Mechwarrior 5 Clans is excellent in some ways but terrible in others. It is an improvement in some ways to Mechwarrior 5, but it falls short in many other places Mechwarrior 5 did well. For context, I have 100%ed the game before writing the review and completed the game before Hotfix #3. There may be changes to the bugs I mentioned in my review.

Mechwarrior 5 Clans has an exciting story that currently has two branches. It harkens back to some of the previous story-based Mechwarrior games I grew up with, which was a nice change of pace compared to what Mechwarrior 5 was. The cut scenes are well done, and attention is paid to the established lore and canon throughout. If you, like me, are worried about some of the needless changes within the Battletech/MechWarrior community as of late, rest assured none were found in the game. This is like a love letter written to fans of older titles, and it shows.

That being said, there are several key issues with the game. The first is the lack of optimization and how framerates are all over the place, especially in dense terrain. It is not playable on the Steam Deck either at >= 30 fps at the lowest settings, so if you want to play it on Deck, you cannot do so currently, even after the latest hotfixes. I often found myself on a mission, seeing my framerates vary wildly from mission to mission. This is similar to what Mechwarrior 5 was like when it launched, and I think the game needed more polishing before release. Two of my friends returned the game within the 2-hour window as even though their PCs were well above minimum spec, they could not run it at a reliable 30 fps. For myself, I can't get it to stay at 60 fps reliably mission to mission with my 3070. I have had no other issue playing any other AAA release game this year, so it is definitely a game issue. I hope this gets patched soon.

The game is very expensive as well. To 100% the game on expert difficulty and do both branches of the story took me only 23 hours. There is very little replay value currently. Although the dev team states that there will be DLC in the future, I can't grade the base game based on future promises. For my $100+ CAD, I expect more. Buy it on sale if you really want it.

My two previously mentioned friends had severe issues connecting and playing co-op. We had issues with crashes and disconnects even when I was hosting. I do not know if this has been rectified or not, but keep that in mind if you are buying it for co-op play.

Overall, I think as a long-term MechWarrior fan, it is a good game for the 20+ hours you get out of it. But with the issues with performance, co-op play and the high price of the game, I can only recommend people buy this game now if you are a hardcore fan. I give the game a 6/10 for technical issues, and I hope the development team can add more meaningful content and patch the optimization and co-op issues so that it can be played by more people.

It makes me sad that Mechwarrior 5 and Clans are so middling as games, and they need mods to truly shine. I cannot wait for mods for MechWarrior 5 Clans and hope the community can also help this game reach its true potential.

Mechwarrior 5 Clans is excellent in some ways but terrible in others. It is an improvement in some ways to Mechwarrior 5, but it falls short in many other places Mechwarrior 5 did well. For context, I have 100%ed the game before writing the review and completed the game before Hotfix #3. There may be changes to the bugs I mentioned in my review. Mechwarrior 5 Clans has an exciting story that currently has two branches. It harkens back to some of the previous story-based Mechwarrior games I grew up with, which was a nice change of pace compared to what Mechwarrior 5 was. The cut scenes are well done, and attention is paid to the established lore and canon throughout. If you, like me, are worried about some of the needless changes within the Battletech/MechWarrior community as of late, rest assured none were found in the game. This is like a love letter written to fans of older titles, and it shows. That being said, there are several key issues with the game. The first is the lack of optimization and how framerates are all over the place, especially in dense terrain. It is not playable on the Steam Deck either at >= 30 fps at the lowest settings, so if you want to play it on Deck, you cannot do so currently, even after the latest hotfixes. I often found myself on a mission, seeing my framerates vary wildly from mission to mission. This is similar to what Mechwarrior 5 was like when it launched, and I think the game needed more polishing before release. Two of my friends returned the game within the 2-hour window as even though their PCs were well above minimum spec, they could not run it at a reliable 30 fps. For myself, I can't get it to stay at 60 fps reliably mission to mission with my 3070. I have had no other issue playing any other AAA release game this year, so it is definitely a game issue. I hope this gets patched soon. The game is very expensive as well. To 100% the game on expert difficulty and do both branches of the story took me only 23 hours. There is very little replay value currently. Although the dev team states that there will be DLC in the future, I can't grade the base game based on future promises. For my $100+ CAD, I expect more. Buy it on sale if you really want it. My two previously mentioned friends had severe issues connecting and playing co-op. We had issues with crashes and disconnects even when I was hosting. I do not know if this has been rectified or not, but keep that in mind if you are buying it for co-op play. Overall, I think as a long-term MechWarrior fan, it is a good game for the 20+ hours you get out of it. But with the issues with performance, co-op play and the high price of the game, I can only recommend people buy this game now if you are a hardcore fan. I give the game a 6/10 for technical issues, and I hope the development team can add more meaningful content and patch the optimization and co-op issues so that it can be played by more people. It makes me sad that Mechwarrior 5 and Clans are so middling as games, and they need mods to truly shine. I cannot wait for mods for MechWarrior 5 Clans and hope the community can also help this game reach its true potential.