Rating of
3/5
Punch, Kick, Repeat (Over and Over and Over Again)
Chris Kavan - wrote on 02/09/23
Multiplayer games are hit and miss and Override: Mech City Brawl, from Brazil, is kind of in the middle. The best thing going for it is the unique way multiplayer is implemented - with each player controlling an arm or leg (or two players controlling the arms or legs) and working together to beat down various enemies. Unfortunately the experience can't match expectations and the game gets highly repetitive rather quickly.
Looks and Stuff: The game is something to look at, that's for sure. Mech designs are clearly "inspired" by several anime and western productions - Gundam, Transformers, Voltron, Patlabor and probably dozens of others. You can even dress up your mechs by unlocking different color schemes and specialty outfits - either by randomly unlocking them while playing or buying them with credits you earn while playing. Most are fine, then you get the dude whose tie sticks straight out and looks like he's an "excited" mech - if you get my drift. Still, at least the game does a good job of presenting a lot of different designs from heavies to sleek fighter to... a unicorn. A super gay unicorn. Ah, they can't all be winners. As such, the different pilots are also a diverse - and totally tropey - bunch. You have the basement dwelling nerd, the old veteran brought back out of retirement, the environmentally-friendly peacenik (who still decimates everything) - etc. etc. All characters are represented by static images and their dialogue is extra cringe - even when sometimes it manages to be mildly funny. But playing through SIXTEEN different stories - all that are pretty much the same - does get quite old. It doesn't help that nothing really stands out - creature designs are weak, music is forgettable if not grating and even the levels are inconsistent with how exactly how big of a mech you actually are. So, it's completely average but, at least, there were no game-breaking bugs to speak of.
Story: Humanity, as it is wont to do - loves watching things beat on other things and thus giant mechs beating up each other is of course super popular. But when the Earth suddenly finds itself under attack from weird bug/mechanical hybrids dubbed Xenomorphs, the entertainers find themselves on the front-line to save the world. General Mavis of the Global Defense Force calls up you (and whatever mech you choose) to stave off a series of increasingly deadly attacks across the globe - from the deserts of Egypt (don't worry if you also destroy those ancient pyramids) to Russia to Mexico (where apparently every day is Day of the Dead). You also fight some bosses along the way - and even other corrupted mechs - and it all leads to... the moon?! Let's just say that it's obvious people in this robot-fighting future aren't very good about testing out things before just going with "bigger is better" and they pay the price for their hubris. But don't worry - a fruit basket is on its way! Aside from some different dialogue, the story is pretty much the same for every character.
Gameplay: A multiplayer experience, the reason we even touched this was because up to four players can control each of the main attacks - each arm and each leg - two players (as we played) controlled the arms or the legs. There are also four special attacks - and one ultimate - you can use if your basic punch/kicks prove too weak or you need to make a hasty exit. The game does a good job of mixing up these from mech to mech, though some are definitely more fun to use than others. The ultimate attack almost never comes into play because it only triggers at low health - and that was rarely an issue. Most of the time these attacks came in the form of opponents (corrupted mechs) using them against us. Aside from the specific boss battles, the levels are random - most of the time you just need to kill every enemy (usually in a set amount of time) but sometimes they shake things up by having you protect a drill. Enemy types range from big beefy boys to fast dashing guys to annoying flying enemies to even more annoying small exploding bugs. There can also be spawning points that you absolutely should take out first.
Each level takes a set amount of days to complete as well as comes with a challenge rating. It's usually best to take on as many levels as possible as you can use the points accumulated to rank up various skills - attack, defense, heat (which let's you attack more), speed and special. Certain levels also drop various weapon or mod packs. Weapons are mostly useless as most melee weapons are too slow or weak to bother with - your basic attacks are usually much better. Throwable weapons (grenades and such) are hard to time and most guns are also nigh useless because of their lack of power. That being said, the shotgun and rocket launcher were worthy but not much else. Mods, however, are much more useful... provided the RNG decides to give you something good. Lifesteal and regen are the GOAT - but anything that powers up your attack is good. Others (like using your ultimate at slightly higher life) were meh and some were downright devious - like the one that actually drained your life in exchange for damage but was NOT a good choice. For the most part we never had much issue with beating the game with any character, even when RNG was lacking.
Replay: The game offers plenty of re-play value in that there are A LOT of different mechs to try (even more if you have the DLC). But the story never changes - aside from the randomness of the weapons/powers you get, and the different abilities each mech possesses - the story is always the same, with different (cringe) dialogue for each pilot and maybe SLIGHTLY different dialogue from the other characters. And there are unlockable costumes too - so, yay?
Final Verdict: Fun in small bursts but it gets highly repetitive and the story is laughably bad after you play it several times in a row.
Presentation: 3/5
Story: 3/5
Gameplay: 3/5
Replay: 3/5
Overall (not an average): 3/5
