MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries – The Dragon’s Gambit DLC Review: Honor the Dragon (PS4)

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries – The Dragon’s Gambit takes place in the year 3039. The Lyran Commonwealth and the Federated Suns have allied to make the Federated Commonwealth. It is a massive alliance that threatens to alter the balance of power in the Inner Sphere, and they have their eyes on their old enemy. The Draconis Combine.

This DLC introduces 15 additional story missions and new Mechs to pilot, such as the Long Bow, and some additional patches/bug fixes for the game. Unfortunately, aside from that, there isn’t anything game-changing, and I would be reticent to say that the DLC is worth the current price. It feels more of the same thing, but if and when an Ultimate edition of MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries releases, The Dragon’s Gambit would be a fine addition. This review is on the PS4 version. 

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries – The Dragon’s Gambit DLC is currently available on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC for $14.99.

Story – When ComStar Calls, You Pick Up

The Dragon’s Gambit begins with the mysterious ComStar calling your Mercenary Company. They don’t like the sudden shift in power. So they “Volunteer” you to help the Draconis Combine fight off the FedCom invasion. Theodore Kurita prepares a defense and counterattack, but his father’s Death to Mercenaries edict makes helping them tricky as a freelance MechWarrior. So ComStar orders you to enlist in one of the Combine’s exempted security services to aid in the defense.

With ComStar, customer service means the customer serves them.

I’m not a fan of this opening. Even if you wanted to join FedCom instead, the only way to play the DLC is to side with the Draconis Combine. And what’s strange is during the original campaign, you fought and survived against ComStar before. Yet now their threats are powerful enough to join a faction you may have already been against? I would have wanted the option, like in Front Mission 3. Have an extremely challenging campaign by choosing to side with the other faction. Perhaps go against ComStar either with FedCom or yourself. Try to desperately (and most likely fail) to survive their SLDF LosTech Mechs and equipment.

According to my Strategic Operations Manual this does not look good for us.

The War Begins

After the introduction, you will work for General Kent Gerber of the Fifth Amphigean Light Assault Group during the War of 3039 as you defend Vega. He’s not what you would expect from a Kuritan General, especially after talking with the liaison. He seems a rather generic, foul-mouthed general. It would be cool and lore-fitting to have a Kuritan General who orders you to wild Banzai charge at the Steiner Assault Mechs, and you have to find out how to survive.

The light Mech is standing still? Shoot it before it can move 16 hexes!

After completing the defense missions, you will participate in the counterattack alongside the Fourth Arkab Legion. To which you give the final push against the FedCom forces in the last mission. When you win, you get shown a quick cutscene. Basically saying that the Draconis Combine survived, and you were a small part of it. Then the DLC ends and goes back to the main game. It was rather anti-climatic. Considering that the survival of the entire Draconis Combine was at stake and fighting a massive, overwhelming force of an alliance unseen since the Era of the Star League, I was hoping there would be something different.

What Could Have Been

Maybe a multi-layered siege. Or an extremely large-scale battle over four times the size of anything done before in the game. Or perhaps you can make moral decisions with the missions/risks you take. An example could be deciding whether to go right into the mission and risk fighting fresh company or wait for the PDF to get slaughtered so the enemy is hurt when you get to them. Or perhaps deciding to attack in the middle of a civilian center to surprise Ambush the enemy. Something to give the player a sense of agency and to make The Dragon’s Gambit feel unique compared to the hundreds of contracts in the conflict zones.

This is a massive, combined arms battle happening in massive city devoid of activity.

Gameplay- More Of The Same

So, The Dragon’s Gambit DLC did come with a few quality-of-life and multiplayer patches. Those are available regardless of purchase, so I consider them separate entities. On its own, it is just more of what you have already experienced playing MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries. 

If you already have a campaign/career mode in progress, you can start the DLC as soon as the in-game date is 3038. Or you can load your data straight to the DLC through the main menu, thus allowing you to import your Mechs/Pilots you had in the previous campaign/career. If you don’t have a previous campaign/career or want to jump straight into The Dragon’s Gambit DLC, the DLC will give you a good Company of Mechs and Veteran MechWarriors. 

When the King Crab aims it’s AC20s at your legs and says kneel. You will kneel.

Some Fun Toys

It comes packed with real heavy hitters like the Warhammer, the Mararuder, the King Crab, and the Monster called the NSR-9J Nightstar. The last Mech I just learned about from this DLC. I was popping off Assault Mechs with it like a 50 caliber to a soda can. There’s no kill-like overkill with the Nightstar. The DLC also introduces new Mechs like the Longbow and the Otomo that you can find/be awarded with. 

An elegant Mech, for a more… civilized age.

The 15 missions of the DLC are pretty challenging, fighting large numbers of powerful Mechs. Not only that, but recovery and repair times are limited. Often just being 2 to 3 days. So if your Marauder gets busted up early like mine, you won’t be able to use it much in this DLC. Knowing what Mechs to use in each situation and skillful resource/personal management is vital to victory here. FedCom won’t let up, so you have to be ready for every mission. Otherwise, each mission plays very similar to any other mission in the Base Game.

The Mech Techs are not going to like this.

Graphics/Audio- Same Paint Job, New Radio

The Graphics in the DLC are the same as the ones in the base game. The new Mechs look great, following the same standard of quality. I wish they would make the interiors more unique or at least customizable, like in MechWarrior: Online. The music, however, is a noticeable improvement.

Don’t get me wrong, the base game had some killer tracks, but many of them slipped into the background, whereas the songs in the DLC are so full of energy and life to them. I would have preferred more faction-cultural music to help show the flavor these factions have. But I can’t deny I was bobbing my head listening to this music while Mechs tore each other to pieces.