When playing a game for review, I frequently find myself asking “Why?” Why did the developers include or exclude certain features? Why are the controls set up the way they are? Why is my battery almost dead when I’m pretty sure I charged this thing last night? It’s important to ask these questions, and receiving answers is necessary in developing a well-rounded view of a game. There are some instances where your ultimate answer will be “I don’t know.” Once in a while, this answer is fine. In the case of Mechs Warfare, it’s the constant answer, and the game suffers because of it.
Mechs Warfare (that is not an accidental pluralization) continues the growing trend of large vehicles of destruction battling one another for our entertainment. When I first started playing, I asked myself “Why mechs instead of tanks, spaceships, androids, or monsters?” I don’t know why there are mechs. As I played, nothing made me think “Mechs were the best choice.” The game is set up with two mechs on opposite sides of a circle. Each one walks on its own, while the players tilt their device to look around and tap each side of the screen to fire the respective side’s weapon.
It’s both fun and challenging to aim with the tilt controls, but every battle is a challenge to see who can land the most shots first. The lack of any real defensive play is baffling. Certain power-ups help that, but not enough to change the game. Why does Mechs Warfare mostly ignore defensive play? I’m not sure. It certainly manages to make the core gameplay simpler without having to worry about movement. Sadly, the trade-off is a game that is quick to get boring. It’s tough for me to want to play more than one round in a sitting.
Helping to make Mechs Warfare feel more unique is synchronous multiplayer. The game plays well over both my mobile (4G LTE) and Wi-Fi connections, though the latter was much smoother. Synchronous multiplayer is a wonderful decision, but also the only one. There are no single-player or pseudo-multiplayer options as is common in mobile games. Why? I don’t know. One of the most unique portions to the game also turns into its biggest flaw once you realize that you are solely dependent on other players to play the game.
When playing a game for review, I frequently find myself asking “Why?” Why did the developers include or exclude certain features? Why are the controls set up the way they are? Why is my battery almost dead when I’m pretty sure I charged this thing last night? It’s important to ask these questions, and receiving answers is necessary in developing a well-rounded view of a game. There are some instances where your ultimate answer will be “I don’t know.” Once in a while, this answer is fine. In the case of Mechs Warfare, it’s the constant answer, and the game suffers because of it.
Mechs Warfare (that is not an accidental pluralization) continues the growing trend of large vehicles of destruction battling one another for our entertainment. When I first started playing, I asked myself “Why mechs instead of tanks, spaceships, androids, or monsters?” I don’t know why there are mechs. As I played, nothing made me think “Mechs were the best choice.” The game is set up with two mechs on opposite sides of a circle. Each one walks on its own, while the players tilt their device to look around and tap each side of the screen to fire the respective side’s weapon.
It’s both fun and challenging to aim with the tilt controls, but every battle is a challenge to see who can land the most shots first. The lack of any real defensive play is baffling. Certain power-ups help that, but not enough to change the game. Why does Mechs Warfare mostly ignore defensive play? I’m not sure. It certainly manages to make the core gameplay simpler without having to worry about movement. Sadly, the trade-off is a game that is quick to get boring. It’s tough for me to want to play more than one round in a sitting.
Helping to make Mechs Warfare feel more unique is synchronous multiplayer. The game plays well over both my mobile (4G LTE) and Wi-Fi connections, though the latter was much smoother. Synchronous multiplayer is a wonderful decision, but also the only one. There are no single-player or pseudo-multiplayer options as is common in mobile games. Why? I don’t know. One of the most unique portions to the game also turns into its biggest flaw once you realize that you are solely dependent on other players to play the game.
There’s a fair bit of customization that tries to shake things up in Mechs Warfare. Both left and right weapons can be changed from the default. Each side also has a power-up slot that can be activated at the press of a button. This is a fine way to help combat the game’s lack of defensive options, but neither deploying a shield nor switching from bullets to rockets does much to change how the game is played. You’re forced to approach a rocket launcher and a machine gun with the same strategy, and when he or she deploys a power-up, you’re still best off shooting like crazy until you’re the last one standing.
Why should you play Mechs Warfare? I don’t know. I can’t think of a reason to make it worth your time. If someone hacked your device and it’s the only game that’ll run, give it a shot. In all honesty, it’s not a bad game, it’s just another game. Everything it does, it does fine. Not good. Not bad. The absent features and characteristics are felt in a painful way, and the visuals are hardly pleasing. Everything feels just a few steps off of the correct path.
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