Override: Mech City Brawl Review

Player(s): 1-2
Extra Features: Online Multiplayer (2-4), Local Multiplayer (2), Leaderboards

Override: Mech City Brawl is a super robot battle game developed by Modus Games and published by The Balance Inc. You take control of a giant mech and fight other mechs in versus or fight against kaiju enemies in arcade mode. The game offers 1v1 matches or 2v2 matches that can be played online or locally.

Override has a cast of 12 mechs and an option for gaining more playable mechs through paid DLC. All mechs are very unique in their overall feel and especially their style. The mechs are gleaming with style and so is their pilot - the pilot is only viewable in arcade mode however. The controls to the game are quite impressive. You have four attack buttons with all four shoulder buttons that represent a limb on your mech. By holding a button as you press an attack button, you can perform special moves with each limb control, so long as you have enough meter to perform the special move. Some moves can be charged to take off extra damage and knock the opponent to the ground. The game has a button for dashing, jumping and guarding against attacks. While jumping, you can hover in the air and perform some air attacks. While guarding, you can try to guess what attack your opponent will perform and counter the attack by pressing the same type of attack button.

On top of normal attacks, various weapons appear throughout fights. The weapons can be picked up with the tap of the directional pad and then you can perform unique attacks or guarding depending on the weapon attacks. While low in health, all mechs have a unique super attack that can be performed. The overall gameplay has a good bit of variety thanks to the abundance of moves that each mech has, but it is all very sluggish most of the time as if you are fighting underwater. The special attacks and dash attacks bring out some good speed, but up-close punches and kicks feel very clumsy with how slow they are. You can lock onto your opponent to make attacking much easier. The game has a good amount and variety of stages. You'll lay waste to cities and moon bases or tear through Egypt. Some stages have multiple levels and objects that you can move behind during battles. The game offers a training mode and tutorial mode that will help you to practice.

The main single player mode is Arcade Mode. Arcade mode is a story mode where you'll battle through story missions and other missions against various kaiju enemies with your chosen mech. The story is told through text dialogue between characters. This mode is the only mode that showcases the pilots of each mech. The pilots have some good personality and the overall story was good enough to keep me playing. You'll run across other pilots and be able to team up with them during the arcade mode. The arcade mode has its own unique enemies and some boss enemies. Boss enemies can get quite tough with their aggressive attacks. Mechs can be upgrades and you can equip items to increase certain attributes. You'll be unlocking items and new mech customizations as you complete stages. Arcade mode starts to get boring when I found myself constantly going against wave after of wave of respawning enemies where the main challenge was to beat them in a certain time limit. The game constantly reminds you to beat each wave in a certain time or else fail the mission. The story missions with their boss battles and new enemies are the best part of story mode while all the extra missions in between feel around the same.

Override mainly shines when it comes to multiplayer. A total of up to four players can control a single mech at a time for co-op play or all four players can control a single mech and fight it out in multiplayer. For online matchmaking you have your Ranked, 1v1, and Brawl. 1v1 is a mode for casual matches and Brawl is a mode for four player casual matches. Online modes do not have lobbies to wait in - as soon as you pick a mech, the game will search for an opponent. The online connections seemed relatively smooth.

If you're buying Override as a single player game, you'll most likely get bored with it rather quickly like I did. The arcade mode is decent, but it gets boring very quickly. I didn't find the overall gameplay that fun, but I have to admit that the game definitely has a lot of attack variety and the control setup is quite good for choosing between all moves in your arsenal. The game mainly shines when it comes to the amount of match variety you can have while playing with friends.

The Good:
+ Very cool mech designs
+ The stages have some good variety
+ Quite a few moves per mech and all mechs feel unique

The Bad:
- Hit detection feels off at times
- The gameplay feels very clumsy when up close to opponents
- Overall single player experience is lacking