MechWarrior 5: Clans Returns to the Roots; Release Date and Requirements

Source: Piranha Games.

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Mech fans didn't have to wait long for confirmation of an intriguing leak. Piranha Games has kept its word and announced MechWarrior 5: Clans, which will be released in 2024. The game was spotted thanks to the new issue of PC Gamer magazine, with Timber Wolf (or Mad Cat for you non-clanners) on the cover advertising a huge article dedicated to the game (via Reddit).

Although the '5' in the title seems to suggest DLC for Mercenaries, the game's card on Steam and the scale of the changes indicate that this will be, if not an entirely new installment, then at least a standalone DLC. Except that neither the product card nor the project's official website, nor the trailer have dispelled doubts on the matter.

Nevertheless, PC Gamer's article mentions a "companion game", thus referring to the de facto two installments of the MechWarrior series. In addition, back in January, the developers mentioned, that the next part of the series is expected to be an independent game.

For now, the game has not been written about in the social media. Not that the developers are too active on them.

Invasion of the Clans

Also quite a surprise is the setting the game's action at the time of Operation Revival, that is, the invasion of the eponymous clans of genetically modified warriors into the so-called Inner Sphere, the first time since MechWarrior 3 (or "in almost three decades," according to the developers on Steam).

1. As if that wasn't enough, players will take on the role of a cadet of one of them: Smoke Jaguar. The last time this was possible was in MechWarrior 2 (and in MechWarrior Online, if one wished so), which, by the way, was an important source of inspiration for Clans' atmosphere.
2. In fact, it should be said that we will control not only one pilot, but the entire squad. This is because in the game we will follow the fate of a "star", which is a group consisting of five mechs. Playing alone, we will also play the role of the commander, but the game will allow for other players to sit at the controls of all machines in a five-player cooperative mode.

Hand-carved locations ...

Clans ceparts from Mercenaries also in another respect. The game will rely on hand-crafted locations instead of the procedurally generated levels. The editor of PC Gamer appreciated this already in the first mission he was given to play: the invasion of the planet Santander.

Nevertheless, let's emphasize, the game is still at a fairly early stage of development and even this first level is far from complete. For now, it strongly resembles Earth, but the developers want the various planets to look really "alien." Of course, this means that there will be far fewer of them than the procedurally generated globes in MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries.

The new MechWarrior will launch next year. Source: Piranha Games.

...And familiar gameplay

Despite these, so to speak, references to older installments, the core of the gameplay will remain unchanged. It will still be necessary to watch out for overheating of weapons. The later missions may be quite non-standard (in one of them we will play, in the words of the developers, a "cop on the borderlands" guarding the ships from smuggling anything out of the base), but players who have eaten their teeth on Mercenaries, should feel right at home in Clans.

Besides, the developers promise rich and "evolved" personalization and progression systems, an advanced system of environment destruction and a variety of biomes. For now, it is difficult to say more about the project until the developers grace us with fragments of gameplay.

Recall: premiere of MechWarrior 5: Clans will take place next year. The title is heading for PC (Steam, Epic Games Store), PlayStation and Xbox (PS5 and XSX/S for sure, possibly PS4 and XOne as well).

We've posted the game's official PC system requirements below.

MechWarrior 5: Clans - minimum PC requirements

1. Operating system: Windows 10 (64-bit)
2. Processor: Intel Core i3-7100 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200
3. RAM: 8 GB
4. Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 / AMD Radeon R9 280X
5. Disk space: 55 GB
6. Other: DirectX 11

MechWarrior 5: Clans - recommended PC requirements

1. Operating system: Windows 10 (64-bit)
2. Processor: Intel Core i7-6700K / AMD Ryzen 7 1700
3. RAM: 16 GB
4. Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 / AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
5. Disk space: 55 GB
6. Other: DirectX 11