MechWarrior 5: Clans Wants to Make the Hardcore Series More Accessible Than Ever on PS5 | Push Square

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Targeting a PS5 release at some point this year, MechWarrior 5: Clans has a clear goal in mind: to expand its audience beyond the hardcore fans of this long-running series. Indeed, MechWarrior has always been a fairly demanding franchise — which has largely stuck to PC — but Clans is built to be the most accessible entry to date (and the best-looking entry, thanks to Unreal Engine 5).

For a lot of games, 'accessibility' often means a watering down of systems and mechanics, and at times, those games end up losing what made them interesting in the first place. Fortunately, it sounds like Clans is sticking with the incredibly in-depth MechWarrior blueprint for the most part — it's just lowering the barrier to entry.

And to be totally honest, that's probably a good thing. If you've tried a MechWarrior title before — like previous PS5 instalment MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries — then you'll know how brutal the learning curve can be. This is a property where experienced players will actively tell newcomers to go and look up beginner's guides online, because the games are just that dense.

So, what does Clans do differently? Well, for starters, this instalment's banking on a linear, story-driven campaign. Instead of playing as a faceless mech pilot who receives orders through reams of text, Clans features full-on cinematic cutscenes, bookending missions and introducing you to what seems to be a colourful cast of characters.

The story itself revolves around five pilots from the Smoke Jaguar clan, who are tasked with assisting their allies in an invasion attempt. Admittedly, we're not particularly savvy when it comes to BattleTech — the parent franchise that spawned MechWarrior — but developer Piranha Games assures us that this is a standalone narrative. The aim, then, is to welcome new players into the fold with what will hopefully be an enticing wartime plot.

During the preview event that we attended, we were shown a prerendered cutscene in which the aforementioned pilots