How would my younger self react to the concept of gaming seasons? “Let me alone, please. I’m busy replaying The Suffering 2 for the sixth time to see the up-to-date 15-second cutscene that recognizes what combination of morally compatible beginnings and endings I’ve chosen. It reads your save from your first game and everything!” Say “memory card” to the adolescent Fortnite fan with a broccoli mane. Come on, I dare you. Before you know it, you’ll be home.
Still, having up-to-date toys at regular intervals is the real result of our up-to-date avalanche of ephemeral novelties, constantly thrown at my head like shiny carnival daggers at exhausted spinning wheels. Especially if they advocate Mechabellum’s brilliant strategy. Season 2 aired yesterday patch 1.2bringing with it a up-to-date unit and specialist, a few reworks, and a lot of cosmetics that I pretend I don’t care about, but then get excited when I unlock a up-to-date one.
The up-to-date unit is Raiden, a giant flying plane that fires three lightning bolts simultaneously at different targets. He is good at fighting medium units. There are also reworks of Sabertooth (up-to-date model, up-to-date technology) and Overlord, which is now “bigger, stronger and more expensive”. Death Knell is a up-to-date, scarier version of my favorite substantial laser boy Melting Point, but it’s only available in Brawl and Survival modes, which I don’t play. The actual, material tactical thought I often have at Mechabellum when considering my formation is “I need more bench!”, so I may need to change direction.
But the star of the show is certainly the up-to-date specialist, mainly because of how tortured he looks after years of service in the mechanized wars of eternity. Intensive Training Expert receives an additional 50 supplies and a free Intensive Training Upgrade in the first round. It is the one that elevates the individual. In part, Mechabellum is a game of deciding how much time to devote to catching up and reacting to the opponent’s specific chain of cascading power surges, so I’m curious to see how much this deeply troubled war bastard will impact the situation.
Here is my review of Mechabellum, which I named Bestest Best. Here’s the paragraph that I think sums up the game best:
His truest joy lies in mindless destruction; so incredibly tactile for a game where not a single shell will be fired without minutes between the pull of the trigger and the crescendo of the muzzle flare. Spotting frail spots, applying the cheapest pressure possible without overextending, and watching entire flanks crumble as several rounds of planning paid off – planning that could simply look like panicked swinging at the opponent. Having the slightest inkling of a premonition confirmed by checking the enemy’s positioning patterns and responding to their plan with a hearty “not today, f**k” before they were even close to executing it.
Fun robots, substantial ones. Fun with substantial robots.
