Almost 20 years since the last single player MechWarrior game hit pilot’s PCs, MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries from Piranha Games is now available for download on the Epic Games Store ($49.99 standard, $59.99 collectors edition.)

Additionally, the full suite of short stories leading up to the events in MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries have been released, and now an anthology collection of all eight is available: https://mw5mercs.com/novellas. The new and original series is penned by Randall N. Bills, author of over half a dozen novels, and whose led the publication of hundreds of sourcebooks and rulebooks set within the BattleTech and MechWarrior universe over the past two decades. (https://store.catalystgamelabs.com.)

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries marks the return of the series’ mission-focused campaign structure, allowing pilots to call the shots while leading either AI-controlled allies or up to three friends through optional co-op into dangerous contracts. Unit leaders will decide which risky missions to accept, where their priorities lie across the Inner Sphere’s volatile conflict zones, as well as how to best utilize the resources earned from their dances with death.

Featuring expansively destructible environments, pilots can tear through structures while swatting helicopters out of the sky and reducing rival pilots’ rides to scrap. Strategize in the moments in-between battles in the Mech Bay with mission recovery and choose your pre-deployment loadouts to maximize your chances of glory on the battlefield. Whether you play solo or team up via co-op with friends, MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries is all about risk, reward, and consequence.

MW5:M includes both a linear, plot-filled campaign and an "instant action" combat option, and both of these work in single-player and online co-op flavors. The former includes progression over a series of missions, which means you'll accumulate currency, scrap, and weapons left on the battlefield, along with experience-point progress for both your general skills and specific weapons. The latter opens with a menu that lets you pick certain battling options--objectives, biome, enemy faction--and spawn a randomly generated mix of terrain and enemies; in these one-off scenarios, progress isn't saved.

I opted to test my HOTAS rig with the campaign, since it includes a control tutorial. The first issue I ran into while HOTAS testing was the need to keep a mouse and keyboard handy. You'll have to "walk" through a base between missions, which I couldn't figure out how to map to the joysticks. The second issue was that the tutorial was not built for alternative control schemes. Even with certain functions mapped to my joystick or throttle, the on-screen GUI still displayed keyboard-button commands—and worse, many tutorial steps wouldn't complete until I tapped the keyboard version of the demanded button.

Based on feedback from MW5:M developers Piranha Games, this issue will likely linger for a while after launch, if not indefinitely. If you want to play the game with preferred HOTAS hardware, even if it is supported by a "plug-and-play patch," you'll want to go into the options menu and map your every control function before starting the game (and write down your chosen functions on an index card, since in-game menus won't remind you of your button choices).

If the story doesn't interest you, then hop into Instant Action. In this mode, you can choose any mission type and any of the mechs available in the game. Feel like trying the Atlas, Warhammer, or King Crab? Go for it, strike out on your own, and have some fun. Honestly, this was the part I enjoyed most.

There's also co-op, allowing you to team up with your friends and take on missions together. It's available in both the story and Instant Action modes.

Overall, MechWarrior 5's gameplay is well thought out. Fighting other mechs feels gritty, forcing you to strategize to figure out the best way to take them down. Going into battle under the tonnage limit means you'll be at a disadvantage, so be sure to have a good spread of mechs to meet the challenge. You need to juggle what to bring with you, too, whether that's more ammo for your AutoCannon, additional bullets for your machine gun so that you can pelt enemies and buildings, or heat sinks to lower the risk of overheating when using energy weapons.

When on a mission, you have to pay attention to your mech's status, your weapon range, and the enemies' spread. There's a lot to worry about, not to mention your evasive movement patterns and keeping on course. To be sure, it's not for everyone, but players who like the complexity of piloting and maintaining a mech will find a lot to love.

And that leads me to my biggest gripe with MechWarrior 5: the encroaching boredom. The gameplay, as I said, is pretty good, but it can grow dry and tiring before too long. To handle the sharp difficulty spikes, you'll need to grind missions in lower-tier areas to gain enough skill points and funds to take on upper-level tasks and quests. You'll go through a staggering amount of money just traveling to new star systems and repairing your mechs after a battle. Not to mention the real-world time it takes to sit through loading screens, which come complete with frame drops and, once again, repetition.

Finally having reached the conclusion the question becomes, do I recommend MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries? No, I cannot say I do, but I also am not recommending against it. Based on my perspective and preferences, it definitely has flaws, enough so I cannot recommend it. I am also not recommending against it because I do not consider it a bad game. I feel there is just enough misalignment in what I enjoy in a game and what this offers to fail to recommend, but I recognize much of this is a misalignment in preference that I cannot and will not call it bad. There are definitely people out there this will better, even perfectly align with, but I am not among them.

The graphics are pretty good, and while there are imperfections like repeated textures for the ground, given the somewhat open design to the game with myriad worlds to visit, such imperfections are hardly unacceptable. The story is not that strong and while much of my criticisms can be dismissed by remembering the game is about mech battles, the one I do not want to dismiss is I feel no investment into the MechWarrior/BattleTech Universe. The gameplay has various flaws, with some being issues I would hope can be addressed as though they are bugs (the "radar" for example) while others stem from the misalignment I described above, and so might never change. Nothing wrong with that, but it does help to know going in.

I also want to remind everyone that I have only played this solo. Co-operative play is also possible and could produce a very different experience, both because the AI co-pilots can be somewhat incompetent but also because playing with friends can always change an experience, compared to playing alone.