Important note first: This review is based on an incomplete impression of the game. I have the "Heroes of the Inner Sphere" and "Legend of the Kestrel Lancers" DLCs, but so far I have only played the original campaign of the base game for about 15 hours. So, it is possible that what I write below might perhaps not do full justice to the game in every aspect. I hesitated to buy MW5:M for a long time due to the mediocre average review opinions. Now, with the game on sale and some vacation time to play it, I finally decided to give it a try. And I'm VERY POSITIVELY positively surprised. Be aware that this is pretty much a "retro" game. Except for the graphic, it *screams* late 90s / early 2000s. The graphics are modern-ish enough, and sometimes even pretty, although they too feel dated for a 2019 game. MW5:M almost feels like a remaster of some good old mech game from 25 years ago. Whether that is a good or a bad thing is up to you. I love it. The missions and maps are repetitive, the scenery - practically always a sterotypical sci-fi base in a barren wilderness - feels static and artificial. The variety of enemy unit types is miniscule, unless you count every mech class and loadout separately. Basically there are only tiny tanks and helicopters that explode after 1 or 2 hits, and, of course, the various mechs. I understand that the game is all about mechs, but in the end, every mech is just a mech, and some more fundamental variety wouldn't hurt the game imho. Still, strangely(?), despite (or perhaps *because* ?) all of this, the game is tons of fun, at least for me. To a significant degree this is probably due to the feeling and mechanics of steering a battle mech being a pretty unique experience that makes the game stand out from the action game masses. And, last but not least, the soundtrack is EXCELLENT. Music is rarely an important thing for me in a video game, but here, it amplifies the experience in a way that I barely ever feel in other games.
