MechWarrior goes solo with Mercenaries

MechWarrior is getting back to its roots with MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries.

Merc with a mech

It’s been a  good long while. It’s been almost 15 years since we last saw a BattleTech game as a single player experience. Well, on the PC anyway. I’m pretty sure there were a few console games in there somewhere that were campaign-based. Maybe.

Anyway, almost two decades is probably way too long for PC gamers. So it’s a particularly nice thing to see MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries. This puppy is built from the ground up as a single player experience. Yes, Mercenaries features a career-based campaign that developer Piranha Games says will be “driven by player choice”. That sounds like it might have some depth to it too. Always a good thing. The narrative told though, will be a familiar one.

The storyline starts in the year 3015, where things are in a galactic state of disarray. That’s what you’d expect to see from the BattleTech universe though, so it’s all good. For you anyway. For people living in this fictional galaxy, it’s not the best. The Third Succession War is raging, destroying what’s left of the Inner Sphere. That’s the area of space surrounding Earth itself. And of course, you’re in the middle of all of this chaos. Piloting an old BattleMech, you play as a rookie mercenary, out to make a buck… and hopefully not get killed doing it.

A little of everything

Revealed not all that long ago at MechCon ’16, the game is looking pretty sharp, as you can see above. But it’s not all that’s out there for fans of giant robots. According to Piranha Bytes, they have no plans on abandoning their MechWarrior Online platform either. So it’ll be a kind of best of both worlds for fans of the franchise, with dedicated online and single player-focused titles to play.

“Our main goal with MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries is to provide fans with a standalone, story-driven single-player experience that allows for a great amount of flexibility in terms of player choice, built on a foundation of the intense, tactical ‘Mech combat the franchise is known for,” said Russ Bullock, president of Piranha Games. “Along with the release of MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries in 2018 we’re going to continue supporting our existing MechWarrior Online game and its fanbase with new updates and regular content releases. MWO is now in its fifth year of development and operation, and there’s still a lot of really cool stuff planned for it. For fans who have been waiting for the return of a true single-player MechWarrior game though, we are really happy to announce MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries.”

Exciting? Yes. But keep in mind that this announcement is for a title that’s still a good long ways off. There’ll be plenty more to come on MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries before it hits the PC, since the game will not drop till 2018.