Heavy Metal Mayhem!
(141.3 Hours Played)
I started playing MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries after I learned it was actually part of the larger BattleTech universe. Something I’d only recently gotten into after seeing it in person at the 2024 PAX Unplugged live show “Black Remnant” for MechWarrior Destiny and Alpha Strike. That event lit a fire in me to explore the franchise.
At first, I wasn’t sure which game to dive into. I spent weeks debating between MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries and MechWarrior 5: Clans, weighing the pros and cons. After chatting with fans at my FLGS and doing plenty of research, I realized I wanted a sandbox more than a linear, story-driven experience. Honestly, I just wanted to pilot some big stompy robots, dang it! And between us, the Clans have always felt a little icky anyway.
Before I hit “purchase,” my partner suggested I try it on Xbox Game Pass since it was free there without the DLC. That trial run sealed it. A few hours of stomping around in my first BattleMech had me hooked. Not long after, I saw a Steam sale and caved. I ended up buying the game outright with all the DLC, and I even got a stack of mods too! No regrets!
The greatest strength of MW5: Mercenaries is how it makes you feel the weight of your machine. Every step rattles the ground, every missile volley lights up the sky, and every PPC blast cracks with thunder. These aren’t sleek anime mechs or agile Gundams. They’re lumbering, heavily armored war machines that demand patience, positioning, and resource management.
The game nails that grace. Piloting feels like wrangling a beast, where overheating, ammo depletion, and armor decay are just as dangerous as the enemy in front of you.
But being a mercenary is more than firing cannons; it’s keeping the lights on. You’ll spend as much time in menus as on the battlefield: negotiating contracts, deciding if salvage is worth more than cash, and repairing battered mechs after every job. It’s a loop that can feel repetitive, but also incredibly rewarding if you enjoy the logistics side of running a mercenary company. Which I very much do!
Missions can blur together. “raid this base,” “defend this,” “destroy that target”, but the context of juggling your finances, mechs, and pilots makes each decision matter. For some players like me, this grind is the appeal; for others, it might wear thin.
The real magic happens in co-op. Dropping into battle with friends, coordinating firepower, and laughing as someone overheats mid-fight turns MW5 from a decent single-player sim into a chaotic, glorious sandbox. The AI companions do the job, but nothing compares to four humans piloting in sync (or hilariously out of sync).
MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries is a game of trade-offs: thrilling combat tempered by repetitive mission structures, immersive mech piloting weighed down by menus, and bursts of co-op brilliance. But taken as a whole, it delivers something rare: the authentic feeling of piloting a giant war machine in the BattleTech universe.
For me, it was worth every penny I spent after that Game Pass trial. The DLC and mods only deepen the sandbox, offering more mechs, more biomes, and more chaos. If you’re looking for sleek storytelling, Clans might scratch that itch. But if you want to run your own merc company, juggle contracts, and stomp across the galaxy in 20 to 100 tons of steel, Mercenaries is the way to go.
Critical Mess 
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