I don’t consider the enormous mecha style as being a style I’m wild about, however I’ve at all times had a delicate 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 college style. The mecha style is so large 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 multiple event (RIP, Gundam Evolution), and the Armored Core sequence holds a spot in my coronary heart nonetheless too, so maybe I truly am a little bit of a mecha fanboy. Regardless of personally pondering that I like isekais, JRPGs, and metroidvanias, I additionally love large robots that may wreck stuff.
Thankfully for me, we now have a brand-new PvP mecha sport 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 sport that revolves round large mechas wrecking one another.
Now despite the fact that I notice that World of Warships is true in my line of fireside for video games that you simply’d assume I’d be excited by, I simply don’t actually get enthusiastic about WW1 or WW2 or any of these types 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 price 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 gained’t be dropped in any nearer to at least one crew than one other.
This setup is sweet, truly. In plenty of battle royales there’s a bit of pleasure to instantly seeing one other crew proper subsequent to you and getting and early knockout, whereas on the identical time, not having that stress and as an alternative having just a few moments to run and acquire loot earlier than the preventing actually will get underway could be a aid. The objective is to kill as many opponents as you may whereas scoring factors for gathering loot and different victory factors as you may 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 offers the sport an extraction sport vibe, however within the iteration I used to be taking part in, I by no means acquired any loot I might take out and return with. There are a few gear slots in your mechs, so maybe it will likely be coming in a future replace. As a substitute, the objects I looted throughout a match had been merely upgrades for the present combat: 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, at the very least 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 might develop into one thing extra harmful given time, so I suppose that’s one other function of extraction video games that you simply’ll discover in Metal Hunters.
Because the match progresses, factors of curiosity will develop into enabled for gamers to combat 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 one in all 4 mech varieties that really 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 like the category names!
There are the Scrappers, that are considerably beast-like, so in the event you’re a Transformers Beast Wars fan, chances are you’ll 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 each 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 centered on sluggish, excessive harm with some ice powers for elevated protection and a chill impact. This meant that I might select from a few choices – it seemed like two decisions for every ability. 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 by some means managed not to get any screenshots of the ability timber, however they do exist as a method of enhancing your mecha between fights. Utilizing a foreign money earned from matches, I used to be in a position to enhance my mecha’s strengths by just a few completely different timber. In comparison with another video games on this style, this ones gave me sufficient choices to really feel as if I had personalised it to my playstyle.
In all probability one of many best possible options of the sport is the assist you may present your teammate even after you might be knocked out in a combat. For one factor, so long as your ally continues to be alive, you may have the possibility to respawn. Now, that might both be out of your accomplice’s use of a rez merchandise or only a easy respawn timer, however both method, it’s glorious as a result of it encourages taking part in good to outlive relatively than simply throwing your arms within the air when you’re solo.
Even higher are the assist expertise. That’s proper! Although I used to be knocked out, I might select one in all three random powerups to immediately assist my teammate. Generally it was a defend enhance or an auto reload or perhaps a harm booster. This meant that I couldn’t simply quit on the combat simply because I wasn’t technically alive and in it anymore. I might 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 have in mind.
General, Metal Hunters does plenty of issues proper at this stage of testing. I genuinely had a enjoyable time taking part in. The open entry weekend has since ended, however I do know I’m going to maintain my eyes peeled for the subsequent one!
