Mecha Break is an Online Multiplayer Game for Sickos Like Me

Sometimes, something scratches an itch you didn’t even know you had. That’s how I feel about Mecha Break, developed by Amazing Seasun Games. It feels like the studio played some of the faster-paced Armored Core games, really liked them, and said, “hey, what if we also did this, but it was class-based and we added more game modes?”

After customizing your pilot — you can make an enormous, buff guy or a woman with proportions that would make Bayonetta blush — you’re dropped into a quick tutorial mission that serves as a quick setup for Mecha Break’s story. The who, what, where, when, and why aren’t super important — you’re under attack, they’ve got mechs, but you also have a mech, and you’re about to make that their problem. According to Amazing Seasun Games, every pilot in Mecha Break — you pick from one of several starting options and customize them from there — has their own story, but I haven’t seen much outside of that starting mission in my time with the beta so far. That said, the presentation of that first mission is pretty great, so if there’s more like that, sign me up.

If you’ve played any Armored Core since Armored Core 4, you’re going to feel right at home during Mecha Break. You’ve got two types of boots: one is for getting up in the air, and the other is meant for dodging and zooming around. Otherwise, every other control option is tied to one of your mech’s weapons. You start with the Alysnes, a medium build with an autocannon, shield, halberd for close encounters, and pair of gauss cannons. What makes the Alysnes unique, though, is that it can call down a resupply if its armor is purged in combat. It’s a one-use thing, but it can mean the difference between victory and defeat.

I vibed with the Alysnes immediately, but there’s no shortage of mechs if you’re looking for something a little different. You’ve got heavy mechs like the Tricera that can transform into a shielded gun platform, perfect for holding down an objective; the Skyraider, which can transform into a plane; the up-close-and-personal Panther whose assortment of shields protect it while it closes the distance with its lance; the Welkin, a heavy bruiser sporting a howitzer, battleaxe, drone, and stasis field that can keep enemy fire out while trapping enemies unlucky enough to be inside; and a lot more.

Your mech isn’t locked into a set loadout, though. You can customize their weapons and beef up their inner workings with mods to buff the stats you want at the cost of something else. So the customization is there, and every mech I’ve played with or against in Mecha Break feels different and challenged me to approach playing — or fighting — them in ways that recognized their strengths and weaknesses. That’s awesome.

What makes Mecha Break feel awesome, though, is how it plays. Mecha Break is fast, and a single mistake can mean death, but it also recognizes that you’re piloting an enormous war machine. If you swing your halberd, you’re locked into that animation until your mech recovers. If the mech you’re fighting pulls off a well-timed dodge that has you swinging at air, they’re going to make you pay for it. If you wanna win, you’re gonna need a combination of speed, smarts, and good decision-making. When you outplay someone in Mecha Break, it feels incredible, and when someone styles on you, you’ll know. As someone who loves skill-based multiplayer games that reward you for playing well, Mecha Break scratches an itch I’ve had so long that I’d almost forgotten it was there. But, man, does scratching it feel good.

Speaking of good things, I was pleasantly surprised by how many modes Mecha Break has. You’ve got your standard kill-the-other-mechs mode, but there are also modes where you’ll try to beat the other team to capture objectives king of the hill style or destroy them outright, escort a vehicle to its destination before the other team does the same with theirs, and so on. Each mech has unique challenges to complete, so there’s no shortage of stuff to do so far, and judging by the menus, more’s coming. Better still, everything I’ve done in Mecha Break is just plain fun. Part of that is because it feels like Amazing Seasun Games has nailed the core gameplay, but the other part is that you’re not just doing the same thing over and over again.

If I have one concern here, it’s that there are a lot of lootboxes, battle pass stuff, blah blah blah, that you kinda have to engage with to get new mods, paint colors, and so on. I like that you can open up a lot of these at once and skip the here’s-some-dopamine animations that are designed to get you hooked, but I can (begrudgingly) put up with that stuff when a game feels this good to play.

Sometimes, a game comes along and feels like it’s made for you. So far, Mecha Break feels like that game for me. It’s a game for sickos who want something that offers a lot of customization, feels snappy and responsive while holding you responsible for your choices, and seems to have a pretty high skill ceiling out of the gate. I had to stop playing the playtest to write this up, but I’m not stopping once this is done. I’m climbing right back into the cockpit. I still got an itch, and it needs scratching.

This preview is based on a PC closed beta code provided by the publisher. The final product is subject to change.

Will Borger

Contributing Editor

Will Borger is a Pushcart Prize-nominated fiction writer and essayist who has been covering games since 2013. His fiction and essays have appeared in YourTango, Veteran Life, Marathon Literary Review, Purple Wall Stories, and Abergavenny Small Press. His games writing has also appeared at IGN, TechRadar, Into the Spine, Lifebar, PCGamesN, The Loadout, and elsewhere. He lives in New York with his wife and dreams of owning a dog. You can find him on X @bywillborger.