Everybody loves the Ghost Bears. Maybe it’s their focus on the family, or how they turned into one of the Inner Sphere’s few semi-functioning democracies in the ilClan Era (a minor disagreement about said ilClan notwithstanding). There’s just something about these big, cuddly protectors that draws in fans, so it makes sense for PGI to head to Alshain in Ghost Bear: Flash Storm.
During the opening years of the Invasion, Clan Ghost Bear was in a tough spot. Poor leadership had led to strained logistics and losses on Last Frontier that eventually overturned the Bear’s Khans. Ghost Bear: Flash Storm begins with Khan Bjorn Jorgensson and saKhan Aletha Kabrinski leveraging ilKhan Ulric’s decree to swipe some new ‘Mechs from rival Clans that had pushed further into the Inner Sphere than the Bears and had developed new tech to do it. It then brings you to Alshain, the future home of the Ghost Bears.
And that’s what you get in Ghost Bear: Flash Storm—a new Clan, a new story, a new cast of characters, and some new ‘Mechs to play with.
WARNING: I’m a bit spoilery in this review. If you want to go in blind, maybe skip this one.
Da ‘Mechs
Since Flash Storm’s twelve-mission campaign starts with the Bears grabbing new ‘Mechs, let’s talk about a few of them. The first I want to dive into is historically associated with the Ghost Bears; the Fire Moth is finally back! We haven’t seen this 20-ton speed demon since MechWarrior 2, and by god, did this little guy get a glow-up.
You might think that being 20 tons and having paper for armor is a recipe for disaster, but you’d be wrong! Your pilots (who we will discuss more later) start with some serious evasion skills. Combined with the Fire Moth’s minuscule size and extreme speed (up to 240 kph with the ‘Mech speed upgrades unlocked), the tiny speedster just doesn’t get hit nearly as often as other ‘Mechs.
When it does get hit, it usually removes 10% of the Fire Moth’s health, and there are definitely missions that don’t give the Fire Moth enough room to maneuver (more on that later too), but I was generally pleased to keep Tara in her Fire Moth to free up more tonnage for the rest of the Star.
The first three missions of the campaign are all about fighting Clan Jade Falcon for the Night Gyr, and Clan Smoke Jaguar for the Ebon Jaguar. Both of these ‘Mechs are incredible for their weight class, but I was particularly impressed with the Night Gyr. Once I got it, I made it Lilith’s ride for the rest of the campaign. It’s tough, powerful, and has enough heat sinks that you can unlock the ER PPC and Ultra Autocannon cooldowns without fear of overheating. The Ebon Jaguar, meanwhile, is such a massive upgrade over the Hellbringer that it’s an easy add to your mid-game drop decks.
But it wouldn’t be a Ghost Bear story without the Kodiak. As is typical for a single-player MechWarrior campaign, you don’t get the 100-ton ‘Mechs until you’re approaching the finale, and the Kodiak gives the game its big finish. I hated how MechWarrior 5: Clans’ original campaign required you to drive the Dire Wolf because it’s so damned slow, but the Kodiak not only meets my minimum speed requirements, it also throws on either jump jets or MASC to boot.
The only downside to the Kodiak, or any of the new BattleMechs added in Ghost Bear: Flash Storm (including the Jenner IIC, Rifleman IIC, and Hunchback IIC) is that they take significantly more resources to repair. This often meant that if the Kodiak got beaten up, it wouldn’t be ready for the next mission even if you assigned your entire cadre of techs to repair it (the solution was to simply buy more Kodiaks—you can never have too many Kodiaks).
Da Campaign
Twelve missions don’t give you a lot of time to tell a story, so PGI did the smart thing and made Ghost Bear: Flash Storm’s narrative short and sweet. There’s the overall story of Clan Ghost Bear taking Alshain, and then the more character-driven story beats that largely revolve around Jonathan and Rik.
You’ll recognize Rik’s Enhanced Imaging Implants from the base MechWarrior 5: Clans campaign. Unlike Mia, who opts to get implants to show her dedication to the Crusader cause, Rik is using them to avoid being relegated to a solahma Cluster—something that hotshot Jonathan pokes at through most of the campaign.
It’s not without reason—Rik doesn’t display any paranoia or personality disorders, but he does suffer from bouts of amnesia that Jonathan rightly calls him on. But unlike many Clans, Ghost Bears consider their colleagues in higher regard. Lilith, Tara, and Samuel all can’t bear to lose Rik, who they describe as part of their family. They collectively keep Rik from being put out to pasture and also teach Jonathan a thing or two about the perils of excessive bravado.
As the head of the Silveroot Keshik, saKhan Aletha Kabrinski also gets a lot of screen time, although you tragically never get to see her pilot her Fire Moth in combat. She’s tough, commanding, and delivers a lot of great lines both in and out of her ‘Mech. Lilith, the player character, likewise has some powerful speeches and plays a pivotal role in putting Jonathan in his place (sometimes violently).
The conquest of Alshain is no real secret, so I won’t be spoiling anything to say that the Bears eventually vanquish the DCMS. You’ll blow up plenty of ‘Mechs during each of the campaign’s twelve missions, while the 30 minutes of cutscenes deliver a cinematic experience that sets the stage and tells the story of how Jonathan learns the meaning of family.
I felt like this campaign was a lot tighter story-wise than the main game, and I came to appreciate that focus. I liked the main game’s use of cinematics and complex storylines interwoven between action-packed missions, but I’m an action junkie at heart. I can appreciate the great voice acting and mocap, but I think the ratio of cinematic to gameplay hit a sweet spot for me in Ghost Bear: Flash Storm.
Da Gameplay
Along with a tighter, more focused story came tighter, more focused missions. Just like the original campaign, the maps are very guided affairs with no option for the player to do things out of order. You’ll have waves of enemies thrown at you, and you’ll have to defeat them all to progress. It’s the same as the base game, with the update tweaking a few weapon classes to make a few more builds feel viable.
I will say that a lot of the maps felt narrower, with less room to maneuver. Fighting on the back of a WarShip, a space station, and an underground industrial complex is certainly going to make you feel a bit boxed in, but even the on-planet missions often felt claustrophobic. Sometimes, the map boundaries didn’t even go all the way up to the canyon walls, so I’d get out-of
-bounds warnings just trying to get out of a friendly’s line of fire.
MechWarrior 5: Clans’ metagame of researching ‘Mech upgrades and upgrading pilot skills has been adjusted to deal with the shorter campaign length. All your pilots are veterans and come with a bunch of skills already unlocked. Your best bet is still to max each pilot’s evasion skill, except for Jonathan, who gets a brand-new pilot XP skill. Maxing that skill pays for itself after one or two Sim Pod missions, making Jonathan my best pilot by the end of the campaign.
‘Mech upgrades are the same as the base game, but you get more ‘Mech XP to ensure your preferred ride gets maxed out. You probably won’t get enough to max out your Kodiak or Dire Wolf‘s stats like you could in the base game, but I was fine with that. There was at least some reason to keep using your well-worn heavy ‘Mechs over assault ‘Mechs at the end, and I opted for my Night Gyr over a Kodiak for the final mission (a move that may only be advisable if you’re playing with a friend as your Starmates’ aim is still generally atrocious).
Thankfully, PGI has taken out the armor upgrades from the science research tree, so you can focus on upgrading your preferred weapon system and heat capacity. The metagame still encourages you to upgrade your scientists and salvage crews before upgrading your techs so you can have more stuff by the final mission, but that can be a trap. There are some strange difficulty spikes throughout the campaign, and I barely beat the third mission with a single surviving Nova. This forced me to invest in my technicians lest I start mission four with a Star that was barely holding itself together.
Overall, it felt like I could have the one ‘Mech I really wanted in the early-to-mid point of the campaign, and by the end of the campaign, I was buying Kodiaks and Executioners with Kerenskies to spare, but with insufficient time to upgrade them (unless I spent a lot of time in the simulator).
There are also a few new bosses to fight in Ghost Bear: Flash Storm. The Sokol and Union DropShip return to terrorize the Silveroot Keshik, but you’ll also have to face down a Rattler (or “Iron Talon” as it was referred to in-game) and a giant Karnov equipped with an “orbital laser.” Both were giant pools of hit points with extremely potent weapons, but I think the Iron Talon was the more interesting of the two newbies. The fight involved moving from cover to cover to dodge heavy weapons while picking it apart piece by piece. Even the Caspian (the giant Karnov) was more exciting than the Sokol fight, which although similar, required strategic use of buildings and repair bays to keep your Star from destruction.
Da Elementals
Elementals are an interesting new addition in Ghost Bear: Flash Storm. I can’t say they ever felt as game-changing as a sixth ‘Mech, nor can I say they ever felt entirely useless. They’d fire small lasers and the occasional SRM at a ‘Mech, and would occasionally latch themselves onto something to give an enemy MechWarrior a really bad day. I kind of wish there was a specific mechanic where Elementals could be told to take over a building to shut off defenses, but that’s still entirely accomplished by the base game’s scanning mechanic.
Fighting Elementals is a welcome change from ‘Mechs, Tanks, turrets, and VTOLs. They don’t do much from afar, but up close, they can clamp onto your ‘Mech and deal damage over time. They’re small and jumpy, so killing them efficiently often requires banks of lasers, autocannons, or SRMs.
It would have been neat to see your Elementals fight enemy Elementals in a tiny hand-to-hand tussle, but they just tend to hop around firing lasers at each other. The best tactic I’ve found is to simply keep your distance from Elementals and poke them from range. I hope they’ll eventually be improved to be somewhat more meaningful from a gameplay perspective.
Star Commander Rook is also a total beefcake that certain segments of the population will definitely appreciate.
Da Bears
As with the core game, my only real complaint is the lack of a New Game Plus. I just want to be able to replay the campaign while still upgrading my weapons, pilots, and ‘Mechs. You can do two out of three using the Sim Pods, but there’s no cinematics and you have to deal with those optional objectives cluttering up the left corner of the screen. I don’t even need the missions to be adjusted to account for my steadily increasing power! I just want to play the pure experience over and over.
Thankfully, PGI will soon open early access mod tools for MechWarrior 5: Clans, so if an official New Game Plus doesn’t arrive, I’m sure the modders will pick up the slack.
MechWarrior 5: Clans was already a great game, and Ghost Bear: Flash Storm is just more great game in a tighter package. Plus, you get some of those new ‘Mechs in the base game, so it expands that too (barring a few ‘Mechs that weren’t available at the time). Considering their limited resources, PGI has crafted a good DLC that adds meaningful content and further refines already great gameplay. I greatly enjoyed my time stomping Spheroids with da Bears, and if Ghost Bear: Flash Storm sets a future standard, I hope we receive more MechWarrior 5: Clans DLC for years to come.
And as always, MechWarriors: Stay Syrupy.
Sean, you changed your pic! Just noticed that
IMHO a good idea for another add-on could be the Hellions`Fury campaign, playing the Ice Hellions.
I mostly liked this. The story’s more condensed, but as per the review, it gets the job done. The new mechs are almost all great additions. The Hunchback IIC deserves more love than it got in the review, as I had great fun doing some of the base game’s missions in the lumpy old glass-cannon. The “almost all” above is a reference to the Huntsman, which I did find a bit bland compared to the other new additions. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it feels like a Clan version of the Enforcer or Vindicator – a run-of-the-mill trooper without much to set it apart. The new missions are decent and the Rattler fight was a great panic-inducing moment.
Complaints… the review is right about the lack of an NG+ mode being frustrating, particularly since it’s a criticism the developers have previously acknowledged. While I know the timeline doesn’t roll quite far enough forwards, it would have been nice to see some of the newer weapons appearing, but Clan and Inner Sphere (shouldn’t the Kuritans have a few MRMs by this point?). I guess adding ATMs would require an “ammo switch” button, which PGI have thus far resisted (though mods for Mercenaries do have one).
Tara was my babygirl and they killed her! rage! =( also can we get more braching options that influence outcomes in the campaign?!? would make for some great replayability, like staying with your star at the end, etc.. also, please stop with the sad your star is dead screens everywhere after campaign…..its very depressing to the point of i dont even want to finish objectives….
This game needed further playtesting.The horde fights could have been great fun with light and medium mechs. But at round 5 Sokols show up and end the game unless you are using heavy or assault mechs.These mechwarrior games all punish players aggresively for using anything not 100 tons. Also playing tabletop battletech was often faster paced since here even Fleas can survive multiple erppc hits. Spiders require focused fire from a star of assault mechs.