Nitro Gen Omega by developer and publisher DESTINYbit—Sony PlayStation 5 review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes.
Showing posts with label Mech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mech. Show all posts
Nitro Gen Omega - PS5 Review
Experience Mech-Themed Tactical Roguelike Deckbuilder StarVaders on Steam!
MONTREAL, Quebec – April 30, 2025 | Independent developer Pengonauts and publisher Joystick Ventures are proud to announce that, after more than 3 years in development and having garnered more than 55.000 wishlists, the mech-themed tactical roguelike deckbuilder StarVaders is launching today on Steam at a price of US$ 24.99, with a 10% discount during the next 2 weeks. StarVaders combines tactical grid-based combat with deckbuilding strategy, placing you in command of a formidable mech during humanity’s last stand against alien invaders. By fusing the spatial intuitiveness of grid-based tactics with the theorycrafting and strategy of deckbuilding games, StarVaders offers an easy-to-learn yet hard-to-master experience perfect for both casual players as well as dedicated fans of the genre.
“The amount of time players have spent with just the demo was always amazing, hyped to see the playtimes we'll get with the full release.” - Hansen, Lead Developer
In StarVaders, the fate of the world depends on your deckbuilding and tactical skills, select your favorite among 10 pilots and jump into one of the 3 unique mechs available to fight alien invaders. Strategize, prepare crazy combos, and even use the rewind time feature with the chrono tokens to reverse the key mistakes, and keep your mission on track.
Main Features:
- 3 Mechs with completely distinct mechanics;
- 10 Pilots with unique playstyles and their own stories;
- 268 Cards to craft your deck with;
- 153 Artifacts that change the rules of the game;
- 10 Packs that are randomly added to the card pool to keep runs fresh;
- 9 Bosses that will test your limits;
- 50 Invaders each with their own abilities;
- Story Campaign & Secret Finale;
- Ascending Difficulties each with new gameplay mechanics;
- Challenge Run & Daily Run game modes.
Each mech and its dedicated pilots offer unique synergies that modify the gameplay. Command the Gunner Mecha’s board-clearing firepower with Roxy, Noel, or Zeke, take control of the ninja-like Stinger Mecha with pilots Shun, Hali or Kaia, or unleash the spell-wielding powers of the Keeper controlled by Iris, Xenn, Garu, or Sura. Enhance your mech's power with over 400 unlockable cards, artifacts, and upgrades, forming fresh strategies on the fly to face new alien enemies and monstrous bosses.
For more intercepted transmissions about StarVaders, check out Pengonauts’s official website and follow @starvaders_game on X and on BlueSky, also follow the publisher @JoystickVenture on social media.
About The Pengonauts
The Pengonauts (formerly StarVaders Studio) is a Montreal-based three-person team delivering unique, fun, and memorable titles to share with the gaming community. StarVaders is their first commercial title and passion project. Find more about Pengonauts at https://pengonauts.com.
About Joystick Ventures
Joystick Ventures is a California-based investing and publishing company whose main goal is to encourage indie developers to stay honest and promote experimentation to push the limits of game design across all genres, styles, and geographies. They are most known for their 2022 release, Lost in Play, which has sold more than 200,000 copies.
MechWarrior 5: Clans - PC Review
MechWarrior 5: Clans by developer and publisher Piranha Games Inc.—PC (Steam) review written by Robert with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
MechWarrior 5: Clans is developed and published by Piranha Games, Inc. Thank you to Piranha Games for providing a free Steam key for the purpose of this review. MechWarrior 5: Clans is a return to the Clans of MechWarrior, the first time in 30 years! Lead your Star of MechWarriors in an expansive 30-hour+ campaign across multiple diverse planets and a wide range of mission types. Fans of the franchise will feel right at home in their mechs with MechWarrior 5: Clans as the strategic yet pulse-pounding combat pits you against the enemies of Clan Smoke Jaguar. Highly customizable mechs come to life in stunning quality that only Unreal 5 engine can provide, stomping through destructible environments have never looked so good!
Story-wise, MechWarrior 5 Clans takes no time in getting you acquainted with many of the systems of your mechs. However for as engaging as the prologue might be, I still can't help but feel that Clans could have had a bit more hand-holding with regard to control scheme tutorials and just managing your Star in general. Whereas previous titles in the MechWarrior franchise might've been more sandbox-y and open, Clans takes a tighter turn, sticking to its story beats rather than letting players off the hook in a sandbox galaxy. While I'm a huge fan of sandbox games, especially those that allow you to stomp around in 50 ton mechs, destroying everything in sight, I found that I was quite engaged throughout the 30 or so hour campaign. Sure, there were periods where I was bored or simply wanted to get past a particular mission at all costs (a number of mid-game missions just feel ... mean, more details below). A diligent and good MechWarrior will likely be able to beat the campaign in about 22-23 hours, but the average player will likely take closer to 30 hours; completionists can expect a 40 or so hour campaign which is no slouch. Very few games, FPS games, have campaigns that reach double digits to beat, let along up to 40 hours!
I do think that it's important to point out that balance, especially in these early days, was all over the place. The difficulty spikes are stratospheric in that mid-mission things can go from manageable to game over in a matter of seconds. The first real boss that you come up against, an incredibly nimble flying unit, will likely absolutely demolish what's left of your Star. This leads into the first major problem I had with Clans ... it's brutally hard, but not in the fun way that Elden Ring or Bloodbourne were, but in the "I'm going to be a bully just because I can" style. On Normal you can expect to see 3 to 4 members of your Star (this is what a squad of mechs is called in the Clans for the unaware, whereas Mercenaries call them "Lances") get smoked well before the end of the mission. While that doesn't sound bad, especially given how lenient the repair model is in Clans, it's incredibly craptastic when you realize that the first portion of a mission is the "easy" part ... losing 3/5 of your squad with no reprieve before you need to take on increasingly more and more waves isn't a skill issue, it's a balance one. This wouldn't be such a thorn in MechWarrior's side if it weren't for the fact that not only are missions 35-45 minutes in length but ...
There is no mid-mission autosave, nor can you (at the time of this article's writing) save mid-mission. That means that if you get to the end of a mission, where the difficulty spike is extreme and you lose, that's upwards of 45 minutes just wasted, ergo the "bully" comment. I fully admit that I was switching the difficulty level back and forth constantly before finally just leaving it on Story mode and even then your Star could often get utterly wafflestomped.
Combat balance is my biggest gripe with MechWarrior 5: Clans as it makes the game un-fun. It's hard to enjoy a power fantasy in such a rich universe when all it takes is a couple tanks and a helicopter and your mech is screwed. Melee is relatively useless as if you get that close, you're already dead. I really hope to see Piranha release more regulated balance passes post-launch, but we'll see what the rest of the community says and whether Piranha listens to them.
The missions are only a small portion of Clans, though, and while they are easily the biggest time-sinks in the game, there are plenty of things to do between missions. Which brings my second biggest gripe with MechWarrior 5: Clans, and that's the cutscenes. While I actually enjoyed the story of you and your Star coming up from a bunch of nobodies while you find your place in the galaxy, the cutscenes are just awful. The uncanny valley had me looking away from the screen in discomfort, especially around the mouths. Maybe it's just me, but it almost feels like an AI was used to try to sink the animations of the face to the words, except the AI was a drunken toddler. The only recent game I've seen lately that has had more uncomfortable animation work, was the abomination that is Homeworld 3. The shame is that the drama of the story and the top-tier voice-acting are really truly something to pay attention to... you should just do it by looking away from the screen.
Despite faults with the uncanny valley, brutally bully-ish difficulty spike, MechWarrior 5: Clans by Piranha Games is still more than worth your time. Challenging, gorgeous, and with a compelling story about self-discovery in a universe where people are genetically bred for warfare, Clans is a frustrating if enjoyable romp through some of the nicest set pieces I've seen in 2024. Major kudos to the dev team for making a compelling reason to bring war to the Inner Sphere!
Score: 7.5 out of 10
Mech Engineer Exits Early Access!
Mech Engineer is a mech lover’s dream come true: you will oversee every aspect of your squad's operation, from optimizing the reactors to fine-tuning weapons systems. The balance of weight, energy, and heat must be carefully monitored to ensure maximum efficiency.
The skills and emotional state of each pilot also play an important role, along with the effective management of your base and resources. You will deploy your finely calibrated and tuned machines onto missions, where your split-second decisions during semi-auto battles against a mutating alien bio-weapon will mean life or death.
1.0 New content
For 1.0 Mech Engineer now sports voiceovers for the mech pilots and several new localizations: French, German, Polish, Portuguese, Brazilian, Spanish, and Chinese. Russian was already implemented during Early Access.Splattercat
"One of the most unique games on Steam"
63 Updates during Early Access
Over three years of development, the game received 63 updates and evolved into the love letter for Mech lovers that it is today. Here is a brief rundown:
- Persistent Destruction
- Steam Achievements
- 220 Map Variations
- New Terrain + Caves
- Giant Roaming Bosses
- Pathfinding 2.0
- 8 Mech Squads
- Ability to create huge weapon variants
- New Research Nodes
- New Sound FX
- Balance + Difficulty Tweaks
- + Much More
Mech Engineer Key Features
- Deep and detailed management of mechs engineering including reactors, cooling, weight, and heat/energy
- Configure and fine-tune weapons and mods through testing and ballistic simulation
- Squad management down to individual stress levels, training, and stats
- Manage your base repairing and upgrading its sectors and giving tasks to engineers and scientists on a day-by-day basis
- Research components and upgrades through a full-fledged tech-tree
- Scavenge and use different resources to repair and upgrade your mech
- Real-time pausable missions that mix auto-battling and move commands from the player
- Unique analog ‘80s retro-style interface
MicroProse, founded in 1982, is a world-famous simulation software company known for developing groundbreaking, classics and cult titles like, the Falcon, F15 Strike Eagle, Silent Service, Gunship, Grand Prix, Civilization, B-17 The Mighty Eighth, and X-COM series and many more simulation products that sold millions of copies each at retail.
Today, MicroProse is not only remaking select classics from its past but also paving the road to next-generation, state of the art games that will create the memories and experiences of the demanding new generations of gamers.
ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON Available Now for Pre-Order
In ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON, players will pilot their mech in fast-paced, omni-directional battles, taking advantage of their mech’s mobility both on land and in the air. Pilots can also explore a breadth of playstyles and combat styles through various customization options, dramatically alerting play strategy, maneuverability and battle style. Players will also take down powerful enemy bosses through a wide variety of offensive and defensive tactics at close and long range.
Check out the launch trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQJb8He0pYA
A mysterious new substance called Coral was discovered on the remote planet, Rubicon 3. As an energy source, this substance was expected to dramatically advance humanity’s technological and communications capabilities. Instead, it caused a catastrophe that engulfed the planet and the surrounding stars in flames and storms, forming a Burning Star System.
Almost half a century later, Coral has resurfaced on Rubicon 3, a planet now contaminated and sealed off by the catastrophe. Extra-terrestrial corporations and resistance groups fight over control of the substance.
ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON puts players in this desolate world, where they infiltrate the planet as an independent mercenary and find themselves in a struggle over the substance with rival corporations and rogue factions.
Pre-order now on PlayStation, Xbox and PC: www.armoredcore6.com
Article by: Susan N.
ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON Extended Gameplay Preview Trailer And Story Trailer
Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. and FromSoftware, Inc. (ELDEN RING™, DARK SOULS™) reveal a new extended gameplay walkthrough trailer for ARMORED CORE™ VI FIRES OF RUBICON™. Narrated by the developers, the video is the deepest look yet at the game’s intense action, sprawling levels and challenging battle sequences.
As the video showcases, success in ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON will come from tinkering with highly customizable mech builds, a signature feature of the series, and learning the right strategies and techniques such as staggering enemies with the right weapons, combining ranged and melee attacks, and taking every advantage in battle.
Watch the new gameplay preview trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcDjyestr4Y
ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON, the latest high-octane action game by FromSoftware, Inc. and Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc., promises fast-paced mech action with intense omni-directional battles, in-depth customization, and thrilling boss fights. The game releases on August 25 for PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC via Steam®, and is available now for preorder. For more information, please visit armoredcore6.com
For the latest information, be sure to follow the game’s social channels on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The game will be part of PlayStation® Free Upgrades and Xbox Smart Delivery. The game will be presented with both English and Japanese VO, with text localizations in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Neutral Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and Korean. Find out more about the game on the official website.
IRVINE, Calif. – July 20, 2023 – The new story trailer for ARMORED CORE™ VI FIRES OF RUBICON™ shows players the exciting and dangerous world awaiting them. As the full CGI story trailer shows, the realities of turning a profit on Rubicon 3 are fraught with peril, especially when Handler Walter is involved. Watch as Walter’s Hounds execute their mission with ruthless tenacity, and get a glimpse of the events that will lead up to the beginning of ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON. So, pilot C4-621, are you ready to get to work on Rubcion? Find out what awaits in the new story trailer here: https://youtu.be/Vs2piSWfofQ
About Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc.
Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc., part of the Bandai Namco Group, is a leading global publisher and developer of interactive entertainment for major video game consoles, PC, online, and mobile platforms. The company is known for creating many of the industry’s beloved classic franchises such as PAC-MAN®, GALAGA®, TEKKEN®, SOULCALIBUR®, and ACE COMBAT®, and publishing the critically acclaimed DARK SOULS™ series and the blockbuster title ELDEN RING™. Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. is also the premier publisher in the Western hemisphere for anime-based video games including GUNDAM™, NARUTO SHIPPUDEN™, DRAGON BALL™, and ONE PIECE®. Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. is headquartered in Irvine, California. More information about the company and its products can be found at http://www.bandainamcoent.com.
Article by: Susan N.
©Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. / ©1997-2023 FromSoftware, Inc. All rights reserved.
Tactical Action Turn-Based Mech game “DUAL GEAR” Moving to use Unreal Engine 5
Also getting an Update in this late
August by Code Name "Dual Gear [D]"
Genre: Turn Based Strategy, Tactical Action, Mech, Robot
Platform: STEAM (Windows), other Consoles Still TBA
Developer: Orbital Speed Studio Co., Ltd.
Estimated Release Date: Late 2025
Bangkok/ Thailand June 23rd, 2023—Tactical Action Turn-Based Mech game “DUAL GEAR” Moving to use
Unreal Engine 5 and getting an Update in this late August by Code Name
"Dual Gear [D]"
Dual Gear will get the first update of 2023 this August! The team decided to move the game porting to Unreal Engine 5. The new engine will bring reliability to development along with a new technical term that comes around 2-3 years. This is the Next Phase of the game under the new name "Dual Gear [D]" The team will announce the details and more Screenshots soon and put a 50% discount on Steam until June 26th, 2023.
Get a discount on Steam!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/443000/DUAL_GEAR/
The Revealable Features That Coming.
- [D] Mode to provide a high-speed pace of the game, Feels more mech pilot under this mode.
- [T] Mode to increased intensity of Tactical Turn-Based factor!
- Improvementation by Unreal Engine 5
Dual Gear is still in Early Access Phase on Steam. The team aims to develop a new vision of Turn-Based mixing by Piloting robots into the game by using Unreal Engine 5. The estimated release date is in late 2025.
About Orbital Speed Studio
Orbital Speed Studio is a small independent game studio based
in Bangkok, founded in 2014. The team member consisted of developers who
have experience in game projects including Aeternoblade and some
worldwide titles. Orbital Speed Studio is working on the current
project, Dual Gear. The first original game from the studio.
Company Website
Dual Gear Official Website
Social Media
Article by: Susan N.
FEED THE FIRE — ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON WILL LAUNCH GLOBALLY ON AUGUST 25!
First Armored Core Gameplay Trailer Showcases Intense Mecha Action by FromSoftware; Pre-orders are Available Now at Major Retailers
IRVINE, Calif. — April 27, 2023 — ARMORED CORE™ VI FIRES OF RUBICON™, the latest high-octane action game by FromSoftware, Inc. and Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. will release globally on August 25. Combining the 25 years of experience developing the ARMORED CORE™ franchise and action games in the ELDEN RING™, and DARK SOULS™ franchise, ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON is full of mech action, including fast-paced battles, in-depth customization, and thrilling boss fights. The game is coming to PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC via Steam®, and is now available to pre-order at major video game retailers and at armoredcore6.com
A mysterious new substance called “Coral” was discovered on the remote planet, Rubicon 3. As an energy source, this substance was expected to dramatically advance humanity’s technological and communications capabilities. Instead, it caused a catastrophe that engulfed the planet and the surrounding stars in flames and storms, forming a Burning Star System. Almost half a century later, Coral has resurfaced on Rubicon 3, a planet now contaminated and sealed off by the catastrophe. Extra-terrestrial corporations and resistance groups fight over control of the substance. The player infiltrates Rubicon as an independent mercenary and finds themselves in a struggle over the substance with the corporations and other factions.
Featuring highly mobile and highly customizable mechas, ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON will put players in fast-paced battles, where they can make full use of offensive and defensive maneuvers on both land and in the air to overcome foes. To be the most successful and profitable mercenary on Rubicon 3, players must master rapidly changing combat distances, using the environment for protective cover, and omni-directional battles to overcome challenging enemies and situations.
In the first-ever global gameplay reveal for ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON, these crucial gameplay elements are highlighted in an all-new trailer available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlSfr6Wa5sc
Preorder now and get ready for the global launch of ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON. For the latest information, be sure to follow the game’s social channels on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The game will be part of PlayStation® Free Upgrades and Xbox Smart Delivery. Find out more about the game on the official website.
About Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc.
Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc., part of the Bandai Namco Group, is a leading global publisher and developer of interactive entertainment for major video game consoles, PC, online, and mobile platforms. The company is known for creating many of the industry’s beloved classic franchises such as PAC-MAN®, GALAGA®, TEKKEN®, SOULCALIBUR®, and ACE COMBAT®, and publishing the critically acclaimed DARK SOULS™ series and the blockbuster title ELDEN RING™. Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. is also the premier publisher in the Western hemisphere for anime-based video games including GUNDAM™, NARUTO SHIPPUDEN™, DRAGON BALL™, and ONE PIECE®. Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. is headquartered in Irvine, California. More information about the company and its products can be found at http://www.bandainamcoent.com.
©Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. / ©1997-2023 FromSoftware, Inc. All rights reserved.
All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
Article by: Susan N.
Damascus GEAR: Operation Osaka - Switch Review
Having originally had the chance to sit down to Damascus GEAR: Operation Tokyo for the PlayStation Vita back in early 2015, I’ve now had a front row seat to jump back into a mech’s cockpit for Operation Osaka on the Switch. Having released for the PC, PS4 and Vita last year, this next entry in the series is feeling just as at home in your hands as it does on the bigger screen.
The original Damascus GEAR saw you and your mech fighting out of control GEARs known as RAGEs from finishing off what was left of humanity. Having won, humanity has had a little bit of time to recover and we now find ourselves thirty years later where GEAR pilots are no longer humanity’s last hope. Instead, they are now mercs trailblazing through dangerous locations in search of paths forward or arena champions battling it out against other GEAR pilots. Finding yourself now stuck in both of these situations as your parents have passed and left you both their GEAR and their debt, the clock is ticking to come up with some serious cash as the first debt you come across is but the tip of the iceberg.
Inheriting the debt from your parents made for good storytelling but in terms of mechanics? It made me think of Recettear where each outing could essentially be your last. Each day that you have give you the option to either battle it out in the arena, or go on missions to dive through a maze of floors of ever increasing difficulty. While great in concept, you can only ever go further down with better parts, but to go further down, you have to increase your rank in the arena, which to do that, you need better parts.
It’s a Catch 22 that if often a pain in the ass until a few weeks in when the arena shuts down and you gain unlimited access to dive through the floors. Even with that, I still game overed when the time came as while my parts were good enough to go through the maze, they weren’t enough to hit my enemies more than one in twenty shots in the arena. The only good thing about game overing is that when you do, you restart from day one but with all of your current gear allowing you to move down the maze faster for that gear that had been lacking.
Keeping with a relatively basic menu system, each day both starts and ends with dialog from your companion android before you decide what you want to do. Missions, Arena (when open), Customizations and shopping are all available through a retro interface that is apparently all the current rage. Doing what you need to have done, you head out to either fight generally one sided fights until you get better parts, or go on missions to accumulate money that you need and parts that you can sell for the money that you need.
In either case, gameplay is the same. You move around with the left stick and you shoot with one of three weapons. Left and Right hands are interchangeable with machine guns, rifles, swords, chainsaws and others. After those, you have your shoulder weapon that can host lasers, rockets, missiles, grenades and flamethrowers. Each of these weapon types do either physical or laser damage, and in certain ones like shotguns, both. And while deciding on which ones you want, there’s a line to be drawn between how much more powerful a weapon is versus how accurately it fires.
There’s a bit of trial and error to be figured out on the above but thankfully you can always take your mech for a spin to see if the configuration actually works for you or not before wasting a day or finding out that it was really the wrong things to put together when going on missions. The reason that I say the wrong things to put together is that some weapons allow you to fire while moving while others require you to stay still essentially making you one hell of a target and it’s not just your massive weapons either. And it makes sense. If you are going to fire a rifle, you had better make sure your stable and you’re not going to achieve that while moving around. Gameplay is very well designed in that aspect.
So while it may not sound like much, arenas and missions, it’s easy for hours to go by while chatting with your android, selling old gear, sorting through your current gear and figuring out the best possible loadout that is currently available. Damascus GEAR: Operation Osaka is a great sequel to the first and even if there’s a clock counting down to game over if you don’t have the money or win the tournament, there’s always another chance on the next playthrough with everything that you’ve learned from the first!
Game Information
Nintendo Switch
Developer(s):
DeveloperAPLUS Co.,Ltd
Publisher(s):
Arc System Works
Genre(s):
Action, RPG
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
Sony PlayStation 4, PC
Source:
Provided by Publisher
Article by Pierre-Yves
War Tech Fighters - Switch Review
If there was any point in time that I could get spoiled for Mechs, it would be the total of the last calendar year. Starting off with my birthday last year and getting New Gundam Breaker, there was also the recent complete edition of Project Nimbus and now the latest War Tech Fighters. Combining s bit of Armored Core with Project Nimbus' free flying simulator combat, and your giant mech can dash, shoot, launch missiles hide behind a shield or slice a ship in half with a sword. What a time to be alive!
So after a starting mission in order for you to get your bearings, you’re brought to a hanger in which you’ll be spending a lot of time in as this is where your mech is stored and where it can be upgraded. The best part about the upgrades is that there’s something for everyone. Breaking it down into three categories, you have your light mechs, your medium mechs and your heavy mechs. Light can move about a lot faster but can’t really take a hit, heavy are slow but can take all of the hits, and the medium are somewhere in between the other two depending on which parts you equip.
The parts themselves are broken into the major segments so while there is customization, don’t expect nitpicky detail. This isn’t a criticism on my part as if I could control every little piece I would never make it out of the damned hanger to try to afford all of the parts that I want to have in my possession. The parts are divided into the head, the chest, the legs and finally the arms which are your main weapons. From those, you’ll also be able to customize a sword, shield and missiles. Yes you read that right. You get a sword on top of a ton of ranged weapons so at one point I was totally rocking a Heavy Arms from Gundam Wing with I suppose the Destiny Gundam’s Sword?
Once you’ve gone and picked your gear, bought and sold parts you wanted and no longer needed, painted your mech to suit your particular fancy, you can head out on new missions or missions that you’ve already done in order to gain more experience to level up. Launching out of the hanger like a Mobile Suit from Gundam or blasting off like Macross, you are thrown out into space for some seriously fun action.
Gameplay falls into three modes. Exploration and “puzzle solving”, long ranged combat and then short ranged combat. Exploration will have you flying around, avoiding mines, shooting down little things like sensors and then hacking your way into a data grid to find the information that you’re looking for. It’s easy but it often acts as the in-between for the seriously fast paced action that follows.
Long ranged combat is also squee worthy with how smooth it is. With every attack based off of an energy meter, you can shoot your lower damage but faster firing weapons, your slow but very powerful weapon or dodge around with your thrusters. Targeting is mostly automatic but you can lock-on to an enemy so that they become your main concentration. Locking-on will also help as while you’re firing at a powerful enemy you can also launch a barrage of missiles for loads of damage. If you find yourself under fire from the very same things though, you’ve got a shield that can be deployed in order to block it all. You can’t do anything else while hiding behind it, but at least you won’t be getting destroyed.
Close quartered combat is a bit trickier as you can’t just pull out your sword and go all Conan on your enemies. In regular times, CQC can be used when you get close enough to a damaged enemy in order to finish it off. Doing so with spawn an animation which sees your mech, punch, kick, stab or slice an enemy ship in half. The real CQC however comes when you go up against another mech as this starts a dual that closes up on the two of you.
When locked into combat you can swing your sword either quickly for more attacks or slowly with more power behind it for more damage. To defend yourself you can bring up your shield or you can dodge to the right or the left to then counter attack and deal more damage. Every now and then a spark will fly and then you’ll have to move your cursor into the middle to trigger a massive damage attack. Like long ranged combat with your guns, close ranged combat is just as smooth and loads of fun.
The only possible negative that I could have against War Tech Fighters is that moving up and down could have been a bit smoother when you were doing it manually to try to target something in your sights. When chasing enemies it’s damned near flawless. Manually though feels jaggy like if you were moving a specific value up or down with nothing in between for each increment. The only real reason you’ll even notice is in these moments because in the heat of combat you don’t even think twice about it. War Tech Fighters even works just as good in handheld mode as it does in the cradle hooked up to a screen. Sure there are long, and I mean LONG load times but once a mission has been started, there’s no more loading so if there’s a bit more time upfront? That’s fine.
Overall War Tech Fighters brings about an amazing Mech experience to the table. With plenty of customization, missions, training and more, it won’t take long before even the greenest rookie becomes an ace as they head out into yet another mission.
Game Information
Nintendo Switch
Developer(s):
Drakkar Dev
Publisher(s):
Blowfish Studios
Genre(s):
Simulation
Action
RPG
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
PC
Source:
Provided by Publisher
Article by Pierre-Yves
