Talking MechWarrior 5: Clans With Narrative Director Chris Lowrey

We have a special treat for you this week! I’ve been in contact with Chris Lowrey, Narrative Director for the upcoming MechWarrior 5: Clans. He managed to escape PGI’s brutal internal security service for just long enough to send out an encoded message that shares new details on what we can expect to find in MechWarrior 5: Clans. He risked his life to get this message out, so the least we can do is read his kind words. We salute you, Mr. Lowrey!

Courtesy of PGI

Sean (Sarna): How was everyone at PGI feeling about getting to the Clan Invasion in the MechWarrior 5 timeline?

Chris (PGI): On the team side, there is a lot of excitement for multiple reasons. The biggest one on the narrative team is that we can not only tell the story of the Clans and Operation REVIVAL for the first time since MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries, but that as a standalone product, we can deliver on the story of the Clans in a much more epic and cohesive way then we ever could if we tried to cram it into the scope of a single DLC expansion for MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries. But that’s not to say that it’s the only thing the team’s excited about. The update to Unreal 5, and all the possibilities across different departments that come with the engine update are also high on the list of things the team is excited about. As it allows for so many development options that would not have been feasible with Mercs.

Sean: What are the narrative tools that you’re most excited to play with in MW5: Clans that you didn’t have in MW5: Mercs?

Chris: MW5: Mercs at its heart was built as a sandbox game that gave you the entire Inner Sphere to travel and explore however you want. So, for the initial release of the game, the narrative tools were very limited since the main story was written primarily to facilitate the open exploration of the core game. For Legend of the Kestrel Lancers, we greatly expanded on the narrative toolset to allow us to tell more narratively driven stories, and we’ve continued to touch up on those tools as needed for Rise of Rasalhague and The Dragon’s Gambit.  But even these were limited by the core sandbox systems that Mercs was built on. Especially as it relates to Co-op play, which always complicates things in very unpredictable ways. 

For MW5: Clans, experiencing Operation REVIVAL firsthand from the Smoke Jaguar‘s perspective is the core thrust of the game. Which by necessity is a much more linear experience than having carte blanche to travel wherever you please in the Inner Sphere (otherwise, why wouldn’t you just beeline the Clan armada straight to Terra?). So, the narrative becomes a much larger focus in telling the story of the Clan invasion. This means a lot of focus is being placed on giving us more robust tools to tell that story well, especially for those within our audience who were not around nearly thirty years ago to experience the last game that featured a Clan perspective.

Sean: Why Smoke Jaguar? Why not return to Clan Wolf, Jade Falcon, or Ghost Bears? Or even my personal favorite, the Nova Cats?

Chris: I find this question hilarious at this point. Because between pitching this story internally, chatting about MW5: Clans with the Catalyst Games Lab team, and talking with various media outlets, this question, without fail, has always been one of the first questions that everyone asks coming out of the gate. 

But to me, Smoke Jaguar was always the obvious, and only, choice when it came to telling the story of the Clan Invasion in a MechWarrior game from the Clan side of the conflict.  Sure, it’s fun to point out that they are the only clan out of the big four that didn’t get their own campaign in MechWarrior 2. (And that sure helped the Jaguar’s case when I pitched the initial story outline internally.) But if you want to know the truth, that has always just been a fun little side benefit. 

The real reason is that to truly tell the story of Operation REVIVAL from the clan’s perspective is to tell the story of Clan Smoke Jaguar.  It was the Smoke Jaguars who were the most fanatical proponents of Kerensky’s Hidden Hope Doctrine that galvanized the Crusader philosophy in the Kerensky Cluster. It was Leo Showers who was the principal architect of the invasion, and it was the Smoke Jaguars that led the charge into the most coveted invasion corridor into the Draconis Combine where some of the most pivotal events of the invasion happened. No matter what Clan we chose to center our story around, it would be impossible to tell the full story of the Clan Invasion without telling the story of Clan Smoke Jaguar. So, to me, they have always been the obvious choice as MW5: Clans’ headlining faction. 

Additionally, in much the same way as MW5: Mercs was designed to cater to a new generation of fans after a very long period of stagnation with the mainline MechWarrior games, Clans is very much taking a similar approach to fully “introduce” the Clans to newer fans, that might have only been recently exposed to the franchise through MechWarrior Online and MW5: Mercs, in a way that hasn’t been done in nearly 30 years since the original MechWarrior 2. 

And finally, let’s be honest; If you were to chart all the pivotal moments of the Clan Invasion, the conflicts that the Jaguars take part in are the most natural fit for a MechWarrior game given that the core drama from the Clan perspective doesn’t hinge on very specific events that live and die on the decisions of pre-established novel characters. As narratively satisfying as the conquest of Gunzburg and Clan Wolf’s face-off with Tor Miraborg is on the written page, it doesn’t make for the most compelling gameplay loop in a MechWarrior game.

Sean: Some Jaguars have always been the villains of the Clan Invasion. Is the player going to be part of that villainy, or will the player have to make a choice to go along with something like Turtle Bay or voice their objections?

Chris: Well first off, I would object to the villain characterization. Like all factions in the BattleTech universe, who the real “villain” is will always be a matter of perspective. While he may have been the hero of Davion-centered stories, Hanse Davion was never seen as a benevolent liberator to the Capellan and Combine people. And even within the Warrior Trilogy, there were moments where the mask came down. Such as when he openly admits to knowingly sending the 5th Syrtis Fusiliers, his own citizens, to die on Sarna for being closely aligned with a political rival who was already dead. “I will reward those who serve me well, and discard those that don’t” is hardly what a completely altruistic hero would say. 

The Jaguars throughout the fiction have received a bit of an inverse to the treatment Davion got.  The Blood of Kerensky Trilogy’s point of view solely rested on the perspectives of Inner Sphere factions, with the main clan perspective being from a warden clan whose Khan was actively attempting to undermine the Crusader cause. Even the Jaguar-focused Exodus Road was from the perspective of a disenfranchised warrior who eventually turned traitor/defector. Both examples make them hardly the most reliable narrators when it comes to a full picture of the Smoke Jaguar’s perspective during the initial invasion. 

In practice, the Smoke Jaguars see themselves as the true champions of the Crusader cause. To return to the Inner Sphere and bring Kerensky’s vengeance down on the tyrants and despots that brought about the downfall of the ancient Star League. And plunged humanity into nearly 300 years of darkness. To them, they are the only Clan with the strength and conviction to do what is necessary to break the deadlock in the grand council and lead Kerensky’s descendants home to reclaim their birthright. 

This is the clan that the player will find themselves introduced to. One that isn’t a mustache-twirling villain but a Clan that zealously believes itself the only Clan with the strength and conviction to do what is necessary to bring Kerensky’s people home and help liberate humanity from the petty warlords of the Great Houses by taking Terra and reestablishing the Star League. This feeling of manifest destiny is only galvanized when Khan Leo Showers does indeed break the deadlock within the Grand Council and takes charge as the supreme commander of the unified Clan invasion.  

From there, like all other ‘MechWarrior games, the player will receive a “boots on the ground” perspective of the events of the clan invasion, both the highs and the lows. Where those events take the player will have to be left to everyone’s imagination for now, as we would hate to ruin the ride for everyone. Even for those who might already know the wider events that may or may not appear during the journey. 

Sean: We know that the Smoke Jaguars mostly won their battles during the invasion, but they also suffered some high-profile losses. How will the player still “win” at Wolcott or Luthien while the Smoke Jaguar Clan as a whole loses? Will BattleTech fans find themselves rooting for the Smoke Jaguars despite knowing these losses are coming?

Chris: The story of MW5: Clans doesn’t revolve around the trials and tribulations of Clan Smoke Jaguar as a Clan, but on the personal story of the player’s star of newly anointed Smoke Jaguar warriors. While the larger Clan politics may shape the events that directly influence your story, the core of the game’s narrative will focus on how the events of the Clan invasion shape your star from their initial adoption into the Clan through the point at which their journey ends. 

Because of this, the story of MW5: Clans can be seen as being similar to movies like All Quiet on the Western Front, Valkyrie, and Saving Private Ryan. Where the story might use major wars as the backdrop, but the core focus is on the personal journey of the characters as they react to events in the larger conflict. To the point where the beginning and end of our story may not coincide with the beginning and end of the larger conflict.

So, with this as our framework, we’re hoping that BattleTech fans find themselves invested and rooting for the core cast of characters and their own personal journey through the events of the Clan Invasion. Whether you find yourself rooting for Clan Smoke Jaguar as a whole, well, we’ll leave that up to the individual to make up their own mind.

Sean: Being a Clan warrior is enormously different narratively from being the captain of your own mercenary company; you’re taking orders rather than giving them. We know that there will be a vast change in the gameplay loop, with MW5: Clans being a more linear campaign. 

Chris: Yes, the gameplay perspective is very different compared to Mercs. Where in Mercs, you were a single, small mercenary outfit scrounging for resources to stay afloat, in MW5: Clans, you are a cog in the much larger Clan armada. The Jaguar’s touman, by comparison, has no shortage of ‘Mechs and equipment and no threat of ever going bankrupt, but that won’t mean they’ll allow you to have a complete run of the place. Like all Clan warriors, you must prove yourself worthy of being allowed to requisition the touman‘s most valued assets. MechWarriors whose Codices are filled with victorious conquest will find themselves to have much more affordances within the Clan than the unblooded recruits that the player starts as. 

Sean: How will the story be told? Previous MechWarrior games had very few cutscenes, with most of the story being told either through gameplay or text before and after each mission. How much of MechWarrior 5: Clans’ story be told through gameplay/text/cutscenes? Will there be animated mission briefings/debriefings a la Armored Core 6 or Ace Combat 7?

Chris: Story delivery is one of those key pillars we are looking to improve for MW5: Clans across the board. One of the largest challenges I’ve always found in writing the various DLC stories is that we only had four limited venues for telling the story: The cinematics, the mission briefings, the in-game mission dialogue, and the transmission messages. And with mission briefings and transmissions, you are mechanically forced to tell the story through only one character. So that meant that even the simple act of having two NPCs interact with one another forced you to do that in the in-mission dialogue or the cinematics. 

This resulted in multiple things that the team found less than ideal for delivering a narrative. One of the primary things that we pushed for when it came to improving our narrative tool set for Clans was to give us more of a way to “break up” these interactions. For example, allowing mission briefings to be a dialogue between multiple characters rather than always being a giant monologue from a single character allows us to leverage more NPCs to shuffle more of the world-building on their shoulders rather than having only one or two characters be the sole vehicles for storytelling. We’ll have all the same tools to deliver the narrative that we have in Mercs, but we’ll have much more flexibility in how we can deploy those tools which will hopefully make the overall narrative more engaging and digestible for newer players.

On the briefing end, while there will be many improvements over what we do in MW5:Mercs, I wouldn’t say that we’re aiming for briefings similar to Armored Core or Ace Combat, which are much more like the old MechWarrior 3 briefings. In those games, the briefings were the primary way that the story was conveyed to the player, so it makes sense for those products. But for MW5: Clans, the core thing that will set us apart will be a heavier focus on more traditional character-centric sequences as showcased in our latest trailers.

This is probably the single most exciting thing for us on the narrative team, as it allows us to play up the character drama in a way that has never been done before in earlier MechWarrior games. These also won’t just be used as simple act breaks or campaign book-ends either. We are aiming to integrate quite a few of them into the core campaign. While we can’t give exact specifics yet, I’m confident in saying that we’re currently targeting an exponentially higher number of story sequences (which accounts for both in-game sequences and pre-rendered cinematics) than any other MechWarrior game to date. And when all is said and done, we could be looking at a cinematics run-time that runs longer than all previous MechWarrior game cinematics combined. 

So overall we’ll have a much wider net of options to leverage to communicate the story of the game rather than attempting to shove everything into the mission briefings or the in-game dialogue. Which makes it an exciting time for those who have been wanting a story-focused MechWarrior experience. 

Sean: MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries gave us phenomenal improvements to MechWarrior with the additions of melee combat and a ‘Mechbay where you can walk around your customized ‘Mech. What improvements might we see in MechWarrior 5: Clans?

Chris: You can’t have the Clan Invasion and not have OmniMechs and the benefits they bring are front and center when it comes to customization. And unlike MWO where OmniMechs were more of a late addition that had to conform with a pre-existing Mechlab, for MW5: Clans the Mechlab and mission deployment screens are being redesigned from the ground up with OmniMechs in mind.

Unfortunately, this is all you’re going to be able to get from me for now. I’m sure we’ll revisit this subject as we get closer to launch. 

Sean: In MechWarrior 2, you went from mere MechWarrior to Khan, although it never really seemed to affect the missions or the player’s duties. Will the player’s rank progress throughout MechWarrior 5: Clans, and if so, will it change anything in terms of gameplay or story?

Chris: I think it’s safe to say that we won’t have players start the game as a Smoke Jaguar Kit only to become Khan of the whole Clan in the span of a year like MechWarrior 2 had (I’m sure Lincoln Osis might have something to say about that). While we don’t want to tip our hat to how our story is going to go, all I’ll say for now is that there will be a sense of progression to your standing within the Clan throughout the game. So, by the time the credits roll, you’ll be in a much different spot from where you were when your journey started. But we are striving to make that feel as organic and authentic as possible within the context of the BattleTech universe itself.  

Sean: There is lots to love in MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, but one of the things I hated was how I always felt forced into heavier ‘Mechs during the later stages of the game. It’s really hard to kill dozens of ‘Mechs without the armor and firepower of heavy and assault-class ‘Mechs. Will MechWarrior 5: Clans be a little friendlier to light and medium-class ‘Mechs? Will the game be doable in lighter ‘Mechs, either due to mission design or due to pilot skill bonuses that might help with these somewhat smaller ‘Mechs? Or am I just going to have to git gud?

Chris: I would not be too hasty to completely discount the light and medium roster in MW5: Clans.  While OmniMechs are renowned for their adaptability and rapid deployment, they still need time in the shop to undergo repairs between missions. Beyond that, I can’t speak much on this since gameplay systems are far outside the narrative team’s wheelhouse.  

Sean: Will the player be able to create their own character? Or is the player pre-defined like in MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries? Or is the player character entirely invisible like in other games?

Chris: It will be a pre-defined character, but far from invisible. As mentioned above, you’ll be seeing a lot more of not only your character but your entire star as we open our storytelling tools to make them a much more active part of the narrative experience.

Sean: There were relatively few real characters in MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries and many of them were just introduced as talking heads for a few missions and then never heard from again. How will the player interact with them? Will the player be an entirely silent protagonist? 

Chris: The player will be far from a silent protagonist. And will take a central role in the storytelling of MW5: Clans. 

I would also argue that MW5: Mercs still had plenty of “real” characters, that, by necessity had to be spread around to populate the universe and work with the core “taking contracts as you go” loop of the Mercs games. But the more focused story of MW5: Clans will mean that while we won’t have the sheer number of different characters that MW5: Mercs had, the characters that we do introduce will be much more focused and be able to have much more narrative weight since they can stick around the story much longer than someone that is only around for a single odd-job high-reward quest chain. 

And obviously, a large amount of character-driven cinematic storytelling will breathe life into the characters in a way that hasn’t been seen in MechWarrior before. As nice as the live-action thumbnail briefings of MechWarrior 4 were at the time, they don’t hit as hard as seeing your Starmates interact with one another after a difficult mission, or getting a briefing from your Galaxy Commander or Star Colonel that throws a wrench into a well-laid plan. 

Sean: At one point in the IGN trailer, we see a Gazelle being shot at by the player Timber Wolf. Does that mean we’re going to have actual DropShip combat in MechWarrior 5: Clans?

Chris: Yes, but I wouldn’t say it’s a major gameplay expansion where you’ll see them spawn as common enemies every mission.  Thematically, military DropShips are still considered indispensable to the Inner Sphere at this point in the timeline. But as many know, the Clan Invasion pushed many of the Inner Sphere powers to the brink. And in the face of total annihilation, some commanders might rather break taboo over falling to unknown invaders from beyond known space. 

Sean: Also in the most recent release date trailer, who’s that guy giving the rousing speech and calling the Draconis Combine a bunch of fascists? He seems nice. 

Chris: As many deduced, he’s a Galaxy Commander… More specifically, the Galaxy Commander of Smoke Jaguar’s Beta Galaxy, Cordera Perez. We recently released a new trailer highlighting him.

Sean: And he also seems to be indicating there’s going to be even more characters in MechWarrior 5: Clans than just your star and your sibko instructor.

Chris: Much more. While the core cast of star mates will clearly be the focus of the game’s narrative, there will be plenty of other supporting characters to immerse yourself in the story of the Clan invasion. Some of them, fans have already picked out from our GDC trailer, but many more have yet to be shown. 

But as we get closer to release, that will change. The next batch of trailers coming down the pipe will introduce some of the characters in MW5: Clans and the actors that have brought them to life. So, stay tuned for those to come out soon, and look forward to even more as we get closer to October 3rd!

Once again, we thank you for your brave service, Chris, and we’re definitely looking forward to the release of MW5: Clans on October 3, 2024. Mark your calendars for what is sure to be a blockbuster MechWarrior experience.

PS: A couple of our questions weren’t answered by Chris, but were at least partially answered by PGI President Russ Bullock in an interview with No Guts No Galaxy. You can check out that interview in last month’s news roundup.

And as always, MechWarriors: Stay Syrupy.