Piranha Games revealed MechWarrior 5: Clans today, a new stand alone MechWarrior game coming to PC, Xbox and PlayStation consoles next year. MechWarrior 5: Clans, while retaining the MechWarrior 5 designation, represents a transformative step forward in the MechWarrior 5 franchise. MechWarrior 5: Clans linear campaign will be an evolution of gameplay and storytelling in the MechWarrior series, experienced from the perspective of Clan Smoke Jaguar in the pivotal conflict known as the Clan Invasion starting in the year 3050.
My understanding is that the first expansion fixed many of the launch issues; I played it a ton in between the second and third expansions, and while it wasn’t a AAA game, it was still a very enjoyable sandbox. Watching the IS map evolve over time was great, and eventually the whole thing turned into 'mech Pokemon, which I got sucked into but could be very dry. It was pretty far from MW3’s crafted campaign, but the first expansion did add a number of short and sometimes memorable mission chains all over the map you could run into, giving a bit of that campaign story experience. The second expansion added another campaign you could choose to pick up, but I never did so I can’t comment.