When it comes to giant battling robots, it’s hard to go wrong. There’s just something innately fun about piloting a massive mechanical war machine bristling with weapons. Custom Mech Wars taps into this primal joy by letting you build and customize your own mecha from the ground up before taking it into battle. As the latest release from D3 Publisher, best known for the awesomely chaotic Earth Defense Force series, it seemed like a perfect recipe for over-the-top mecha mayhem.
While the game delivers impressively on the creative front with its deep and flexible customization system, it unfortunately falls a bit flat when it comes time to put your mechanized masterpieces to the test. The core combat ends up feeling dull and repetitive, lacking the expected visceral thrills. It’s a real shame since all the ingredients are here for an amazing experience. The game lets you construct some seriously badass robots, but then fails to let you truly cut loose with them.
So in a nutshell, Custom Mech Wars absolutely nails the creative freedom in designing killer robots, giving you a ton of options to let your imagination run wild. But that customization bliss is chained to some decidedly lackluster gameplay that had me wishing I could just stick my awesome mechs on a shelf to admire rather than forcing them into monotonous battles. The game shows real promise, it just doesn’t fully deliver on it. But I still enjoyed gearing up for war more than actually waging it.
Gearing Up For Battle
When it comes to giant battling robots, it’s hard to go wrong. There’s just something innately fun about piloting a massive mechanical war machine bristling with weapons. Custom Mech Wars taps into this primal joy by letting you build and customize your own mecha from the ground up before taking it into battle. As the latest release from D3 Publisher, best known for the awesomely chaotic Earth Defense Force series, it seemed like a perfect recipe for over-the-top mecha mayhem.
While the game delivers impressively on the creative front with its deep and flexible customization system, it unfortunately falls a bit flat when it comes time to put your mechanized masterpieces to the test. The core combat ends up feeling dull and repetitive, lacking the expected visceral thrills. It’s a real shame since all the ingredients are here for an amazing experience. The game lets you construct some seriously badass robots, but then fails to let you truly cut loose with them.
So in a nutshell, Custom Mech Wars absolutely nails the creative freedom in designing killer robots, giving you a ton of options to let your imagination run wild. But that customization bliss is chained to some decidedly lackluster gameplay that had me wishing I could just stick my awesome mechs on a shelf to admire rather than forcing them into monotonous battles. The game shows real promise, it just doesn’t fully deliver on it. But I still enjoyed gearing up for war more than actually waging it.
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Building Your Battle Bot
Without a doubt, the star of the show in Custom Mech Wars is the “Omega Customization System” that lets you build your own badass battle bot. This is where the game truly shines by giving you an incredible level of creative flexibility to construct the mech of your dreams. You have a massive pool of parts to mix and match, creating a killer robot that matches your personal style. I had an absolute blast fooling around with the system, bolting on ridiculous weapons, accessories, and alternate limbs with manic glee. This is what you hope for in a mech title – pure wish fulfillment in robot form.
Now I’m not saying it’s perfect. Actually attaching everything is a bit fiddly and unintuitive. With the sheer number of options, the interfaces can feel cluttered as you hunt down the pieces you want or figure out how to connect them properly. Acquiring new gear through a random drop system is also frustrating when you’re chasing a specific component. But honestly, the freedom offered makes up for a lot of little annoyances. When you finally complete your customized death machine and see it in action, any small frustrations melt away.
At least until the actual combat begins. Then those frustrations come flooding back with a dull vengeance. Because while building your mech kicks ass, using it kind of…doesn’t.
After all that energetic constructing, battles end up feeling oddly subdued. Enemy mechs look awesome but act basically identical in a fight. There’s no sense of impact to your attacks, with a lack of visual and audio feedback. Even with an array of devastating weapons, it gets repetitive quick. The mission structure fails to offer much variety either, with simplistic kill, fetch, or defend scenarios repeated ad nauseam. Cranking up the difficulty adds a bit more challenge to the tedium but can’t fix the fundamental issues.
It’s really a letdown after creating some mechanized works of art. The combat fails to match the same creative spark, with dull encounters that don’t push you or your builds. Zooming around blasting away can be mindless fun with friends perhaps, but alone the appeal fizzles out fast. The game nails the fantasy of designing your battle bot, then leaves you high and dry for reasons to actually battle. What a damn shame for something that showed some real robot promise.
Saving The World By Accident
I’ll be totally honest here – I barely paid any attention to the story in Custom Mech Wars. There’s some thin narrative about humanity hiding out while you defend empty cities from rogue AI mechs. But it’s really just an excuse to smash bots together and not much else.
And that’s fine! I wasn’t expecting some Pulitzer prize-winning tale here. But the way the story is presented actively gets in the way of the fun parts of the game. Most of it is communicated through endless walls of text or garbled mid-mission radio chatter. I’m already busy trying to blast enemies to bolts, so following these chaotic bursts of untranslated dialog isn’t high on my priority list. Even when I did try to piece together what was happening, it was a slog.
I think the game could have ditched the melodrama entirely and just fully embraced the ridiculous premise. Have some tongue-in-cheek humor about gearheads saving the world by accident while they test their unholy mechanical creations. Let me name my franken-mech abominations! The customization itself has humor and charm, none of which comes through in the story.
In the end, I was relieved when I could skip cutscenes and ignore mission briefings. The story of Custom Mech Wars isn’t why you play. It’s about the emergent tales you create by cobbling together overpowered murder-bots to unleash havoc. That goofy robot fun gets bogged down by the game’s attempts at serious plotting. So do yourself a favor – skip that noise and embrace your inner chaotic mechanic. The story might be basic, but that bot you built looks badass, and that’s what really matters!
Bringing Friends Into The Fray
Look, I’ll level with you here – playing Custom Mech Wars solo can get old pretty fast. Building your mech is a blast but combat quickly grows repetitive. However, the game may find some new life if you bring friends along for the ride.
During my review, I unfortunately couldn’t access multiplayer features. But I can speculate bringing some buddies in could liven things up. Roaming around blasting enemies leaves a lot to be desired alone, but causing havoc with your squad could up the dumb fun factor significantly. And showing off your latest ridiculous bot creation to friends seems like a good time too. Customization thrives when you have an audience to marvel at your monster mech making skills.
Now, I can’t guarantee the core issues plaguing single player will vanish with more players. The combat may still lack depth and challenges no matter how many pilots join. But games are usually more enjoyable when you bring more personalities to the party. So if you grab some mech-loving amigos, brace for potentially improved shenanigans. Coordinate custom designs as a badass battle bot squad! Compete to see who can build the most absurdly lethal robot! At the very least, misery loves company – so even if you remain bored, at least you’re bored together.
The lonely single player left me wanting more action, but bringing your best buddies into the mix might make those dull missions more lively. Custom Mech Wars could become a blast if you blast bots as a team! I can’t definitively say multiplayer saves it, but the possibility is there.
A Visual Feast Stuck In An Ugly World
I’ll start with something positive – the mech designs in Custom Mech Wars are awesome. The chunky, industrial look of the parts that you use to build your battle bot is fantastic. And while the stock enemy mechs you face off against get a bit repetitive, some of their unique shapes and silhouettes add some nice visual flair. When you’ve tricked out your robot warrior and have missiles and lasers flying across the battlefield, it can looks pretty spectacular.
It’s a shame the environments are such a predictable letdown though. The areas you fight in are flat-out ugly, with generic architecture and textures that feel ripped straight from the PS2 era. It’s a real mismatch when you’ve got these vivid, detailed mechs stomping around levels so visually boring. And some zones are downright cluttered, with tight spaces and clutter makes moving your giant machine more frustrating.
On the technical side though, the game actually shines in some respects. Considering the amount of customizable destruction happening moment to moment, Custom Mech Wars is surprisingly stable. In intense large-scale clashes, I ran into zero hiccups. Everything holds up great despite dozens of unique mechs battling it out, which is impressive from a smaller dev team.
So in summary – this game won’t be winning any awards for its level design. But the mechs themselves look awesome, and from a technical angle the game runs smooth as butter. If only they put as much care into the environments and backdrops as they did the robots, this could have been a real visual standout. As it is, you’ll have to look past some eyesore stages and focus on the badass battles happening within them. Ugly levels can’t ruin robot fun!
Final Thoughts
Custom Mech Wars is a tricky game to pin down. It contains flashes of brilliance paired with some seriously lackluster elements. The highpoints are unquestionably the creative mech building tools – allowing you to let your imagination run wild constructing badass battle bots. It nails that fantasy wish fulfillment perfectly. But nearly every other aspect feels undercooked. The mission structure is repetitive, the gameplay grows stale quick, and the visuals vary between awesome robots and boring environments.
I wanted to love this game. The core concept has so much promise. But the execution leaves a lot to be desired and long stretches of playtime feel dull as a result. There’s fun to be mined here, especially for hardcore mecha fans, but casual players may bounce off the flaws faster. Co-op holds some redeeming potential thanks to the social aspects of customization. Although that’s speculation since I couldn’t access multiplayer.
Is Custom Mech Wars utter garbage? No, not completely. Again, building your murder machine elicits genuine glee. But actually using your creation, which should be the best part, can’t match that same joyful energy. I’d only recommend this with major caveats in place for those bot battlers expecting nonstop arcade action. You have to set your expectations appropriately going in. View it as a quirky creation tool first, adequate game second.
In the realm of Earth Defense Force spin-off titles, this is certainly better than the abysmal flop that was EDF: Iron Rain. But only marginally. And that’s hardly high praise. Custom Mech Wars reaches admirably for greatness but can’t fully manifest it. Approach with cautious optimism rather than sky-high hopes. Creative robot fans may still dig it! For everyone else, temper those expectations.
The Review
Custom Mech Wars
Custom Mech Wars nails the fantasy of building your own badass mech, but fails to make using it equally exciting. With deep customization but dull, repetitive combat, it only delivers on half of its giant robot promise. Die-hard fans will still get a kick out of creating their mechanized warriors, but a lacking gameplay loop hampers the appeal for more casual gamers. If you temper expectations going in and focus more on the joy of crafting than fighting, there are some cool robot thrills to be had. But overall, it’s a middling experience that should have been something greater.
PROS
- Extremely deep and flexible mech customization system
- Ton of parts to choose from when building your mech
- Impressive lack of technical issues or bugs
- Visual design of mechs and their parts is great
CONS
- Repetitive and boring combat
- Environments are ugly and uninspired
- Story presentation is lackluster
- Mission structure lacks variety
