TLDR: i cannot recommend this game. keep looking for another Mech game unless you are a masochist. this game isn't beginner friendly nor very fun and quite repetitive. the designing of mechs and the weapons can be Ok yet is not intuitive, nor as accessible as say mechwarrior or armored core. to unlock parts to build your dream mech, be prepared to grind and suffer (and not in a good way).
THE BAD:
#1- The targeting and aiming mechanics are absolute ASS. locking an enemy does not always work, the camera behaves odd and jumps around especially when trying to manually aim. likewise shots/melee strikes do not always go where you want them to go and there is little you can do to change this behaviour. even the auto aim/lock function misses a majority of the time regardless of accuracy stats and such.
#2- movement feels very clunky and slow to respond, actions once started MUST finish and cannot be interrupted except for say a % bar when disarming EMP mine or scanning some other objective.
#3- the above two combined makes combat more frustrating then enjoyable.
#4- on top of the three above complaints the ai is rather simplistic/braindead and to compensate for that they implemented swarm tactics, teleportation, INSANE HP pools and too many BULLSH*T instant hit attacks you cannot avoid. bosses are absolute bullet sponges and attacks unavoidable especially since MANY are not telegraphed well a lot of the time, the hitbox seems wonky and their recharge time is low enough you can't really run from various such creatures either. especiallyt bosses with goons abuse this (add invulnerabillity shenanigans and its nap time for the player 9/10 times). your first difficulty spike will be mission 5 and then another at steep one at 6. the first Allied NPC in mission 5 is as such also as useless as the enemies as they cannot aim, nor do damage for the life of them, do not think they will be of any use and it's best to ingore these.
#5- the information within the game is... too random and many things when it comes to details or whatsomething does is not well explained. likewise in terms of what stat does what or why.
#6- when tuning, components, Engines, OS's and Frames are mixed pretty damn randomly in a list and hover-over tooltips alongside clear lvl identifiers are pretty much non-existent. the exception being items named the same which may have a I, II, or III etc behind the name between subsequent upgrades, though name changes for higher tier component are frequent. so when you are a little down the techtree and have many things unlocked. good luck finding that higher lvl item in a sea of the lower levels since you cannot sort or find stuff properly.
#7- the game is VERY grindy, has you repeat the same scenarios over and over again without any variety inside a mission. this is to allow you to unlock parts, money for said parts and resources for the techtree for upgrades... oh the techtree also uses money.
#8- the control scheme for both Keyboard and gamepad are so-so... as if the game doesn't really know which direction it wants to go, console or pc there's some sidescroller elements, and therefore has settled for something inbetween. switching weapons feels weird, the scrollwheel is non existent and the amount of options to finetune controls like mouse sensitivty, which is non-existent, are limited.
#9- within missions cutscenes are unskippable, have fun with that... after the xth time, they aren't so fun anymore. not that they are all that great to begin with the first time as the camera in various cutscenes doesn't behave all that nice.
#10- the game tries to do many complex things while also trying to be "dumb" in an arcade style game sense and look simple enough to just play around with. it's not exactly working in this game's favour as you cannot be both complex and then simplify everything without clashing between styles. as such the game feels like early-acces or a tech demo project.
#11- while there's different environments, gameplay basically always boils down to run in a circle and shoot/whack enemy within a small arena. at least for the first dozen missions.
#12- doesn't look like there has been any major updates or attempts at improving this game since release despite feedback and suggestions from players. the only DLC also being a sountrack option. probably a "what you see is what you get", a product destined for the abandonware bin.
#13- bipedal humanoid mechs only and the size is quite limited. it seems you are pretty much stuck with a flavour of grandpa gundam with your personal choice of acceptable spiky bits. especially early on not a lot of choice for round and smooth either, mostly sharp angles and blocky options though you do unlock rounder bits later on.
#14- the player character is voiceless and not customisable, for the story that they are involved with, its a "he". not a bad thing per see, but with all the female NPC's thrown at you it does make you wonder... why?
#15- all dialogue outside of in-mission is dry, expsosition dump, text based and needs to be clicked to progress... and it's a whole lot of interactions with character stickers per event like a rather poor visual novel instead of something more interactive, something to just listen to while you do stuff with your mech or maybe read and scroll at your leisure as a once and done page (can revisit in archive). not a fan.
#16- can replenish ammunition of all types in the game by shooting mobs and grabbing the pickups, DOOM style. shields also recharge if you're not actively taking damage for a few seconds, but Health... oh no... no that's something sacred you cannot get back. Woe be upon you if your shield pool drops to 0 and there's a enemy nearby. armour does not do much my friend.
#17- the story could be a cardboard cutout so dry and tasteless. it is VERY basic generic stuff that even makes many copy paste isekai manwha storylines interesting.
#18- the balance between melee, guns, missiles and the various damage types are very.... odd and seems undercooked at best with debatable choice on dual wielding. there is also only small caliber bullet/projectiles, a sort of beam or missiles, no grenades, no mines, no cannons no exotics like thrown weapons or flamethrowers and "Area of effect" options, no dedicated railguns or shoulder beams/cannons. the closest to any sort of "powerful" giant beam you can get is the beam drone and it's kind of underwhelming.
#19- while there is PVP.... just don't... there is no glory to be had, no satisfaction, no balance, no sense and no reason to consider it beyond maybe try it out for yolo reasons.
#20- missing content and planned stuff from existing roadmaps, apparently after the 1.0 release the game pretty much "flopped" so to say and as such with the game not having received updates since, the game can feel unfinished in various areas. (also see point #12).
#21- no steam workshop support, no achievements.
The GOOD:
#1- i want to like the game, there is a lot of potential and many ways this game could be expanded upon and improved.
#2- Graphics are decent and the various designs are neat.
#3- there is a lot of freedom and fun designing, a lot of options and parts to tinker with too and many things are cosmetic so feel free to just do whatever. weight for example is listed, but functionally does nothing as it is a scrapped feature. as such while the camera isn't all that cooperative/great the actual designing is good for what is there.
#4- while GPU intensive the game runs rather well regardless of what is going on.
#5- game is not too expensive.
#6- game does support controllers.
i could list the availability of there being a discord as both good and bad for a variety of reasons.
i will keep trying this game for some longer and see how far i can push certain elements, though i'll probably drop it around the 40~60 hour mark if i even reach that seeing the repetitiveness.
