Override: Mech City Brawl Review
Override: Mech City Brawl
Release Date: December 4, 2018
Publisher/Developer: Modus Games/The Balance Inc.
Platform: PlayStation 4 (reviewed), PC, Xbox One
Price: $29.99 standard, Supercharged Edition (w/$14.99 season pass) $39.99
Giant robot chaos is always a blast in movies and anime, but are a bit difficult to pull off in a video game. You either move really fast and lose the feel of mass or deal with intentionally clunky controls to simulate the mass that makes you feel like you're controlling the Statue of Liberty with an NES Advantage. Override: Mech City Brawl tries to balance the feeling of heft to make you feel as if you are piloting a towering mech in a giant, fast-paced four-player 3D brawler.
Override's main push is it's local and online multiplayer. Choose one of 12 mechs (with four more coming in future DLC) and customize it to your own with special accessories and skins before duking it out with up to three real-world opponents. There are large 3D arenas based on real-world locations like Tokyo and San Francisco. While the environments look beautiful eventually you mow down all the obstacles and they kind of boil down to flat arenas. The game does not forget single player gamers with a simple storyline, though it admittedly simply does a good job of prepping you for online play. I do have to give it props for being able to tweak the story to each colorful character.
All the mechs are uniquely designed and look to be ripped out of different franchises and themes. Punches and kicks are run with the shoulder buttons with each button representing a different limb and allowing a charge function. Special moves are run by holding an extra button down before attack. It makes for simplistic gameplay, and the giant robot "weighty" feel definitely creates a unique experience, but most popular brawlers rely on their speed in competitive circuits. I have gotten frustrated at the special moves. Even with lock on, some of the dashing special moves have so much forward momentum I would dash right past my opponent. With time I think you could learn all the moves and when to unleash them, but you won't really find them useful until then.
Override's multiplayer works best locally, where you can goof and trash talk together. It also has a unique mode allowing up to four players to control different limbs of a single mech. This is chaotic and fun for a bit, but it doesn't last long as there's only so much a single arm or a pair of legs can do in a battle.
Override: Mech City Brawl is a wonderfully fun game, it just has a lot of competition for what it’s trying to do. Current fight fans are pounding away on Super Smash Bros Ultimate or anticipating Mortal Kombat 11, and the natural sluggishness of a giant robot makes for fun combat but the slow pace isn’t going to deter anyone from the big names. That being said, this more budget-priced title is always fun to jump into and rampage through a city obliterating every building in your path like it is paper or smashing down on the bizarre alien beasts in the single player mode.
Pros:
-Wildly varying characters, colorful and fun
-Unique level designs
-Weighty feel
-Short but enjoyable single-player mode
-Fun local multiplayer
Cons:
-Those unique level designs all flatten out to nearly the same
-Slow pace doesn't lend to frantic battles
-Thin on content
Thanks to Modus Games/The Balance Inc for providing a code for the Standard Edition for review!