Iconic mechs return as Mechwarrior 5: Clans invites you to be the bad guys

True to the tease earlier this year, a new MechWarrior game is coming in 2024: MechWarrior 5: Clans will return the sci-fi universe of huge stompy robots to perhaps its most iconic period, the invasion of the honor-bound warriors of the technologically advanced Clans. The announcement of the new game is accompanied by a teaser trailer as a hulking, iconic MadCat mech drops into a verdant jungle before cutting away to a reference to the classic MechWarrior 2 box art.

The story will follow a fresh new warrior in Clan Smoke Jaguar who commands a Star formation of five mechs as the Clans invade the Inner Sphere—the setting and time period just before MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries. Perhaps most interesting here is that both Smoke Jaguar and their Draconis Combine enemies in the invasion are considered some of the biggest jerks in BattleTech lore. Especially the Smoke Jaguars, who don't really understand what insurgent warfare is. Prepare to witness lots of war crimes, probably.

MW5: Clans will be a standalone game, so you don't have to own MechWarrior 5: mercenaries. 

The screenshots on the Steam page are a smorgasbord of cool mech stuff: A big stompy MadCat mech in a dense jungle, a proper five-mech Broadsword dropship, and a few shots of a canyon-riddled desert world. Perhaps coolest of all is a big, sweeping landscape shot of a wrecked dropship. Specifically the iconic, beloved spherical Union-class dropship.

We've got more info on MechWarrior 5: Clans in a cover story for an upcoming issue of PC Gamer, if you're into that kind of thing. 

You can find MechWarrior 5: Clans on Steam, where it's slated to release in 2024. I'm pretty excited to get my hands on this come next year. It's a Batchall I dare not refuse. Meanwhile, MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries has a final DLC coming later this month—The Dragon's Gambit.