Recent reviews by Imperator RAD-X

We are living in the literal *worst* timeline.

A love letter to the Terminator Franchise, and one that's heartfelt.

It's really not everyday that you can make a story where you, a homicidal grey alien fertility addict, gets pursued by the San Francisco police department to escort peace loving hippies and convert them into a Slaanesh Cult. All the while, you are simultaneously being pursued by an army of KGB agents in black cars.

This is truly the game of all time.

If you're looking for a chill experience in an RTS-Roguelike game where your survival is dependent on upgrading your units, buildings and with that sheer bit of luck; this game is for you. I hope the game gets additional support, could be a real banger in the future.

I'm going to start by saying as much as I wanted to like this game - I just don't. My reasons are going to be particularly centric.

Typically, the gameplay of Mechabellum is simple and straight forward; put units down strategically and watch them fight it out. While that's fine and particularly intriguing, there comes a lot of problems with this. With heavy frustration, that is this game's AI and your ability to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about it. The AI is definitely Artificial, but it ain't Intelligent.

Everything, and I mean /everything/ in this game is placement and you do not have control over your individual units in any capacity (OBVIOUSLY! But let me explain something.) Save for levelling them up, upgrading them, and calling in airstrikes. What my biggest gripe is, is when your units are typically winning a battle but get distracted by some random first-rate crawler, chase it, and woefully ignores everything else as a primary threat to its existence as it is slowly dying infront of you. And it DOES NOT CARE. Not only may that unit be super important and could very much end up winning you the battle; the other units in the vicinity are just flatly ignored to chase one venturing crab bot. In turn, you have lost because Mechabellum has no enforcement of self-preservation amongst its units. Self-preservation is absolutely essential for any Strategy Game... otherwise, why bother?

If you're someone like myself who wants to find a way to modulate unit behaviour without just plopping them down on a board and going "chaaaAAAARRRGgggeee" mindlessly - this game is not for you. I am warning you.

There is another problem with this game and that is how focused it is for the 'E-Sports' category. Mechabellum is advertised as single player but the only single player involvement you're going to get is an RNG Survival Gamemode that WILL drive you to tare your hair out with impossible odds being completely stacked against you, unbalanced in favour of the AI. Practice battles where you just fight some randomly placed AI under certain difficulties, the tutorial and player made challenges.

One may consider the statement of "OKAY, that's perfect for me" - and it might be. If so, touche, go have fun! Because to me that's where the game really excels at for a single player experience.

But let's talk then about the game's progression system, levelling up and ratings.

See, your profile "levels up" over a period of time, unlocking tech points that can be used to unlock unit abilities. I'm just going to straight up say this is absolutely a useless waste of time. What are you unlocking? What are you progressing? What's the end goal? Why not just give me everything straight away so I can customise the units the way I want? Why bother levelling up, anyway? See, the progression in that sense is not rewarding and it just spends an additional half a minute to watch the screen tell you you've risen in the world. With no incentive, or reason.

Progression, dare I say, has no style. It's bland, and all you're doing is clicking a button twice to confirm you want to unlock a unit ability that's going to cost you resources in game to use anyway. So, again, why bother?

At the same time, the game is multiplayer. Sure you can play co-op survival or bot matches and that's cool... but here's something you're going to run into straight away: Ratings & Skill Level. Almost immediately I'm put off from joining any game on multiplayer, because if anyone with an ounce of sense or history where "military power" dictates your skill capability in a public manner, again - why bother?

Tournaments are a thing, that's cool - but I think that's really all it is. E-Sports Tournaments with big names, with a levelling system that's almost considered fake for the player if they squint their eyes long enough.

I will leave this on a good note, though: The game is very well crafted, it looks BEAUTIFUL with those graphics, and the concept of the game is rather unique and the customisation assets are amazing. I hope the game goes through the success it deserves, though as a guy who likes direct command of his own forces without having to worry about suicide-blind-charges 24/7, it ain't for me.

My friend and I joked at two other guys getting killed. We laughed about it never-endingly on the way home to the ship with all of the expensive loot.

A worm swallowed us just before we reached the ship before we realised what happened. We were then painted as the running joke.

I remember going to the store buying this for the first time so long ago.
I have boxed copies of the original EaW, FoC and even the Gold Pack with a disc copy. So I've got this game multiple times.

When it arrived on Steam, I didn't hesitate to buy it so many years ago. To this very day, I still play it.

Now you can play with your friends in multiplayer. The game has now reached true legendary status with the return of multiplayer functionality and a big leap to 64-bit. Not to mention the modding support it has completely turns this game into a new form of your choosing, every time.

After nearly eighteen years - I can say with my hand on heart - this is and always was the best RTS Game to exist on the market.

This really is a timeless classic of a golden age in gaming, and is still a testament today as to why. Thank you so much, Petroglyph.

When that T-72 appears through the thick smoke and is aiming directly at your M60 and your desperately fired shell ricochets atop a discreet angle, and you hear:

"AGAIN, AGAIN, AGAIN, AGAIN, AGAIN!"

Being literally *SCREAMED* in your ears...

That's the genuine fear. You know you're ♥♥♥♥♥♥.

SENTINEL Corp declared that me contacting anyone else is forbidden.

Shame they didn't expect me to strap myself to a satellite rocket and take a ten foot swan dive from the sky to prove a point.

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No really, this game is fantastic. It's that totally sweet and chilling game where you're alone on a desolate world, and it's up to you to take it from there. Turns from that "Phew, that was close!" split second decisions to sitting back and watching the world you terraformed grow spectacularly.

Highly recommend for anyone who loves a hybrid survival-exploration builder with lore behind it.

:)