Despite having a lifelong passion for giant robots that shoot rockets at each other, I’ve completely missed out on the long-running MechWarrior series. Based on the 1986 tabletop game of the same name, the MechWarrior series spans five decades and 13 games, and somehow I’ve missed out on the entire thing. The longer it’s gone on, the more intimidated by it I⭕’ve become, afraid to jump into a series with so much history.
So when Piranha Games reached out for a private meeting to show off MechWarrior 5: Clans at GDC last month, I decided it was finally time to see what I had been missing. After watching an intro cinematic and most of a mission, I came away sꦬurprised. Clans is very different from what I thought MechWarrior would be, and according to the developers, it might be different from what MechWarrior fans are expecting too.
Clans is the second game titled MechWarriors 5, which is a confusing naming convention for someone new to the series. 2019’s MechWarriors 5: Mercenaries is the most recent ‘main-line’ entry to the series - a sandbox-style, open-ended, procedural experience that fans are already familiar with. Cℱlans, ൩on the other hand, offers a bold new direction, one that Piranha Games hopes will appeal to long-time fans and newcomers alike.
To do this, Piranha is bringing the narrative front and center in Clans in a way the series never has before. As the title suggests, it tells a Clan Invasion story (the first since 1995’s MechWarrior 2) that puts the focus on the human characters at the center of the story. Picking up where Mercenaries left off in 3049, Clans tells the story of a five-man squad of young mech pilots called a Star as they prove themselves on the battlefield, form bonds, and navigate the complex politics of the MechWarrior universe. This is the first time the series has put the pilots and their stories front and center, and its commitment to showcasing a strong, complex ♓narrative is apparent from the moment it starts.
The new GDC trailer shows off a bit of the opening cutscene, but I got to see the full thing at the demo. Utilizing performance capture at Piranha&rﷺsquo;s studio in Vancouver, the cinematic is one of the most realistic and impressive I’ve seen from this generation oꦑf games, and it’s doubly impressive considering this is all uncharted territory for the series.
The scene introduces the five playable characters, recent graduates of the Smoke Januar cadet program,🌳 who, despite their inexperience, will play a critical role in the Clan Invasion on the Inner Sphere. Most of the terminology goes completely over my head, but the intensity of the scene grabs me immediately. These cadets are being thrust onto the frontline of an interplanetary war with little real-world experience and a lot riding on them, which is a dramatic setup I can get into even without any history with the series.
Clans supports five-player online co-op, which is uncommon for these kinds of narrative-focused games. Piranha Games CEO Russ😼 Bullock explained that once it was decided the story would center a Star, they had no choice but to build the game around five-player co-op. It’s so rare to hear about gameplay decisions being built around narrative needs, but it goes to show how inve♌sted the studio is in delivering a story-focused MechWarrior game.
Piranha expects Clans will attract newcomers, and so has included a numbe♍r of features to help make MechWarrior more approachable. Clans will feature a modernized control scheme for mouse and keyboard and gamepads to give newcomers a controller experience they’re more familiar with. New directing tools like the Battlegrid - a bird’s eye command feature that helps you scope out the battlefield and plan your attack - and a quick command radial menu are designed to make gameplay intuitive without sacrificing the tactical strategy that the series is known for.
I love opportunities to break into storied franchises like this, and as someone that values narrative, I’m excited to see what Clans🅺 has to offer. The short gameplay segment I watched had all the bombastic mech action you would expect - exploding fuel lines, helicopters falling out the sky, someone screaming “reinforcements!” - but knowing who and what we’re fighting for is the extra layer I didn’t know I needed to help me finally get into the series when MechWarrior: Clans launches later this year.
