Wolves of Tukayyid Review – Raised By Wolves

Some overarching themes can be picked out in MechWarrior 5: Clans and each of its DLCs. The base campaign is a coming-of-age story about a group of youngsters who discover the true price of war and what blind doctrine can cost. Ghost Bear: Flash Storm is all about family, loyalty, and sacrificing for the greater good. And the theme of Wolves of Tukayyid? 

Gotta. Go. Fast.

You start the campaign with the fastest Star in MW5: Clans history: two Incubuses (Incubii?), a Viper, a Kit Fox, and an Ice Ferret. Two of your pilots have skills that specifically require them to never go below 70 kph, making them useless in anything slower than an Executioner. Your first real upgrade guaranteed to be available for Kerenskies and not honor merits is the Linebacker, the fastest heavy ’Mech in the game. And you’ll appreciate that speed because a few missions have timed objectives requiring a sprint across the map.

I know I probably should talk about the Battle of Tukayyid, and how Wolves of Tukayyid provides us with delightful glimpses at characters we’d read about in the Blood of Kerensky trilogy, but that’s not what really gripped me about this DLC.

What I love about Wolves of Tukayyid is how it rewards speed. So often do MechWarriors opt for the slow, ponderous brutes that smash all opposition with overwhelming armor and firepower. The main campaign’s final arc especially seems to expect the player to field an entire Star of Dire Wolves to survive the onslaught of enemy ’Mechs. 

That’s not the case in Wolves of Tukayyid. The weight limits for each mission do steadily increase, but they don’t hit 500 tons until the final two missions, and they don’t breach 300 tons until you’re already halfway through. The first half of the DLC is just for light and medium ’Mechs with the occasional fast heavy, and it was a complete and utter joy. 

Running With Wolves

As outlined in many sourcebooks before, Wolves of Tukayyid starts with the Wolves landing on the New Pannonian Plains, and the level design is a sure sign that you’re meant to push your ’Mech’s throttle to the stops. For the first three missions, the map is vast, open farmland punctuated by the occasional windmill or grain processing facility. Your only defense is speed. Luckily, you’ve got an entire Star of fast-movers (barring the Kit Fox, which I immediately sold for another Incubus), ideally suited for strafing runs and pack tactics. 

This is a difficult way to play a MechWarrior game, and it’s one that might not appeal to everyone. The good news is that the early missions are fairly straightforward, and if you absolutely require a slow, plodding, but powerful ’Mech to have fun, you can buy a pretty good Hunchback IIC early on. You’re not being shoehorned into a certain playstyle—rather, you now have the option of being quick and flighty in a way that you never really could before.

I didn’t get out of my Ice Ferret until the Linebacker became available, and I didn’t upgrade to the Executioner until the last two missions. There’s something about having just enough speed and firepower to leverage positioning, cover, and carefully aimed shots that truly appeals to me. This is the sort of combat I live for.

The game does eventually return to the more compact maps you’re used to in both the base campaign and Ghost Bear: Flash Storm, but there are still more than enough lengthy sightlines for Ranna to activate her Sniper skill, and the Linebacker is quick enough to maintain distance with almost any foe.

Speaking of new skills, Wolves of Tukayyid offers the best mix of pilots yet. Each of them offers a wholly unique style, although they don’t always seem to mesh. Listan is an artillery specialist, able to utilize the new Naga to great effect. Gronnigal specializes in close combat, while Ranna prefers to fight from afar. Runik and Walister are the speed freaks, both possessing skills that don’t activate unless they’re moving faster than 70 kph. Walister proved to be a particular favorite. With Duck & Dodge, Sentry, and Evasion combined, Walister is virtually untouchable. 

Old Dog, New Tricks

Not a fan of keeping your feet firmly planted on the ground? Another great addition in Wolves of Tukayyid (which is actually included in the free update for MechWarrior 5: Clans) is the new jump jet behavior. Now, instead of the ponderous aerial movements that only occasionally help with repositioning, jump jets will rocket your ’Mech in whatever direction you prefer. Not only does this make Death From Above attacks far more viable, but it also makes jump-capable ’Mechs much faster at getting around. I plan to do a playthrough of Wolves of Tukayyid where I completely focus on jump-capable ’Mechs for this very reason.

I was less enthused about the Naga and the return of the Arrow IV missile, and that lack of enthusiasm played out in the later missions of Wolves of Tukayyid. The Arrow IV is quite powerful, and in the right hands, it’s more than capable of decimating enemy forces, but it also requires a disciplined trigger finger. Firing the Arrow IV at a furball is as likely to destroy your Star as it will the enemy, thanks to the missile’s massive blast zone. You also have to carefully assign your Elementals, lest they all go up in a puff of Arrow IV. 

Ultimately, I tossed the Naga back into the hangar in favor of additional Linebackers and eventually, Executioners. Listan was slightly upset, but he got over it.

You can still get all the thrill of calling in artillery without being forced into the delivery vehicle. As Clan Wolf was one of the few Clans to bring artillery with them to Tukayyid, certain missions allow you to aim artillery strikes at enemy positions. If you time your strike just right, you can take out an entire ComStar lance and totally tip the scales of battle. Even getting one or two kills for free can mean the difference between spending merits on more technicians or spending them on a brand-new ’Mech.

Speaking of getting new ’Mechs, it seems like there’s a new system whereby what ’Mechs appear on the market are at least semi-random. I noted on my first playthrough that the first ’Mech I could purchase was the Huntsman, but on a subsequent playthrough, it was a Stormcrow. A Hunchback IIC, however, was always available soon after the first mission.

Another big upgrade—at least, for computer players—is the revamped MechBay. Now laid out in the familiar TRO style, players can swap components with fewer clicks, making ’Mech customization a breeze. 

Crying Wolf

If I have one complaint about Wolves of Tukayyid, it is that there really wasn’t much of a story beyond the Battle of Tukayyid itself. In the base campaign, the cinematics interweave with the gameplay to tell the story of Jayden and Cobalt Star. It’s a tale of youth and ambition giving way to the cynical realities of war. Ghost Bear: Flash Storm, meanwhile, features a story about honor, integrity, and sacrificing everything for those closest to you.

Wolves of Tukayyid, by comparison, presents its cinematics as sort of slice-of-life interludes between missions. We learn about Phelan and Ranna’s taboo love, although that’s never mentioned elsewhere in-game. We learn about Phelan and Vlad’s rivalry, but again, that never really plays into the story. We learn about how the other Clans have failed and how Clan Wolf is likely to be blamed for the loss at Tukayyid, but that never comes up before the credits roll. And we learn that Runik has a chip on his shoulder and wants to challenge Ranna for command of Breaker Star, but he never gets around to doing so.

The cinematics themselves are just as good as Clans’ and Flash Storm’s; they just have less to say. Wolves’ gameplay more than makes up for any lack of narrative, with mission length in that perfect sweet spot, and my preference for lighter, faster machines finally being pandered to. It’s just somewhat curious that we have all these great cinematics throwing out subplots that don’t go anywhere. I suspect that’s largely due to the Battle of Tukayyid and Clan Wolf being so scrutinized in lore that there’s not a lot of room to tell stories beyond what’s already written. Or perhaps these vignettes are meant to encourage the player to seek out the lore themselves. 

There are also some bugs. None of them are game-breaking, and I expect they’ll be fixed with the next patch, so I won’t really dive into them, except for the one I just discovered after beating the campaign. New Game Plus starts with whatever ’Mechs comprised Breaker Star during the last mission, but they don’t get repaired. This meant I started New Game Plus with a Star of barely functioning assault ’Mechs. My Executioner had actually died during the last mission, so Ranna started New Game Plus without a center torso, effectively negating any shots fired there. Everything was fixed by the second mission, but it was a fun way to start my next run. 

And anyway, the bugs don’t really matter. What matters is that Wolves of Tukayyid provides the sort of MechWarrior experience I have truly craved, where speed and guile can be just as effective as armor and firepower. There’s an openness to the level design that was never present in the previous campaigns, and I sincerely hope it’s maintained for whatever comes next. Perhaps something with a little Jade Falcon flavor.

In the meantime, my Ice Ferret and I are going to beat the Com Guards all over again. Don’t wait up.

Wolves of Tukayyid is available now on every platform MechWarrior 5: Clans is on. If you’d like to support Sarna, buy Wolves of Tukayyid through our affiliate link here.

And as always, MechWarriors: Stay Syrupy.