Mechwarrior #: Mercenaries (insert number there) is a sub series of the Mechwarrior titles in much the same way that Dynasty Warrior: Empires and Samurai Warriors: Empires are a sub series of the main games.

The Mercs' series has you playing as mercenaries, allowing for a sandbox experience where you can roam around and take contracts for different factions/powers. The war, over time, happens around you and is a background element, where as the game's story revolves (rather loosely) around the mercenary group you're playing.

The numbered, main line entries, however, follow a more on-reils approach. They are much less sandboxy and follow a harder narrative. In the case of clans, it follows the clan invasion era under the perspective of the respective Smoke Jaguar clan and the particular unit you play as. There are multiple endings, with one of them being closer to established canon than the others.

Chronologically, the games are following the timeline of events as they happen in the Battletech Universe (in which the game series Mech Asssault and Mech Warrior are part of).

Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries occurs in the timespan leading up to the massive Clan Invasion event, indirectly (because it's not a hard narrative) leading into MW5: Clans.

If you're looking to get into the games, the order in which you play doesn't matter too much, as Mercs doesn't tackle the major events of the lore head on - they're just happening in the background while your merc company goes around from system to system blowing ♥♥♥♥ up and making a profit.

Due to the format differences between the two titles, and Clans having the benefit of being developed afterward and uupgrading several elements of gameplay, with a major element to that being cinematics/cutscenes, there is a noticeable shift in the tone and presentation of each game. Clans is developed on a modern version of Unreal Engine, as well, where as Mercs uses the last gen engine, giving Clans the spiffier coat of paint.

Content wise, due to the sandbox nature of MW5:M, it has considerably more play value, despite the more aged mechanics/systems designs, and significantly worse cinematic scenes (much more low tech/budget, in comparison).



For your first foray into the universe, Mercs isn't going to explain a whole of the lore. It's just going to give you that much more ♥♥♥♥ to blow up and mechs to collect, since that's essentially the brunt of progression, outside of the campaigns limited storylines. The focus is much more on that sandbox experience and freedom to do whatever you want as a merc. If you want something more story driven as a proper introduction, would be better to go with Clans, and then if you crave more, drop back and grab Mercs. Depends on what you're looking for in overal game design & structure.

In my own case, I had no idea that Battletech, Mechwarrior and Mech Assault were all part of the same IP. I just remember Battletech from the 80's, and had played Mech Assault; Lone Wolf on the original Xbox, as well as a title on the original SNES emulatig the same vein as the Helicopter based 'Strike' games EA had produced back then. Wasn't until I got MW5M on PS4, started diving into the info and realized it was all the same IP. There are dozens of books covering events in the Battletech universe, as well as the tabletop game, said animated series, and multiple games across different generations.

The studio handling these more recent games, Piranha, began with Mechwarrior Online, which is a PVP, free to play game. Then they did MW5 Mercs, and more recently released MW5 Clans.

Storywise, the events of Mercs happens in an era where the Inner Sphere of systems are all fighting each other for power. Clans happens during the Clan Invasion arc, where multiple clans outside of the Inner Sphere begin invading in an attempt to topple the Inner Sphere governments and take control. Neither game's events are canon, but rather simply align with established canon enough so the game's can co-exist, so don't have to be hung up too much on the details.

The Clans utilize advanced tech, as the clans themselves were originally made up of humans that fled the Inner Sphere in earlier times (war = bad), taking their advanced tech with them. When they come back during the invasion, the tech they use is considered stupidly overpowered in comparison. If you speak Gundam, think of it like Inner Sphere tech being akin to One Year War tech, and Clan tech being akin to that by the time of Char's Counterattack, decades later. Higher performance across the board, speed, generators being more powerful, etc, so that progression in terms of power/performance will be felt when going from MW5M to MW5C, and vice versa.


With there being so few mech games, let alone those more of a sim nature, i'd say if you're a fan of mechs to get them both, so whichever you start with comes down to preferences to things like sandbox games or cinematic/story titles.

Sean Kolton did a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ amazing job on the soundtracks for these games. Check out some samples here:

https://www.seankolton.com/samples

Strap in and have a blast.


Edit: Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot!