. “These are, for the most part, canon events.” He describes it as regiment that was almost a greatest hits of the Smoke Jaguar side of the war. I asked Lowry about storytelling influences, and while some (like Star Wars, Starship Troopers, even Battlestar Galactica) made perfect sense, one that he brought up stuck out to me. “On another level, it’s stories like All Quiet on the Western Front, where they experience war from a boots on the ground perspective, and the horrors of war that comes out of it.”
That seems to be the heart of the story they are telling. It’s focused on a group of people at war, with the war itself serving as both a setting and an antagonist in its own right. The lead Clan, Smoke Jaguar, is infamous for its untamed aggression, and is responsible for some of the most brutal moments of the war. There are atrocities ahead, and how Jayden and the others fit into that is going to be a big factor. They are all cogs in a much larger war machine.
“What kind of agency does someone who is effectively an enlisted private have in the grand scope of a greater war?” Lowry says. “Against the weight of every single thing that is pushing this machine forward, what can one person do?”
“As the player, you have a choice to make,” Bullock says.
All systems nominal
In my hands-on time, I tried several different missions and mechs. Like the Clan invasion, I began in Periphery, the sparsely populated region on the outer edges of settled space. My Star is part of an invading force attempting to take the bandit-controlled planet Santander. I was playing solo, but full five player co-op with crossplay, will be available at launch.
As someone who played quite a bit of MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, the basic gameplay was familiar. The air lit up with rockets, lasers, and autocannon fire as my team fought off other mechs, tanks, and squadrons of aircraft. Weapons are divided into firing groups, and managing heat buildup has always been an important part of the simulation aspects. I kept a careful eye on the thermometer as I focused my fire on the lightly armored limbs of my opponents, attempting to cripple them quickly.
What surprised me was the number of enemies. While previous MechWarrior games would often place you in fights against similar sized squads, or against a large number of lighter and lesser-armed mechs, this early mission had us outnumbered and outgunned. It hammered home two points. First, as invaders we were going to be kicking a lot of hornets’ nests. And second, we were built to withstand it thanks to our superior weaponry.
Clan weaponry, free from the societal decline that plagued the Inner Sphere, is very advanced compared to the bandits. Guns have great range, are more powerful, and have strong heat dissipation. My Clan’s superior mechs had no issue cutting through any resistance as we pushed toward our objective: a group of bandit dropships. However, as we approached our target, a blinding flash of light pierced the air, and a massive explosion vaporized our allies who had been standing guard near the target. It was a trap, we walked right into it, and now we had to fight our way out of it.
We’re not afraid to say look, here’s a moment. This is happening.
These carefully curated moments were littered throughout the missions I played, emphasizing the idea that this was a full -scale invasion. “These guys are expecting you,” Inouye warns. “They are setting up ambushes.”
During one memorable stretch, my Star fought all along the exterior of a massive dam as mechs with Jump Jets rained down on us. During another, I was fighting enemies from building to building, doing my best to stay in cover to avoid the powerful weaponry of an immobile but very much armed dropship. The fully voiced chatter as my Starmates reacted to the situation adding to the sense of urgency and chaos.
“We’re not afraid to say look, here’s a moment. This is happening,” Bullock says.
Clan life
Time between missions is primarily spent aboard the Sabre Cat, a massive capital ship that acts as a Mobile Command center for the Smoke Jaguar. Here players undergo training simulations in the Sim Pod, where missions can be replayed. It’s also where players can spend XP to upgrade their pilots and manage mechs.
Unlike MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, I’m not controlling a soldier of fortune managing budgets, hiring guns for hire and buying gear. For the Smoke Jaguar, where dying in glorious combat is far preferable to growing old, honor is the most powerful currency. What BattleMechs I have access to and which weapons are at my disposal is largely a question of my standing in the Clan. Take the Timberwolf, for example, perhaps the most iconic mech in any Clan’s arsenal. It’s extremely powerful, and while it is part of the Smoke Jaguar armory by the time this game starts, that doesn’t mean I can get your hands on it right away.
“The Clan is a really well stocked entity,” Bullock says. “They’ve got armories full of great mechs, great weapons and equipment, scientists and technicians. But you as a unit still have to earn your way through the game to get access to all this stuff.”
Weapon and mech customization come at a cost, largely from components broken down from salvage on the battlefield. The example Bullock gives is swapping out an Autocannon 10 for a more powerful Autocannon 20, where you’ll need to invest in the armory pool to have the customization made. This is similar to how research and development works; if I want to have more Jump Jet fuel, or better heat efficiency for my pulse lasers, I need to invest resources along with manpower. Likewise, repairs are done at no cost after missions, but technicians are a finite resource. A rookie Star won’t have the same access as a group of veterans until they’ve proven themselves on the battlefield, though how deeply you want to manage that is up to you.
“If you want to play simplistically, you can pretty much let the Clan auto assign your technicians and repair your mechs,” Bullock says. “Or you can get in there, upgrade, research, and shift them around, and go as deep as you want.”
Jaguar cunning
After a long stretch of fighting, I find myself in a standoff. My Star was tasked with defending a prison against a massive influx of incoming enemy reinforcements. Worse, my battered Shadow Cat is missing the arm that holds its most powerful weapon, the massive slug-firing Gauss Rifle. I’m crippled offensively, and need to rely on the rest of my squad if I’m going to complete the mission. That’s where the BattleGrid comes into play.
With the touch of a button, I’m looking at a real-time satellite view of the battlefield. I can see my Star, and issue commands in an almost real-time strategy setup. I park my Shadow Cat near the objective as a last line of defense, and start issuing orders. I assign one mech each to guard the two areas that look like likely choke points. The other two members I start sending to attack specific targets as a pair (two-on-ones are bad battlefield etiquette, but now is not the time to stand on ceremony). I take potshots with my limited weapons when I can in what becomes a brutal battle.
That BattleGrid surprised me with how powerful it is. Seeing the full battlefield with detailed topography while the fight played out in real time is exceptionally useful. Our objective was marked, and I could see enemy units as they arrived. Issuing commands to individual Starmates is fast and easy, and the ability to queue targets meant I could spend a few seconds issuing orders, then comfortably go back to my cockpit view while the rest of the team carried out their duties, keeping me in the fight despite my offensive shortcomings.
It’s a war of attrition as we take out wave after wave, but eventually the numbers start to catch up. As my Starmates begin to fall, Bullock reassures me that I don’t need to restart the mission just because things haven’t gone perfectly according to plan. “It’s OK for Starmates mechs to be destroyed. They can eject, they’re not instantly dead.” It’s a deliberate choice that allows missions to be challenging, but not punishing. Any character injuries or deaths, he tells me, will be part of the narration.
The last wave of enemy mechs begin their push. I call Ezra and Naomi, my two remaining Starmates, to my side for one final stand. Our mechs are barely holding together, our ammo reserves dwindling. As the first mech crosses into range I give the order to attack, and we charge into impossible odds, and near certain death.
We are Smoke Jaguar.
MechWarrior 5: Clans releases on October 3 for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
