Video games and mechs are a match made in heaven, so it’s surprising there aren’t more games about piloting the hulking war machines. 2023’s Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon was the last mech game of note, delighting both fans and newcomers alike with its breakneck action and fully fledged customization. Yet those of us looking for more mecha-based thrills have been left wanting in the years since.
You can only go so long without soaring through the air in a sleekly designed mech, dodging missiles and small-arms fire like you’re starring in Macross or Mobile Suit Gundam before you begin to crave more. Up steps Mecha Break: a new free-to-play, third-person multiplayer game that evokes the exciting, full-tilt action of classic mecha anime. With three distinct game modes on offer and dozens of varied machines to pilot, Mecha Break offers quick thrills, but a lack of customization and a free-to-play model built on aggressive monetization and not-so-micro transactions hold it back from achieving pure mecha greatness.
Things kick off with a brief introductory mission that does a poor job of teaching you the objectives of an actual match. With its boss fights and set-piece moments, it feels more like a mission from a nonexistent single-player game than a primer for what Mecha Break has to offer. There’s some semblance of worldbuilding revolving around a mysterious mineral called Corite, which drove humanity’s rapid technological growth but is now killing the Earth.
Any whiff of storytelling is virtually absent beyond this mission, however. All you need to know is that you’re a pilot, the mechs are called Strikers, and you need to beat other mechs in combat to achieve victory. The fastest and most straightforward way to do this is in Ace Arena, Mecha Break’s 3v3 mode. The focus here is on straightforward deathmatches, with the first squad to achieve eight kills emerging victorious. It’s a good place to start and grow accustomed to the flow of Mecha Break’s combat, but with only four small maps and a lack of variety, it’s not a mode with legs.
If you’re like me, you’ll spend the majority of your time on the futuristic battlegrounds of Operation Verge, a 6v6 objective-based mode that has more than a few similarities to the hero-shooter genre. Operation Verge consists of nine maps in total, with a distinct objective tied to each one. Visually, there’s little diversity from one map to another. You’re mostly fighting in grey industrial landscapes that aren’t particularly interesting from either an aesthetic or map-design viewpoint. The game modes themselves are slightly more engaging. There are deathmatches here, too–though they’re divided into rounds–and the usual territory control modes that task you with capturing and holding different points.
Another mode has you fighting with the enemy over data gadgets, which you then need to take to a central launch site to upload, while one of the others sees you trying to disable mining machines as the enemy team does the same. There’s also an escort mode, where both teams compete to be the first to push their cargo along a track to the finish line. Activating consoles en route speeds up the process, but you can also reverse the other team’s payload by standing on top of it.
None of these modes offers anything we haven’t seen elsewhere, but their familiarity gives Mecha Break’s diverse array of mechs room to shine. Without having to think too deeply about the objective itself, it allows you to focus your energy on figuring out how best to utilize your specific mech, maximizing its strengths and minimizing its weaknesses.
Each mecha is designated as either assault, melee, sniper, reconnaissance, or support, but they all essentially fall under the holy trinity of damage, tank, and support classes. Pinaka, for instance, is a support striker whose energy weapons are mounted onto a circular device attached to its back. If an ally is low on health, you can latch this device onto them to generate a stasis field that blocks all damage and gradually repairs their health and shields. It’s a valuable support ability, but one that also comes with a fun twist: Since your weapons are still attached to the circular device, you can still open fire while it’s on your ally’s back, helping them deal damage while you stay out of harm’s way. I’ve never defeated an enemy while my gun was attached to a teammate before playing Mecha Break, so that’s cool.
Stego, meanwhile, is a heavy-duty monster capable of unleashing a range of missile payloads or transforming into a turret by planting itself in place. Narukami, meanwhile, is a sniper who can cloak itself and spit out decoy holograms while dealing damage from the fringes of the battlefield. Then there’s Panther, a durable melee brawler equipped with a shield and lance, and Skyraider, an airborne attacker who dashes through the air by transforming into a jet like Starscream.
There’s a good mix between hefty fighters and lighter combatants. Those on the chunkier side trade movement for extra firepower, and often need to be rooted to the ground to deal their most damaging attacks, whereas smaller fighters can quickly maneuver out of harm’s way to protect their fragile armor. Whichever type of mech you choose, combat in Mecha Break tends to be hectic. As the battlefield gradually fills with explosions, laser fire, and missile trails, it’s incredibly satisfying to propel through the air before unleashing a barrage of your own munitions. The controls are responsive, even when you’re in the cockpit of a lumbering tank, and rollerblading across the countryside is inherently thrilling. It’s not quite as nuanced as other mech games, purely because each mecha needs to adhere to a specific hero-shooter role. This simplicity makes it more approachable, however, and mastering a particular mech still takes plenty of time and practice.
It’s well-balanced for the most part, too. Snipers are lethal from range, but rapid airborne mechs like Skyraider and Falcon can quickly close the gap and exploit their weaknesses at close range. Elsewhere, those with a shield can parry melee attacks to force brawlers to rethink their strategy, and a good healer can ensure the most brittle defenses aren’t depleted.
There are a couple of areas that could use some tinkering, though. Ultra-heavy defenders like Stego and Tricera feel too difficult to take down, to the point where they can simply turtle and tank the damage of an entire team. Some mechs could also use a buff to their energy pools. Without energy, you’re unable to dash or take flight, with the worst-case scenario involving getting stun-locked to death by a melee fighter because you can’t dash away. Alysnes is one of the mechs that can exploit this oversight, but it also has three separate lives, making it particularly unfun to fight, given how long the time-to-kill is already.
Even with these issues, Mecha Break still nails the Evangelion power fantasy of piloting a weighty-but-sleek killing machine. Yet, it’s also missing one of the key ingredients of mecha games: customization. You can paint Strikers, add decals to their shiny metal torsos, and change their appearance with skins, but there are no mechanical or structural modifications for you to mess around with. It lacks the tinkering and experimentation that makes other mech games so fascinating. You can’t swap parts: exchanging armor for more mobility, trading bipedal legs for tank tracks, or switching out weapons till you’re locked and loaded with Gauss cannons on each shoulder. There’s a PvPvE extraction mode called Mashmak where you can acquire mods to boost attributes like your mech’s health and max energy when playing the mode. But the only visual difference derives from seeing numbers go up, while the effect on gameplay is negligible, so it’s hardly the same thing.
Mashmak itself is also fairly dull. Enemy AI is basic, as your foes will typically stand in place as you lay waste to dozens of static mechs until a slightly more compelling mini-boss shows up. The endless gameplay loop of going into a warzone to acquire equipment so you can go into a warzone to acquire equipment is also one I rarely vibe with, especially when each excursion isn’t particularly exciting. You can, of course, lose everything you’ve gathered if you die, so there are tangible stakes, but losing all of your hard-earned loot after a 30-minute session doesn’t make dropping into even more matches an appealing proposition.
Of Mecha Break’s three game modes, Mashmak is also the one most affected by the game’s cluttered UI and free-to-play elements. The main menu is a mess of numerous tabs, currencies, and flashing text eager to inform you about the latest store items up for sale. It’s an overwhelming place to start when booting up the game for the first time; it’s one that took me a couple of hours to fully grasp, whether I was figuring out the differences between Mission Tokens, Corite, and Matrix Credits, or discovering what you can actually purchase with each one.
In short, Mission Tokens are earned simply by playing the game, but you also earn considerably more by purchasing the seasonal battle pass first. At the time of writing, this pass costs $13 but is usually priced at $22. Presumably, the discount only applies during the game’s first season. Once you have enough Mission Tokens, you’re able to purchase a few specific items each season, including new mechs, weapon cosmetics, and airdrops for Mashmak, which let you summon ammo and health stations, among other helpful gameplay-affecting extras.
You can also purchase these airdrops with another currency called Matrix Credits. These are earned by completing randomized missions during each Mashmak run or by selling any items you’ve extracted but don’t want. You can also opt to sell them on Mecha Break’s auction house, which also includes skins, outfits, mods, and other items being sold by your fellow players. Aside from creating a pay-to-win environment in Mashmak, auction-house items can only be purchased using Corite, a premium currency that can be acquired with real money in various bundles ranging up to $47. For $48 (no coincidence there), you can also purchase a purely cosmetic bundle featuring a new pilot and a custom mech skin.
Pilots don’t really serve any purpose in Mecha Break, aside from being another avenue for the game to tempt you to spend money. You can customize your pilot to some degree, and there are plenty of cosmetic items available for purchase, including creating another character of the opposite sex in exchange for Corite. And for what? You see your pilot enter their mech at the beginning of a match–with the camera leering in for the gratuitous ass shot–and then you get a quick two-second cutscene of them ejecting whenever you die–with the camera leering in for the gratuitous boob shot to show off the game’s ridiculous jiggle physics.
At least new mechs can only be acquired using Mission Tokens, with each one currently going for 15,000 a pop. You’re also able to test them out for seven days to see if they’re worth buying. There are artificial cooldowns on missions, though, and weekly rewards are capped, so you’re gated from unlocking new mechs at a pace faster than what the game wants. It’s a significant grind when you only earn 100-odd tokens each match. Mission Tokens also reset at the end of each season, preventing you from holding onto a stash until a mech that matches your particular playstyle shows up.
Underneath all of the micro- and macrotransactions, lewd gazing, cluttered menus, and the overwhelming hawking of cosmetics and other items, Mecha Break is a decent multiplayer game featuring a bunch of cool and distinct mechs that clash in frequently thrilling battles. It’s a shame that everything surrounding its hectic action sours the experience, and the lack of meaningful customization is a notable oversight, but Operation Verge is a good time and worth checking out, even if you only have a fleeting interest in giant robots slapping the paint off each other.