It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of mechas. For me, the love likely started in the Transformers and Voltron days and extends well through dozens of mecha animes. Likely the largest franchise I’m in love with is Gundam, but I will never turn a mecha down. I can talk about some of the strange ones like Fafner all the way up to the smaller gems like Aldnoah.Zero.

Putting all that aside brings us to the game I’ve been playing recently: Mecha BREAK. A title that tells you both nothing interesting and everything you really need to know about this game. It’s such a generic sounding title that at first I had ignored it completely. But then the murmurings began. I kept coming across gamers on socials and elsewhere talking about how solid it actually is. Then I finally got the message that I couldn’t ignore. My old friend from high school, someone I haven’t had the honor of gaming with much these days because we’re adulting, sent me a DM: “You’re a fan of PvP Games. Have you tried Mecha BREAK yet? PvP in Gundams.”

Say no more fam; I’m sold.

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Combat in Mecha BREAK is more or less your typical team vs. team battler, so we aren’t dealing with battle royales or even extraction shooter gameplay here. It does feel more like Marvel Rivals and even Gundam Evolution than like Fortnite or Valorant, which is ideal since sometimes you just want a more straightforward combat game. BRs and extractions can be a lot of fun, but good old-fashioned team objectives should have a place at the table too.

There’s two basic game modes in Mecha BREAK: objective-based 6v6 matches and 3v3 team deathmatches. The objective-based matches come in five different varieties, each with a different take on the mode. In the Eye of Misra map you’ll be playing capture-the-flag across three different locations. Players compete over capturing the flags as they spawn during the match and then trying to get them back to their team base. The Palmbay Harbor plays as an escort mission, and Cap Blanc Observatory is sort of like a CS:GO dismantling-the-bombs-style game. Of course the objectives and maps are very robot- and mech-themed too, so in the Eye of Misra, we’re trying to snag keys (as in encryption keys, and not actual flags in the sky), but the gameplay is the same.

The team deathmatch mode, called Ace Arena, has four different maps for changing up the look and feel of your fights, but unlike the objective-based mode where the maps offer radically different gameplay, these are ultimately all the same battles. The first team to eight kills wins. I have to say I’m really into the fact that Mecha BREAK includes both game modes with such a variety of play options as different queues. I’m not as big a fan of queuing up for the objectives and not knowing which specific one I’m going to get thrown into, but at least I can queue up for straight deadly combat separately from the objective mode.

The combat in the game is extremely smooth by and large. Animations and effects look really amazing, and successfully executing a finisher is so dang satisfying! The number of tools at your disposal with any one character loadout isn’t overwhelming, so it’s easy to hop in and start having a good time.

I played the game with a few different configurations. First I played it on my PC with mouse and keyboard, then I switched it up to see how well it’d run on the Steam Deck, and finally I went back a bit to PC, only that time I swapped in my controller. Ultimately, whether you go for the keyboard or the controller I think depends more on the mech you choose. If you’re going for a ranged fighter, I think you’ll definitely want to play it keyboard and mouse. With the melee toons, I was more successful when I pulled out the controller.

The main reason for that distinction to me comes down to the way melee flows in Mecha BREAK. Basically all the melee attacks root you. It is kind of annoying when you really want to move and flow more from one swing to the next. After playing Armored Core Rubicon a few months ago, I found Mecha BREAK’s combat really doesn’t flow as well as a whole, but the fights do feel satisfying all the same. If there were a way to get Armored Core style movement and flow in here, then it’d be hands down my go to game for the near future.

On the Steam Deck, the experience was more lackluster. The game straight froze and booted back to the home screen during one match, and in another there was a lot of lag. I’m rocking the OG Steam Deck here, though, so no OLED or updated specs, so that could’ve been a part of the problem, or maybe my Wi-Fi was just too spotty. I don’t know, but it’s worth noting.

The other major note – and the major reason I’m not going to be playing Mecha BREAK until the developers clean things up – is that it won’t play on Linux at all. I’ve read some other forums and player feedback, and the collective community has determined that it’s an intentional lock-out. The game installs and the launcher will pop up, but as soon as I click to play, the launcher will read that it’s starting the game and checking my system, and then kick back to the start button again. Weak. So until I can play on my new system, there’s really no way I can commit time to it.

There’s also been a lot of side-eye for the character design in the game. Sadly, it’s your typical super sexy ladies with all the jiggle physics cranked up. Of course you can change your character to a male design, but the default is super tight battle clothes and high heels, naturally. So the criticism there is justified. There’s a good number of customizations you can make to your design, however, and even though the actual gameplay is all battles and matches, there is a space station you can walk around in and interact with.

Now, my first thought was, “Wow. This is pretty cool. Fairly well done too! I don’t know why it exists; maybe there’s some missions where you can exit and run around as your pilot. At least there’s a few little achievements I can get in the space station, so I’ll check them out.”

Then, I arrived at my quarters and it began to click… the realization that something more was happening here that my old man gamer mind should be picking up on but wasn’t. Then I found the washroom. And then I realized that, yes, I can use the toilet. And then, yes… you know where this is going. There’s a shower. My god, developers just can’t help themselves can they?

Anyways, back to customizations. Despite the mechs being essentially prebuilt heroes with each one having its own unique playstyle and skill sets, you do at least have the capability to customize your mecha’s visuals, which is huge for a mecha game! If I were stuck with only skins (which is an option), then I would’ve been extremely annoyed. But in fact, there is a garage where players can set different colors for their mecha. And the colors are reasonably priced too. Lots of these games like to nickle and dime you for all cosmetics, but at a minimum at least the base skin and colors are available with in-game earned currency. And it’s cheap to buy the dyes. So there’s a win!

I really enjoyed my time in game, and I’m sure any other PvP, team-based shooter fan who loves mechas will enjoy this one as well. It’s a shame that Gundam Evolution made so many mistakes with its monetization because I thought it had real gameplay potential. Now it looks as if Mecha BREAK might just be the best spiritual successor we could’ve hoped for. I’m not a proper Sandrock Gundam, but some of these mechas hit well. Until next time, see you in the arena, Space Cowboy.

Every other week, Massively OP’s Sam Kash delivers Fight or Kite, our trip through the state of PvP across the MMORPG industry. Whether he’s sitting in a queue or rolling with the zerg, Sam’s all about the adrenaline rush of a good battle. Because when you boil it down, the whole reason we PvP (other than to pwn noobs) is to have fun fighting a new and unpredictable enemy!