I grew up watching anime like Mazinger Z and Gundam Wing and they made me a fan of huge robots, I even liked Power Rangers just for the Megazord, so games with huge robots or mechs are A-OK by me. War Tech Fighters (W.T.F) scratches that mech itch, thanks to the slim pickings of games in that genre. Now, I think that, for developers, it is a challenge to create a game that can be fun and relevant in this day and age. W.T.F has proven to be a fun experience, even more than I expected.
W.T.F shines due to its pick up and play nature, the controls are well done and responsive and your mech movement is fluid. One thing I would recommend, before getting into things, is to complete the tutorial mode, which is where you learn the basics of movement to advanced techniques like hacking stations to either grant passage or get important documents. Once you are familiar with everything your W.T.F has to offer, you can tackle the story missions.
Gameplay-wise I like what I can do with my mech, weapons-wise you have a machine gun, missiles, a shield that you can deploy to block incoming enemy attacks, a melee weapon, and a thruster system to move faster that uses stamina when you use it. With this arsenal of weapons, there are many ways to wipe out the enemy hordes but the one that stands out the most is the execution mechanic. When you deal enough damage to an enemy a red target appears, when you lock-on to them, if you press X, your mech will fly to where the enemy is and do a brutal execution cinematic, with huge explosions that would make any Michael Bay fan proud. Not only is a really cool way to defeat enemies by doing so you regain a little stamina and health back, so abusing the technique is a must. I love the different cinematics you can get and the seer variety it them means that no enemy dies the same way twice. Some get sliced in two by your sword, others are kicked into oblivion, and others are ripped apart by your mech’s bare hands, so yeah I never got tired of them. They are fun to do, even more so when you do it to big space vessels.
Now there wouldn’t be any balance if you only destroyed ships with your mech, it would quickly become boring, so that is why upon advancing in the story enemies get smart and bring their on mechs to the fight. When you are fighting them the game becomes more interesting because you are not hunting small fry now, you are hunting the big fish. Now you can decide to attack safely from a distance, but that won’t help you take them out quickly or with style, that’s where the one on one mechanic enters the fray. When battling other mechs the action changes to a one on one battle; you can dodge, block, and do both light and heavy attacks with your sword. In this mode the last mech standing wins, it’s all about reducing the health gauge to zero, and when you do, you get a cool cinematic, which adds a little spice to the game since those battles are fun.
I like how the game looks, I like the sci-fi setting, the different models of ships, and all the customization options your mech has. I like how fluid the game plays even in handheld mode, I never experienced any slowdowns in either mode. The music is good and gives the game more personality. However, one thing I didn’t like is the load times, whenever you start a mission it takes a long time to load. This might be the results of being a port but I think that it could’ve been optimized just a little to reduce load times. Another thing I didn’t like is the fact that the AI sometimes gets predictable; I was hoping for a little more challenge but even at times when I was overwhelmed, I still managed to beat the mission without retrying. Besides those complaints, the game is really fun to play IF you can overlook them.
Bottom Line, W.T.F is a good mech game for consoles. Between the explosions and all the different missions you can participate in, I would recommend it to fans of mech combat as there is a lot to discover here.
A Review code was provided for this review.