I don’t know why we haven’t written about Mechabellum before, but we don’t. Let’s fix it. It’s an auto game where you take down squads of stomping robots and then watch them win or lose against your opponent’s army based on your chosen formations and upgrades. After over a year in early access, version 1.0 has just been released.
Visually, the Mechabellum robots are reminiscent of Supreme Commander, but SupCom was set on huge maps where victory had at least as much to do with managing the economy as your warriors on the front lines. As an autobattler, Mechabellum focuses on making decisions about purchasing and deploying units that will then fight without your intervention in relatively miniature arenas.
This means that your strategy depends on what units you choose, how they complement each other, where you place them and how you upgrade them. Fights take place over several rounds, and between them there is a chance to change the settings. During the battle itself, you can simply enjoy watching the explosions, although you can call in airstrikes and otherwise influence the flow of the fight in narrow ways.
Mechabellum launched in Early Access last May and has since been well received. Version 1.0 doesn’t appear to introduce any major changes, but it does optimize graphics and performance and introduces a multiplayer ranking system.
I’m not too interested in playing 1v1 with strangers online because I don’t want to learn the meta or read guides on the best builds. I am not Matt Cox (RPS in peace). However, I like watching robots shoot missiles at each other, and I enjoyed automated strategy games like tug-of-war Warping. I’ll try AI someday.
Mechabellum is available on Steam where 30% off means it’s currently £8.95/$10.49/€10.35.
