MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries announced

Back to basics

After more than 15 years, MechWarrior is heading back to what the franchise was built on: a dedicated single-player campaign. MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, a new stand alone title separate from Piranha Games free-to-play multiplayer title, MechWarrior Online, will be based around a story-driven single player narrative driven by player choice.

Piranha Games broke the news in front of a live audience at Mech_Con, a convention celebrating all things BattleTech and MechWarrior. Judging from the reaction of the crowd (and my blown eardrums), at least the hardcore robot fanbase is pleased with the news. Details are scarce (of course), but a live pre-alpha gameplay demo looks promising. It’s got ancient mechs, building destruction, and firey explosions – which happen to be my top three criteria when judging robot games.

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries is slated for a 2018 release and will be running on the Unreal 4 engine. As someone who has had a long and somewhat complicated relationship with MechWarrior, all I can say about this return to the series’ roots is “all systems nominal.”