MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries

While it might not satisfy serious MWO players, it serves as a good title for either those wanting to get into Battletech, or have stepped away from it for a while. While the friendly AI can be lacking at times, the overall gameplay is pretty solid and consistent with plenty of mod support to help with any shortcomings. Basically if what you're looking for is to play with giant robots while blowing stuff up, there's a good chance that you'll have a good time.

I bought this after playing a bit of MechWarrior Online because I heard there was a VR mod for this one. After getting the mod installed and working (was pretty easy) I put my headset on and was blown away by how well it worked. I've been playing through the campaign entirely in VR (and sometimes in Coop with a friend playing flatscreen, works perfectly fine) and I'm absolutely hooked on the progression systems of building your own mercenary outfit and slowly collecting parts and mechs to take on tougher and tougher contracts. Absolutely fantastic in VR and still awesome without because the progression system and open world nature are the real hook. Lots of other great mods by the community that I haven't tried yet.

High on fun But needs some tweaks in terms of enemy spawn and behavior.. your own lance mates are kinda of a joke and require a lot of micro due to Still getting stuck all these years later... some mods improve this but at this point years after release and with new content still coming out should be better out of the box.. That said if you are in to BattleTech this title is well worth the money and prety much a Must!

I think every reviewer here has covered the bases on this title. I finally got around to playing this as I have been waiting for it to appear here on GOG. Overall, I am having a lot of fun blowing up robots but I am disappointed by a few things. - The destruction models are decent, but not great. Most objects are destructible, but larger buildings stop crumbling after the exteriors peel away. It really would have been cool to use the buildings against the enemy. Shoot a skyscraper enough and it falls on an enemy etc - You will find on certain maps ground textures that don't match and look patched together. Really looks bad actually. I have noticed this mostly on the arid/desert maps so far. - Maps feel more like outdoor arenas. They don't seem epic in size like in Mechwarrior 2 and 3 (my favorites in the series). You will hit these ridiculous red force field looking barriers which breaks the immersion for me. There has to be a better way. - The soundtrack. The title screen tune is stuck in my head admittedly, but the rest with its generic guitar riffs etc just don't hold a candle to the likes of Mechwarrior 2. I still listen to that soundtrack to this day. The soundtrack in MW2 carried that entire game's lack of graphic realism. It completely set the foreboding atmosphere. So important. It's not terrible in MW5, but not great either. Bottom line? I am having loads of fun blowing up stuff and the missions can be very challenging which makes it quite rewarding even when you barely limp back to your drop ship. Enemy AI is decent and packs a punch so far. Friendly AI can get stupid at times, but nothing game stopping. I still have a lot of hours ahead of me with this game. It is definitely worth the price of admission even though it's just not quite as epic as MW2 or MW3.

I didn't give 5 stars because it requires several mods to reach an awesome quality. It has the potential to recreate any historical event in the BattleTech universe until the Clans arrival, but unfortunately the devs decided for just a few and mostly in the form of DLCs. Hopefully, in the future, PGI will release a campaign editor to allow modders to make the game a dream for any devout BTecher.