Mecha Knights: Nightmare

A hidden gem especially for a solo project Mecha Knights: Nightmare wears its inspiration on its sleeve (and even says it on the store page). It's a hybrid of Earth Defense Force and Armored Core with mecha anime and some horror elements thrown in the mix. Like EDF it's a horde shooter where you're a one man army using obnoxious firepower to lay waste to hundreds of enemies. Like EDF you earn more weapons from random drops incentivizing weapon farming (very easy to do if you do the raid missions). The missions are simple with just the bare minimum of variety in their layout and objectives. EDF had better mission variation where it forced you to change your loadout from time to time while here you can get away with a single setup. Also there's little to no physics in this game so if you liked launching the aliens from EDF with your rocket launcher that won't be happening here. Unlike EDF it's not a lengthy experience. With the DLC including all the raid missions it took me around 15 hours (EDF 6 is 40 hours in a single playthrough). In those 15 hours I almost got all the weapons and gear making this a way less replayable experience. Not a bad thing just something to keep in mind. It makes Mecha Knights feel more like a great "in between" game for EDF fans. While it's nowhere near as enjoyable as the mainline EDF titles (I especially prefer EDF's kaiju B-movie campy tone to the apocalyptic horror tone here) I do prefer this over some of the EDF spin-offs which is high praise especially for a solo dev project. It's an easy recommendation for EDF fans (like me) Like Armored Core you pilot a mech that you can go in depth to customize to optimize it to your liking. You have to factor in the mass, load, energy input and energy recharge just to name a few. Where it falls way short of Armored Core is there isn't much variation in the mechs as far as how they play. There's no heavy tank mechs or airborne mechs here (the upcoming sequel seems to already address this). The missions never force you to really adapt your mech's loadout either compared to Armored Core (At least compared to Armored Core 6). The mech controls are very straight forward (surprisingly no controller support) and you'll be boosting and zipping around the levels in no time. Another thing Armored Core fans need to keep in mind is this is a monster horde shooter with no mech on mech action. As someone who loves Armored Core 6 (and wishes there was more AC games easily available) Mecha Knights definitely scratches a little bit of that AC itch but doesn't fully satisfy it. It's a cautious recommendation for AC fans. However I'll say it again it's a damn impressive solo project. While Mecha Knights never surpasses its inspirations and has it moments that will remind you it's an indie solo project I still had fun throughout. Once you get your optimal mech loadout it does get a little stale (especially the raid missions) but it doesn't outstay its welcome. It has a solid foundation that I hope the sequel capitalizes on. An easy recommend when it's on sale or if you're an EDF fan or starving of anything remotely like Armored Core. P.S. The Operation Ascalon Expansion is very much worth it since it expands the arsenal and all I'll say the EDF fanboy that I am was happy with how devasting some of the new weapons were.

It's fine