[Mechanicus OST - Children of the Omnissiah] Welcome back to Warhammer. There are no Space Marines this time around. Instead, this game has you playing as the Adeptus Mechanicus. And you're on a field trip / home invasion to rob the Necrons. That may have sounded like gibberish... The Mechanicus have been in some games. Usually with the Imperial Guard; but they're not the Imperial Guard- Okay, picture Inspector Gadget, but he's a monk, and he fixes your car. Okay, I'll get into the lore... I'm going to assume you know about the Imperium of Man and all that. The Mechanicus works with the Guard, but they're not part of the Guard. Like, picture Amazon; Imagine it has a giant government contract. Not only do they make and sell knick-knacks and random stuff, they also make cars, tanks, guns, ships, and everything else you need to wage a war and also just run the economy in general. That's them, and there is no competition. They make most every gun and vehicle in the Imperial military, so their organization has a lot of sway. This is because when the Imperium was being founded on Earth, they already had their own Empire on Mars. They only joined up because their organization was given a ton of autonomy. They got challenged here and there, but we don't have time for those stories. So, as virtually the only research and manufacturing center, they get up to stuff. Sometimes, their experiments have... questionable legality. *HERESY.OGG* [buzz] No, they don't get bothered much. Lets say some smug commissar tries to tell on them for, say, making an A.I. Well, they can just say "It's not an A.I. there's a human brain in there! How do you know!?" "I... I pROmiSe..." Even if you manage to get them in trouble, they might start having “manufacturing issues”. And then they can’t send you vehicles and weapons anymore. Then all your men get eaten by bugs or demons or something. Because this won't work without this. Okay, simple enough. Now, most of the best stuff is hoarded by the Ad-Mech's private army. They're always looking to recover old technology or discover new ones. And there happens to be an ancient alien race with hyper-advanced technology, and entire tombs of it. These are the Necrons. So what is a Necron? Well, they're Terminators, in space, who hate all life. At least they used to be. Now they have different dynasties and agendas, and they're basically undead space Egyptians So that's fresh. *coughs in Nehekhara* Necrons have fancy things, the Ad-Mech wants to touch all of it. "Mechanicus" is all about one of those expeditions. Of course, there's a conflict over how much should be preserved, rather than destroyed. Those decisions will be up to you. There's no telling what's down there, so let's check it out. REDITUS: "One day, the crude biomass that you call a temple will wither, and you will beg my kind to save you." REDITUS: "But I am already saved." REDITUS: "For the Machine is immortal." REDITUS: "Even in death, I serve the Omnissiah." That's one hell of a title drop. For starters, this is a turn-based tactical game. There are many levels and mechanics of fighting the Necrons, but we'll hold off on all of that for now. Let's begin with the visuals. The game is sold at half the price of a triple-A game, and it looks the part. If you've played other games in the genre, the texture work and detail in the environment isn't gonna be the best thing you've ever seen. There's also a Depth of Field effect on zooming, which I would like if you could adjust it. I actually like the effect when it's subtle, but it's very aggressive here and there's no option for it. So having one would be ideal. I'd still say this game is punching above its weight when it comes to the budget. The use of fog, shadows, light and reflections do help make up for the shortcomings. On a technical level, I'd still say it's good, especially for the genre. There's been a few better; but A LOT more worse. Especially when this is being carried by some fantastic art direction. What the environmental detail lacks is made up for by the character models. If anything, the relative minimalism does help accent them. Whenever I saw a Tech-Priest, I always wondered what all that machinery was even for... I mean, where do you start? Well, now you'll know, because every class upgrade, piece of war gear, weapon, equipment, it's all modeled. You can end up with very different looking soldiers and push it even further by coloring them in. Then you throw in all the troop types you can bring into a fight. They're not as customizable, but they do change visually when they upgrade. It's a nice detail to have. The look of this game is very appealing to me. I think it could be because the detail and colorful models on a relatively bland surface reminds me a lot of a tabletop game. [Marv scream]
I think it could be because the detail and colorful models on a relatively bland surface reminds me a lot of a tabletop game. I think it could be because the detail and colorful models on a relatively bland surface reminds me a lot of a tabletop game. I mean, technically, you actually ARE playing a tabletop game within a videogame. Except, when your troops die in-game, they die for real... in the game. Wait, the Necrons have minis too; and you can steal them! Okay, we're getting too meta here. The 2-D artwork is also great; and horrific. The Necrons have some cool models too. However, the visuals aren't the real star of "Mechanicus"; it's the sound. What do Apple Store Jawas sound like? Computer sounds, I guess... [geth-like warbling] Yeah that's about right- [deep, imposing, digitally distorted murmur] Holy shit...! [geth-like warbling] I- I wasn't expecting this... [deep, imposing, digitally distorted murmur] [echoing, subtle, fragmented whisper] [deep, imposing, digitally distorted murmur] [quiet, humming, incoherent preaching] [rattling, robotic, incoherent speech] Not only is this an incredibly creative way to not have as much voice acting, it sounds phenomenal. You still have more traditional stuff too. MHELOB: "I have watched you since you dared breach the orbit of our world." Then you just have the regular sounds of the game. [Tech-Priest's equipment clicks and clacks quietly as they move] [s-pewsh] [shwang] [shwoosh] [platform rises with a deep hum] [psoosh] This isn't even the main draw, neither was the voice acting. It's the music. [Mechanicus OST - Dance of the Cryptek] [Mechanicus OST - Overlord] [Mechanicus OST - Millennial rage] [Mechanicus OST - Noosphere] What can I say? No one told me about the soundtrack. It's the most electronic a Warhammer game has gone, and appropriately so. It's very industrial, some of the melodies remind me of engines revving. The vocals can change from European medieval monks to, like, Egyptian priests chanting. It’s like “You’re playing with the Big Boys now” from the “Prince of Egypt”, but the Big Boy is a Necron Lord. Most electronic music has a bass drop; Mechanicus has a pipe organ. [Mechanicus OST - Overlord] It's a supremely creative soundtrack, and it's one of my favorite Warhammer OSTs now. And this is from a franchise with a lot of competition in a music genre that I'm not that into. It's just that good. So, overall, the presentation is outstanding. The aggressive Depth of Field is my only real style issue with it. Besides that, there's an occasional stutter after taking an action, and I think that's an engine thing. It only seemed to be noticeable on some particular maps. Beyond that, it's very stable; and trust me, I've played worse. Speaking of playing, lets talk about that. You can divide the game up into three separate sections. The first is tomb exploring. There are several kinds of rooms and different missions have different layouts. If you've played something like "Darkest Dungeon" this will be familiar to you, except you can see where you're going. With each new room you go to, an Awakening meter will increase. This represents the tomb activating more stuff as they become aware of you, and you don't wanna wake the Necrons. Starting off, it's not a huge deal. However, the more you explore around, the more horrific this meter will become. Ignoring the objectives to loot, means deadlier fights. It's still worth looking around, because there are treasure rooms that can give you resources and equipment (as long as you pick the right symbol). But the symbols are consistent, it doesn't stay a random guessing game. When you pick a safe one enough, it even gets highlighted later. Then you have the event rooms, and all sorts of things can happen in here. This is where it becomes pure guesswork. Usually, it's "Do you wanna destroy a weird thing, or try to study it?" You might wake the Necrons up more. Then again, you might get some help in an upcoming battle. Now, some of you might be going "Aw the game's ruined, I hate that shit!" Well, I have good news: there's an option to have symbols appear for the results. So it will no longer be completely random. In fact, while there are standard difficulties, this game is absurdly customizable. Nearly every mechanic and stat can be adjusted or flat out turned off. You can adjust it to be a walk in the park, or the hell-crawl that you crave. So just keep that in mind. I'll be coming back to this dungeon part, but I'm gonna move on for now. The second part is the battle. You slap your troops down in a small area, and begin the fight. You may be surprised, if you thought this was gonna be a copy of another game. There's no such thing as accuracy; if the weapon's in range, it hits. No cover system either. You're either out of range, or completely obstructed behind something big. Line of sight and weapon range are the name of the game. You can't sit around in over-watch either, your Tech-Priest don't know how. They don't wanna sit around, they wanna touch all everything! There's only one who can over-watch, and you will learn to hate him. (bash) "AHH!" The only units dodging shots will be your own, and only through a special class upgrade. Accuracy may not be an unknown factor, but there are several others. You can gauge your own weapon range, but not that of the enemy. Or their potential damage output, or abilities. Most importantly, you don't know how much health they have. There are two damage types – physical and energy – with armor for both. High armor can completely absorb an attack. This means, without intel, you could be firing off useless shots and not even know it. So you could send out a servo-skull to find out the stats. And then it gets stuck on cool-down for a few turns, and the skull can do something else – collect Cognition Points. Cognition Point Taking, CPT, is a mechanical activity vital to your success. Most Tech-Priest weapons, and especially the more powerful ones, require Cognition Points to fire. A lot of active skills use it too. Here's the thing: as long as it's off cool-down, a Tech-Priest can use as many skills and weapons in a turn as they want. If you have points to spend, you can do it. If you have a point, you can sprint outside of normal move range. Once again though, you can keep doing this. So if you have the points for it, you can just run all over the map. This is your life blood. The easiest way to get it is by grabbing it off map objects. These refresh when a turn phase is over. You can find special war gear to get it, you could get it through skills. As the game goes on, you find more sophisticated ways to keep that meter filled. Even defeated enemies have some on the body. So, with careful strategy, you can keep that meter in balance. Instead of shooting a robot, you can have a Radio Shack man stand next to it, so when he gets shot, he can collect the point. Then again, maybe you should just try to get rid of the bodies immediately... They're NECRONS. Yeah, that was a bad idea... Do you try to get points, or do you leave a dangerous body intact? You decide. ♪ Wake me up! ♪ Of course, if you crit them the first time, they're not coming back. [bzoom] I admit, I didn't like this system too much at first. It felt... strange. But, as I got more points and more equipment, I really started to appreciate it. Immediately firing off your most powerful weapon often isn't the best course to take. Carefully planning your attacks and skills will get you the best outcome. Like the dungeons, there's opportunity here as well. Remember the Awakening meter? Well, it's here too and doesn't stop. Every time you go to a new turn phase, the bar fills up. In battle, there are sometimes Necron computers you can break to reduce it. Which means wasting attacks that you could have used on a Tomb King. At the same time, you can have a Tech-Priest scan it for money. You can't do that if the computer's already blown up. Do you go for the money, or shoot it at range before the meter gets higher? You have to balance all this out, and at the same time, expect the unexpected. This is a tomb. You think you have it all figured out, then suddenly a giant platform raises and you have new problems. An eye needs to be kept on the platforms that move around. There are little turret traps, the big kid's meal turret traps, sarcophagi that spit out more angry skeletons at the worst possible time. You might make a risky power play only to find out that it was the worst possible thing you could have done. The early game can be brutal, and that's not the worst of it. Sometimes, a battle will have an objective like 'Escape'. There's an angry horde coming for you, get all your boys to this square. So you barely make it and- surprise! Now you need to wipe them out. All of them. Once again, this only happens some of the time. This is something I hated starting out, but it made more sense later. For now, I wanna move on to the third part of the game, so I could go back through it with proper context. This is the downtime aboard your ship when you manage your army. When you complete a mission, you get all kinds of rewards, including new equipment. There are tons of different weapons and equipment pieces, you likely won't see every one in a single playthrough. This extends to troops and their upgrades. The currency, called "Blackstone", can be used to spec out your Priests. Each tree will unlock four pieces of special class armor, but, other than that, you can equip anything on anyone. You just need enough slots to fit the equipment, and you get more as you level up. These guys can get way up there too, they can multiclass right from the get-go. The other use of cash is to take regular troops with you on missions. Your basic Servitors will be free, but more advanced troops will start costing. You have unlimited troops in storage, so if you do play on perma-death, only Priests don't come back if they die. That hurts a lot, but you can throw more troops at 'em. You can build around this. One of the classes is all about buffing lesser soldiers. As for the missions, you chose which ones you do and when. "Mechanicus" has multiple endings, based on what you do or don't do. Be careful... This is also how you get most of your equipment, and it is semi-random on each playthrough. The Mechanicus has many needs, but you may not be able to fill them all. Oh right, that Awakening meter is global. The more each tomb wakes up, the more the whole damn planet wakes up. You don't want that. So taking optional fights to reduce the Awakening may be worth your time. There are many more smaller mechanics to this game, but those are the important ones for context. Now that you have that, I can go back through it and not sound like I'm speaking hieroglyphics. Okay, lets go again. So you get your cohort all picked out for a mission. You also pick your canticles (your once-per-mission powers), but I won't get into those. We're back to the dungeon. Overall, I think this part is good. Exploration is risky but also very rewarding. Finding a powerful weapon or special piece of equipment is just as permanent as having an Awakening meter go up. It has solid balance in that regard. I'm actually one of those people who doesn't mind the random events. I'd rather have this over the game just telling me the answer, but I do see where an improvement can be made. I wish events had the "blue option." In the game "FTL" you go around exploring with a crew in a space ship, and random events pop up there too. Outcomes aren't guaranteed- -Unless you have the blue option. This is always a good result. You only get them if you have a special piece of equipment, or a crew member for the job. The more diverse your crew and equipment, the better chance you have for solving one of these problems. You can see where I'm going with this. With so many weapons and pieces of equipment and troop types, something like this would be perfect in "Mechanicus". Maybe you only get the "Purge with flame" option if you have a flamethrower. Or how about a Kastelan robot in your party? That has a flamer. They're also known for their stable machine spirits. [ferocious swiggity swooty] [WHAM] It would be a nice addition. It could also lead into a more balanced party, which I'll get into more soon. The combat in "Mechanicus" is great. The core to your victories will be tactical thinking, but unexpected things happen just often enough to keep it interesting. Again, the presentation's exceptional. The impact and sounds of weapons, the physics of how bodies fly around – everything about it makes combat satisfying. The points and class system means you have a ton of options for playstyles. For example, the troop buff class I mentioned. Troop attacks cost no points, which is huge. The catch is that deploying them in each battle costs points. More advanced troops will cost more. So, while they are effective, they require set up, which you could have been attacking with. Until you have your Secutor class in the field. He can call in the most dangerous units anywhere, for one point. He can use a skull to buff troops. This man can order a firing line. You can take two of these guys and a squad of troops and be fine. There's also a medic class that can heal and cleanse and- wait. That claw can heal a bunch of health and anyone can put it on? If your Priests are hurt at the end of a mission, it costs money to repair them, so everyone should have this. There's a skill reducing a weapon attack by two points, and it's right at the top. I can easily multi-class everyone into this. Now everyone can have a ridiculous AOE weapon. The first shot costs the same as a normal weapon now. The final skill of a melee class sacrifices two ranged weapons for... That? So, axe or a... I think this game needs some class rebalancing, and maybe some item restrictions. Because, once you're past early game, the challenge can get easy, and fast. Even on the hardest difficulty. And I'm not saying everything should be restricted. Maybe just the highest level of specialized equipment. Just enough so the medic class isn't virtually useless and really, really situational. Because everyone can be a medic who heals nearly as much. I'd love to use a pure melee class if it had some neat abilities. Maybe they could have a skill to instantly blow up a Necron computer in range but still get the money from it. Something similar to the CP scanner. Naturally, there are special options to restrict things more. Maybe they could be turned on by default in the Praise the Omnissiah difficulty or something like that. "One part, one Priest" is an interesting way to play, but I still like to multi-class. At bare minimum, I think some class things need to be rearranged, because there is great stuff here. As it is, I just find it too easy to make a god class once you know what you're doing. I did try to avoid it because I like having a varied squad. I only wish the choices seemed more natural and synergistic. As is, it feels like gimping myself. I dunno, maybe the fumes are getting to me. Wait- no- this... NO! It's like every game is happening at once... I don't know how to- Is that Linus Tech-Priest!? PAPA AGROLEKH: "Insects. This galaxy is infested with vermin." Moving on... Don't get me wrong, the gameplay is still tons of fun. There's a lot of joy in setting up your attacks and moves, even if you do wanna make the most OP build possible. The core of the gameplay works, and it works wonderfully. It just needs some adjustment. [it has now been patched]
There's also "The Bug". And I call it "The Bug" because it's the only one I noticed. But, boy... A few of the beam weapons claim that they cannot hit a thing in front of them. And I know it's not just me. Sometimes, it won't say it's locked to a target no matter what. Sometimes, it won't aim well or fire across a gap. Sometimes, it will refuse to aim at all, and sometimes, it's like the gun's not even on. Usually, I could fix it by just moving a space, but this is a disaster waiting to happen. And by that I mean someone will start breathing really hard and typing really fast. Probably me. It never happens with the guns that can fire through walls. I’m guessing the others see objects where they shouldn’t. Another issue is I think they need a few more map layouts. There is some great unique maps, but by the end you’ll notice some repeating. Especially if you play at the higher difficulty for more fights. And that marks the end of my big issues with the game. Looking at the footage editing this, I actually wanna go play it some more, but I’ll talk about the story too. It’s shockingly engaging. The premise is simple: defeat the Necrons, and what should we do with them when we do. It’s the exceptional dialogue writing that makes it stand out. The conflict over “pulverize or preserve” is well-developed, and there are good arguments on either side. The more you learn about the Necrons, the more parallels you see. The presentation gives a sense of weight to everything. Like, what happens here will have gigantic ramifications. It’s rare to see this scale of importance in the big picture, when it comes to a 40K game, but here it is. And it’s being delivered by really engaging dialogue. I’ve also been playing with the “Heretek” DLC, so I should explain what’s that all about. As the name might imply, you fight rogue Mechanicus. There are new weapons, new equipment and a new class to fiddle with. You also get two new types of troops, though I never found much of a use for the Infiltrator. Which is a shame, because I love the look of it. The new class I’d put firmly in the “needs work” category. The Xenarite class is sort of a Flagellant type. The more health they lose, the deadlier their crit potential, and they have some minor heals of their own. This culminates in them being able to resurrect once per battle. I typically love playing these kinds of classes, but this one didn’t gel for me. It could have been more appealing if they had some bonuses to the new weapons. It does not. I don’t know what to make of it. But hey, there are heretics to kill! They’re spread across new map types aboard your ship, and they look great. Unfortunately, there are only 5 new missions. They’re spread out in parallel with the main campaign, so you can’t go through it all at once. There’s also no exploring section. This time you get to choose your own adventure. It determines your place on the map, your objective and a few other things. So the missions can be slightly different on replay. They do make for challenging enemies, since they have the same weapons and resources as you do, and their inclusion does help break up the constant reconfiguring pyramids in the game. The writing is as good as ever, and the new missions are welcome. There’s just not much of it. Its biggest impact will likely be the new goodies spread across the main campaign. I wouldn’t call it bad. If you really like the game, it’s probably worth the money. If you’re on the fence, or short on cash, you’re not missing a ton by skipping it. It does have 9 minutes of new music. That could be worth it. Okay, let’s wrap this up. Despite its flaws, this is a fantastic game. It’s in my top 3 40K games for sure. It introduces the setting well, and is a good candidate for someone’s first 40K game. I highly recommend it if you like the genre. There could be something here for you even if you don’t. The devs have added things like free missions, and the game is coming to consoles soon, so I suspect there will be more to come from “Mechanicus”. Personally, I’d love to see the new ship tilesets used for a base de- ship defense mission… set. I didn’t mention the other game, I’m not starting now. Speaking of meters, this video has a timer on it. Inspired by a friend, I contacted the Polish information network to send a message to the devs. If it worked, the game should be more than half off on GOG from the link in the pinned comment. If not, well, it would only be for a few days anyways. Regardless of what you have it on, I do have a request. If you have it on Steam, or some platform with a review system, and you liked it – go ahead and leave a positive review. I never asked for that, so why would I? As you may know, in the past few years, there have been some stinky, borderline cash-grab 40K games. It was to the point that I think the brand is tainted when it comes to video games now. The reviews let others like me, who passed this by for so long, know. This one isn’t a dumpster fire. This one is good. Check it out. I’ll see you next time for the fantasy game. KARL FRANZ: “Summon the elector counts!” [Mechanicus OST - Noosphere] I wish someone told me that game was good earlier, but oh well. RailwayHacker: “GeForce Now or Stadia?” I don’t really care. I have some paperweights in my drawer. cptwad: “If you wanna do a non-joke review of something not a video game, what would it be?” There are some tabletop games and roleplay systems that I’d kind of like to do that for. But that requires a very different setup, so who knows. Pappeska: “Do you think we’ll get a good 40K RTS game after that one game flopped?” It’s just speculating, but I don’t see why not. As long as the buyers are there for it, I think they’ll make something good again one day. “They” being "developers". I don’t know about Relic anymore. Henskelion: “Ever heard of "40K: Squad Command" on DS and PSP?” I did not until now. It looks like it might be one of those taint games I talked about. Could be fun, I have no clue. Zodiac: “Do you plan to talk to developers while making a review of their game?” If you mean like a collaboration – no. Most developers know what’s wrong with their game, but don’t have unlimited time and money. Them responding in a video would mainly be “We wanted to do that, but we didn’t have time”, “QA did catch that bug, but we couldn’t recreate it no matter how hard we tried.” Exciting stuff. I’ll see you next time!
He mentions the era of shovelware games near the end and how it has certainly tainted the 40k brand, and I would certainly agree.
I had known about this game but I didn't even bother looking at it because of how bad 40k games have recently been and I haven't followed anyone reviewing them since TB left us.
I don't know if I want to pick this up now (while I work on the seemly endless backlog) but this is definitely something I want to pick up in the future.
I remember the first time seeing that intro clip for this game a couple years back and instantly falling in love with the visual/audio design for this game. This team NAILED the look and feel of how I always imagined the Mechanicus growing up. Just hearing the characters and how they talk to each other, its an easy buy.
That soundtrack is truly ingenious. Elements of witchhouse, synthwave, and chants with real cathedral organs. Very impressive.
EDIT: For anyone interested, link to the main theme
The audio design is amazing. I am more terrified of the adeptus mechanicus voices than the necrons you have to fight lol
I tend to ignore any 40k games that aren't from major studios because they seem to be shitty overall (I could be totally wrong about that but it's the impression I've gotten over the years). This looks amazing, though. ESPECIALLY the sound design. I'm a huge sucker for good sound design in games and that alone seemed like a good enough reason to spend 15 bucks. Excited to play this.
This is the next W40k game I'm picking up next. I just picked up W40K Gladius (Civ-like without diplomacy) which is also another game I recommend for the 40k fan.
I've been a Mechanicus fan for a while and while I was on board from the initial teaser trailer, the game still blew me away. Bloody hell, I don't think I've seen a 40k game nail atmosphere nearly as well as this one. Everything looks like it should, sounds like it should and the music even bops like it should.
Hands down one of my all time favorite Warhammer games.
Video is for MandaloreGaming since OP failed to put it in the title.
Bought this on a whim and it has been quite some time since a game absorbed me this much. The gameplay loop is incedibly smooth. You log in, choose a mission, hear the excellent dialogue setting the mood, adventure through the tomb, fight the nerve wracking final battle, get a fuckton of rewards, upgrade ypur squad, want to test your shiny new toys and launch a mission again. The different aspects of the game are perfectly paced so that it never drags and you always want to start the next round of the gameplay loop.