MechWarrior is back and going harder than ever with a completely standalone game confusingly titled MechWarrior 5: Clans, some five years after MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries. Clans is a bold game that improves on the classic sim-lite action of MechWarrior by adding a more modern, story-driven framing—which succeeds at the cost of flexibility.

Clans, I had a stunning realization—it’s been quite a while since I last played a MechWarrior game. Back when I was a kid, Metal Mech was one of those oddities that ended up in my NES collection. While not a true MechWarrior game,