Review – Override: Mech City Brawl

• Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC (Reviewed)
• Developer: The Balance Inc
• Publisher: Modus Games
• Release Date: December 4th, 2018

Remember those days as a child where you’d park yourself in front of the television on a Saturday morning watching the latest Power Rangers episodes? The rangers would always encounter a giant monster that would threaten to flatten the city, and the rangers would assemble into the Megazord. They would knock each other into buildings, an unnecessary amount of sparks would fly through the air, and the Power Rangers would save the day. Override: Mech City Brawl looks to channel that same mechs vs. monsters nostalgia, with a vast robotic roster to choose from, and locales all over the globe to protect.

Override’s Arcade Mode serves as the story for the game, which can be played single player or with up to three other players cooperatively. Much like most Arcade Modes in the Brawler/Fighting genre, Override’s campaign is short and sweet, and is meant to be completed several times to try out all the mechs the game has to offer. The story is very Pacific Rim-esque, picking up a few months after a monster outbreak, with giant creatures known as Xenotypes mounting attacks across the globe. You play as a mech pilot who is recruited by the United Defense Forces, who are struggling to contain the Xenotype outbreak.

The arcade mode’s UI is very reminiscent of the XCOM series, with a headquarters that is fully equipped with an armory, research center, and mech bay being your resting point between missions. Missions are selected from a holographic globe, with a handful of missions to choose from. Between story missions, players select from a handful of side missions that take place in different countries all over the world, with different rewards and difficulties, while a doomsday clock is ticking to when the next Horde is located.

The side missions of Override essentially boil down to killing wave after wave of xenotypes or defending a structure from waves of xenotypes. They’re pretty short and sweet, each taking no longer than five minutes, but after a while they do tend to get a bit monotonous. Override is at its best when it’s just your mech and a big, ugly, kaiju throwing down one-on-one, knocking each other through skyscrapers before finally finishing them off with your special attack.

The co-operative play is quite unique but can take some time to get used to. Up to four players share a single mech, with the control of the mech’s limbs being divided between players. For two player co-op play, one player is responsible for all the upper body movements such as punching, blocking, and camera control, while the other player pilots the lower body and is responsible for kicking, jumping, and dashing. For three and four players the responsibilities start to get a little jumbled up, with one pilot who controls the head taking the brunt of the game’s more intricate controls such as counter attacks and ultimate attacks, and also controlling the camera and locking onto enemies. This requires a lot of teamwork and coordination given that you’ll overheat the mech if you start throwing too many combos and spam your attacks and will leave you open for a beatdown from monsters or other mechs.

One thing that Override: Mech City Brawl absolutely nails is the mech design. The selection of mechs to pilot have clearly been inspired by the likes of Transformers, Power Rangers, and Pacific Rim, and you should have no problem clinging to a certain mech as your main (Metageckon was easily my favourite). You can also customize your mech with a ton of different skins and accessories, which can be unlocked at random while playing the game. The monsters are also very well designed, from grotesque-looking minions that you just want to punt like a football to giant xenotypes that will toss you around like a ragdoll if you’re not careful.

Unfortunately, the one thing that misses the mark in Override is the destructible environments. Sure, you can run through a city block and flatten buildings like you’re stomping on a Kindergarten class’s collection of popsicle stick houses, but it would have been nice to have the destruction be a little more cinematic.

Overall Override: Mech City Brawl is an enjoyable brawler that does a decent job of capturing the feeling of old school mech vs. monster action. It’s most enjoyable when you’re in the company of a few friends and are co-piloting a single mech in co-op mode, or smashing each other around Tokyo in free for all, but there’s also some fun for single player as well. If you love Transformers, Power Rangers, Godzilla, or Pacific Rim, then Override: Mech City Brawl will be right up your alley.

A PC review code for Override: Mech City Brawl was provided by Modus Games