MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries stomping towards 2018
Reactor: online. Sensors: online. Weapons: online
Those rock 'em sock 'em rompin' stompin' MechWarriors will return in 2018 with an actual proper MechWarrior game what does the good stuff I want. MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries [official site] will be a singleplayer game with a campaign mode about fighting robots for money. It's being made by Piranha Games, the folks behind the free-to-play multiplayer MechWarrior Online. They announced the game over the weekend and have also shared a smidgen of gameplay footage, which includes a rude chickenbot and roboeggs raining from the skies. Watch:
Here's the story-o-deetblast blurb from Piranha:
"MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries will feature intense PvE ‘Mech combat in an immersive, career-based Mercenary campaign driven by player choice. Featuring an advancing timeline starting in the year 3015, players will adopt the role of a green MechWarrior mercenary thrust into combat as the Third Succession War continues to fracture the Inner Sphere; the vast region of colonized space surrounding Earth. Victory, prestige, and profit will not only require skill on the battlefield, but in the maintenance and enhancement of your BattleMechs."
You might remember that Piranha planned to make a campaign-based MechWarrior when they first got the license, years before they announced MechWarrior Online. I'm glad they're finally making it. If you've any fanciful ideas about them building this upon MWO, nah, MW5 will use Unreal Engine 4 rather than CryEngine. Piranha say they plan to keep working on MWO too.
MechWarrior 2 and its Mercenaries expandalone were probably the last MW games I played loads of. I was still struggling with the idea of mouse as a control mechanism (it was the '90s, dear) but hugely enjoyed building my own stompy deathbots and mercenary group. In my memory, the abstractness of the low-poly graphics (and especially the starkness of the city in that mission to escort a limousine) have pushed them into that dreamy sci-fi book cover space for me. Ah, I suppose I'm willing to pull them back into reality if I get to blow up bots again. 2018 it is.