I don’t consider the enormous mecha style as being a style I’m wild about, however I’ve all the time had a mushy spot in my coronary heart for it anyway. I suppose that’s a bit like saying I’ve by no means been somebody who’s into greens or the wizarding faculty style. The mecha style is so huge it spans all tastes! From little child exhibits to intensely violent ones, there’s actually one thing for everybody. I’ve written about my love of Gundam on a couple of event (RIP, Gundam Evolution), and the Armored Core sequence holds a spot in my coronary heart nonetheless too, so maybe I really am a little bit of a mecha fanboy. Regardless of personally pondering that I really like isekais, JRPGs, and metroidvanias, I additionally love big robots that may wreck stuff.
Fortuitously for me, we now have a brand-new PvP mecha recreation that basically catches my consideration. From the studio that introduced us World of Tanks and World of Warships comes a brand new IP and entrant to the mecha battle style: Metal Hunters. It’s equally weird and positively wasn’t on my bingo card, however right here it’s: a brand new IP and recreation that revolves round big mechas wrecking one another.
Now although I understand that World of Warships is true in my line of fireside for video games that you just’d assume I’d be all in favour of, I simply don’t actually get enthusiastic about WW1 or WW2 or any of these kinds of historic battles and their ilk. Tank battles and ship battles simply don’t actually do it for me. However mechas? Maintain up as a result of I must see this.
And so I did, when final week the studio held an open entry weekend throughout Steam Subsequent Fest. I took that chance to get in there, get my mecha on, and discover out if it’s going to be value my time.
First, let’s speak about what the sport is from a ten,000-foot view. Metal Hunters is a mix of extraction shooter and battle royale. Six groups of two are randomly assigned one of many spawning factors on the map. Every level is equally spaced out, so that you received’t be dropped in any nearer to at least one crew than one other.
This setup is good, really. In a whole lot of battle royales there’s a bit of pleasure to all of the sudden seeing one other crew proper subsequent to you and getting and early knockout, whereas on the identical time, not having that stress and as a substitute having a couple of moments to run and gather loot earlier than the combating actually will get underway generally is a aid. The aim is to kill as many opponents as you possibly can whereas scoring factors for gathering loot and different victory factors as you possibly can after which exit the world or (as was the case in actually each match I performed) kill all the opposite groups.
It’s that loot-and-GTFO angle of the match that provides the sport an extraction recreation vibe, however within the iteration I used to be enjoying, I by no means bought any loot I may take out and return with. There are a few gear slots in your mechs, so maybe it is going to be coming in a future replace. As an alternative, the objects I looted throughout a match had been merely upgrades for the present struggle: extra ammo, elevated armor, and power-ups. So in that regard, it felt extra like a BR.
Then once more, as soon as your match, begins you’ll find and discover some PvE baddies to take down too. They had been by no means very harmful, no less than primarily based on those I encountered. I’d say they’re extra like… annoying treasure chests. After I took them down, an merchandise would drop for upgrading my in-game powers. However I can see how these battles may develop into one thing extra harmful given time, so I suppose that’s one other function of extraction video games that you just’ll discover in Metal Hunters.
Because the match progresses, factors of curiosity will develop into enabled for gamers to struggle over. A few of them are seize factors that present bonuses, and others will flip into loot piñatas. It’s a great way of funneling gamers in direction of each other and inspiring direct fight.
The mechas in Metal Hunters perform extra as heroes than as participant creations. Every falls into certainly one of 4 mech sorts that truly mimic our typical RPG roles of DPS, assist, and tank in a method. It isn’t precisely one-to-one, however there are clear parallels. Additionally I really like the category names!
There are the Scrappers, that are considerably beast-like, so in the event you’re a Transformers Beast Wars fan, you could discover one right here you want. They roughly mimic animals. The Ursus resembles a bear; the weaver, a spider. The others had been all humanoids: the Syndicate, Wildcard, and Coldfire PMC.
Whereas every one leaned extra closely towards an outlined playstyle, there have been some customization choices for the participant to tinker with. I primarily performed the Ursus, which targeted on sluggish, excessive injury with some ice powers for elevated protection and a chill impact. This meant that I may select from a few choices – it appeared like two selections for every talent. This gave me some management in how the mecha performed with out kicking the doorways off the barn of stability.
There are additionally a number of vertical development choices. I in some way managed not to get any screenshots of the talent bushes, however they do exist as a method of enhancing your mecha between fights. Utilizing a forex earned from matches, I used to be capable of enhance my mecha’s strengths by way of a couple of totally different bushes. In comparison with another video games on this style, this ones gave me sufficient choices to really feel as if I had customized it to my playstyle.
In all probability one of many best possible options of the sport is the assist you possibly can present your teammate even after you’re knocked out in a struggle. For one factor, so long as your ally remains to be alive, you have got the prospect to respawn. Now, that would both be out of your associate’s use of a rez merchandise or only a easy respawn timer, however both method, it’s wonderful as a result of it encourages enjoying good to outlive slightly than simply throwing your fingers within the air when you’re solo.
Even higher are the assist expertise. That’s proper! Although I used to be knocked out, I may select certainly one of three random powerups to immediately assist my teammate. Generally it was a defend increase or an auto reload or perhaps a injury booster. This meant that I couldn’t simply surrender on the struggle simply because I wasn’t technically alive and in it anymore. I may strive to concentrate to what my ally was doing and what he would possibly want essentially the most at that time. Very cool, and I hope it’s one thing extra video games will keep in mind.
General, Metal Hunters does a whole lot of issues proper at this stage of testing. I genuinely had a enjoyable time enjoying. The open entry weekend has since ended, however I do know I’m going to maintain my eyes peeled for the subsequent one!
