There is something as gamers that we often overlook – an unsung hero of gaming if you will: the tutorial. This is something that for all intents and purposes, anyone with half an ounce of common sense would consult when visiting something new, yet 99% of the population will ignore, especially when it comes to video games. Sure, you could learn as you go, which is my normal MO, since most games will offer up some sort of direction at the beginning whether you want to do it or not. Override Mech City Brawl falls into the group that doesn’t give those hints, and as a result, left me playing the game for the first few hours without fully understanding the mechanics as a whole.
The game is a unique hybrid of a brawler and a fighting game, in which the experience will differ completely depending on a number of factors. When I began the game, I jumped straight into the story mode, which is misrepresented as the Arcade mode. You start off small, as you and your trusty mech are pitted against armies of gigantic aliens across the globe, instantly reminding me of the PS2 Classic War of the Monsters. As you progress, you’ll face off against a respectable number of enemy types, which get bigger and badder looking as you progress, often culminating with battles against friendly mechs who turned evil for various reasons, or larger than life monsters. As I inched my way closer and closer to the final battle, boredom started to set in due the sheer simplicity of the combat; up until this point, I thought my tool box was limited to the basic attacks assigned to the triggers and bumpers. While my tactic of simply running circles around the enemies and punching them from behind was a worthwhile strategy that served me well through the first few hours, the lingering concern over what the mysterious bars under my life bar forced me to seek out the tutorial for answers. After a short intermission to complete the tutorial, I revisited the story mode with a wealth of new attack options being unlocked and was treated to my mech pulling off the majority of the more complex attacks with ease, parrying, blocking, using found weapons within the game world, and even unleashing devastating super moves akin to the Super’s found in higher profile fighters from the likes of Capcom or NetherRealm Studios. These new moves didn’t do much in terms of fixing a number of nagging issues the mode (as well as the rest of the game) has, but it certainly made the combat more thrilling.
While the ring around the ugly mofo strategy that I used for the bulk of my first campaign playthrough will likely get you through the end credits, it’s not the most interesting way to play. Each of the protagonists comes equipped with four standard attacks that can be charged to unleash additional damage, and if you’re lucky, stun your opponent. If you’re going to jump in blindly, like I did, you’ll be pleased to know Special moves are as simple as holding down X while pressing the attack button. If you find yourself taking too much damage, you can also pull both triggers to unleash character specific Super Attacks. Each of the 12 combatants are equipped with this uniform move set, with their own pros and cons in place. They are so similar, I find myself struggling to think of any redeeming traits one has over another, despite spending the majority of my weekend sampling them all. What is memorable is the wonky button mapping and downright inexcusable inability to change the layout. I’m not sure if I am alone here, but I have a hard time adapting to using the bumper buttons on any game for any action that is repetitive (i.e. grenades, the occasional melee attack on an FPS, etc.), and really wish more developers gave us the freedom to avoid the buttons as much as possible. I’m honestly at the point that I would prefer we revert back to the OG Duke style Xbox controller, just to see these buttons cease to exist.
There is a narrative in place, which changes slightly depending on the character you choose, presented in a combination of long winded segments with static images requiring the player to read more than they should have to and short cut-scenes. Walking the thin line between Manga and Western storytelling, the story is not overly interesting. This is forgivable, but the other issues are not. My biggest complaint is the fact that once you select a mech to carry you through the campaign, you are locked into your selection. Regardless of whether you finish the two to three hour campaign with them or not, you’ll have to forfeit all acquired upgrades outside of unlocked customization options in order to start over with a new character. The game adds a bit of risk vs reward gameplay to the mix by essentially giving you one shot at each mission, losing your reward if you fail, which typically works, but when it fails it fails in the most epic of ways. Certain missions will place time restrictions on you, and due to the often delayed spawn of the next wave of enemies or the enemies failing to spawn at all, you’ll find yourself either having to return to the hub taking the loss or waiting out the timer in frustration. Sadly, the sub missions never add any additional layers of depth, and more often than not, the secondary objectives are never fully communicated in any meaningful way, leaving the player to figure out that they needed to do something in a specific way, often after it’s too late.
Let’s be honest, no one buys a fighting game to square off against the AI exclusively, so naturally you can play against your friends locally or online, with one huge twist – up to four players can control the same mech, with each player controlling one limb as well as some of the additional more complex features of the mech. I would love to play this mode with four people just to see how well it works out, but I don’t have enough friends willing to risk the relationship over the sheer chaos this mode would surely evoke. I did make my son play this mode with me (he can’t hate me… too much), which surprisingly worked well with him controlling the arms and look functionality while I controlled the legs of our rocking, socking robot. I fully expected this to be a test of my mental fortitude, and outside of running low here and there on stamina, we had no issues making our way through a campaign run playing in tandem; and dare I say it, enjoying myself?!?! Unfortunately, the split screen mode does not work nearly as well, due to the singular fact that each and every time you play a new match, the title swaps which side you are playing on, which is jarring to say the least. After picking up on this, I was able to adapt with ease, but suffered the wrath of an angry six year old when we’d switch sides.
Regardless of whether you’re playing online or locally, you’ll be limited to two modes of play in the PvP arena: Free-for-All and Team Deathmatch. With no life count in place, each match results in every robot duking it out with the others until one robot/team is left standing. There are some modifiers available to change up the course of battle, but they are limited to the length of the mission. They include damage multipliers and change up how often the weapons and power ups appear, but they reset to the default settings between each match. This wouldn’t be a talking point if the standard damage amount didn’t leave the battles raging for entirely too long, with the .5 setting being my preferred way to play.
The roster of 12 fighters and a decent sized rogue gallery gives you some interesting characters to work with, even if most of the more visually appealing combatants look like Dollar Store knockoffs of more popular franchises or characters. For every original character, there are at least five that look ripped straight from Godzilla, Power Rangers or Pacific Rim, among others; some go as far to include palette swaps that allow them to look even more so like the characters they were modeled after. I get that this is likely used to avoid copyright infringement and a way to provide some level of fan service, but when you have some monsters that look like a prolapsed rectum riddled with some rare form of herpes or a demonic fleshlight (see below and draw your own conclusions), I feel like you have the ability to give us a full cast of unique characters. The arenas you’ll duke it out across the globe don’t fare much better visually. Some minor details such as footprints in sand or snow stand out and add a level of detail that you rarely expect from indie developers, but the way that the buildings crumble beneath the weight of the hulking creatures and robots looks dated and often disappearing into nothing, opposed to falling to dust and debris.
8 out of 10
Pros
- Interesting Co-Operative Gameplay
- Some Unique Characters
Cons
- Lack of Modes
- Some Persistent Bugs/Poor Design Elements
Override Mech City Brawl was developed by The Balance Inc and published by Modus Games. It was released on December 4th, 2018 for PC, PS4, and X1 for $39.99. The game was provided to us for review on X1. If you’d like to see more of Override Mech City Brawl, check out the official website.
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