The developers of MechWarrior 5 had planned to release a DLC in April containing a new career mode. As the great ideas to implement accumulated, the release was then postponed to June. Today, events related to covid-19 mean that this DLC will not be released during the first half of this year. However, this does not prevent the studio from reveal some of what they are working on. Heroes of the Inner Sphere should thus bring new missions, seven new heroes accompanied by their Mechs, weapons, equipment and a larger map with new warzones. The more enigmatic career mode should let you choose between several paths. For example the life of a war dog or a treasure hunter.
The developers have no specific date to communicate for the moment but will come back with more details as summer approaches.
MechWarrior 5’s career mode makes me want the charm of BattleTech
I had high hopes for MechWarrior 5’s Heroes of the Inner Sphere DLC. Direct mercenary mode, bringing your own outfit through a war-torn galaxy, totally detached from the base game’s dull story mode? Seven new mech frames, including special “Hero Mechs” hidden across the galaxy? Sign me up, Commander, I’m here.
That’s probably not a good sign, then, that within an hour of MW5’s new career mode, I’ve already found myself reinstalling BattleTech from 2016 instead.
As a resident mech expert (mechspert?) Of staff, I was quietly disappointed with 2019’s MechWarrior 5. Make no mistake – everything Jon said in his MW5 review still stands as far as the game is. a good stompy robot simulator. It’s nice to throw an AC / 10 bullet at the back of a fleeing 35-ton Jenner scout and watch it explode like a splashed mosquito. The mechanical combat remains singular and pugilistic, the rare enemy of the video game which can literally lose an arm or a leg and still kill you. In fact, MW5’s combat may have improved, with some AI improvements (like jumping enemies) and cross-play available.
But 18 years after MechWarrior’s last solo title, MW5 felt woefully old-fashioned in its story mode. The game appears to be stuck in the ’90s, pitting you against as Cardboard Commander named (Won’t you) Mason, pursuing a quest for revenge in numbers. There’s a feeling Piranha is reminiscent of the pulp sci-fi attitude of the heyday of MechWarrior, a series that produced dozens of paperback novels, but everything fell a bit too flat.
It didn’t help, of course, that MW5 was preceded by the phenomenal Harebrained Schemes. BattleTech — A game that, beyond being a stellar tactical simulation, felt like a whole new direction for the setting. A hand-painted space opera whose opening cinematic paints a world of feudal drama of mud and lasers with more flair than MW5’s Exhibition Depot ever could.
However, MW5’s campaign was also embedded in a robust business simulation, which immersed you deep into the finances and contracts of an interstellar robotics company. On paper, the two games are identical, but MechWarrior simply misses all of the interstitial events and character moments that made BattleTech’s jumpship feel right at home.
By parting with Nik’s Cavaliers, I had hoped that MW5 would eventually overcome this drought. The DLC promised to let you start your own mercenary business, launch out into the galaxy to make your mark as ruthless pirates, state-backed weapons, or heroes for hire.
To cut on the mechs of the galaxy, that’s good. It works. But there is a minimum of character in the procedure. Mason has been replaced by “The Commander”, a voiceless and faceless lead who is nevertheless still referred to with he / him pronouns. There are maybe a half-dozen badges to choose from when starting your business, and a galaxy of forgettable freelance pilots to fill it out.
Here is the thing. Battletech also has its own storyless career mode long after launch, but developer HBS has made your ship real and lived. Your old destroyed ship will break down, impacting not only your repair rate, but the overall mood of the crew as well. Your pilots will throw parties, play poker, or do stunts at inter-mission dialogue events. These events were presented simply – text with accompanying 2D artwork – but they provided essential downtime and pacing compared to BattleTech’s 40+ hour procedurally generated campaign, which naturally got you going. sent on missions with similar objectives.
And thanks to those little vignettes, I can remember almost every pilot I’ve served with, from my eccentric PPC expert Glitch to the stubborn Behemoth, whose sudden death at the hands of an ambush in Hunchback made me scream. audibly. The last time I logged in a beat described how one of my pilots (a real hothead named Archangel) was properly rocked by a tough fight we had just had.
In MechWarrior 5, my pilots are a bunch of hammered voices to stuff into an AI-controlled mech, without even a callsign to remember. They are usable, but they are not memorable. And that’s the crux of the matter, isn’t it? In Battletech, my career mode has built a story – whether it’s losing a pilot, grabbing a mission, or making tough financial calls. In MW5, I mostly feel like I’m playing instant action on a budget.
Heroes of the Inner Sphere at least does away with some of my other frustrations with MW5. Maps are now less visibly procedural, no longer feeling like a tiled panel of prefabs of land. And the DLC features a number of new story threads, with quests to take down special “heroes” with overpowered mechs and a number of career paths to go down.
Maybe, down the road, Heroes of the Inner Sphere gets really good. What the game still needs at this point is a layer of presentation that makes each step of your journey through the Inner Sphere easier to remember, and storytelling that adds meaning to the downtime between games. of them.
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