I can’t believe how much I can sometimes enjoy games that are very much “not my thing”, but Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus managed to be that rare exception. It’s a tactical turn-based strategy game mixed with RPG and choose your own adventure elements set, as the title suggests, in the Warhammer 40K universe. And I tend to absolutely suck at strategy games and tend to dislike turn-based combat. Yet, somehow, something about Mechanicus clicked and I couldn’t stop playing it until I was done.
It’s hard not to describe it with comparisons to the revived XCOM, given how popular that game turned out to be, yet there’s not that much from it to be found in Mechanicus. The isometric view, the action points, even concepts like “overwatch” that one enemy type has weren’t really new in XCOM. And additionally, this game doesn’t have a cover system or even hit percentage (apart from special abilities to “dodge” an attack) and hits are determined by line of sight, distance and the damage resistances defined by two types of damage and armor. The “tech-priests” of Adeptus Mechanicus are the main force in your “cohort” during missions and each one of them (you start with only 2) can be upgraded in different ways, specializing them in specific roles using the skill system. But they don’t fight alone, as in addition to that you can spawn in the “canon fodder” troops whose survival is not vital to the success of the mission.
Yet, even the mission structure itself is nowhere close to XCOM either. When you take a mission and deploy the cohort, you get a holographic view of the location with separate rooms visible. As you move your cohort from room to room, you “awaken” the necrons (the enemy forces of the game), making encounters more challenging the longer your route to the goal becomes. And each room has several types of events that can happen (all marked on the map itself), including optional fights, “choose your own adventure” type choices that affect your mission, special glyph rooms with positive and negative effects and goal rooms which might not always have a fight in them. As such, you usually plan out the resources like health and troops throughout the mission, trying to find as much helpful items and “blackstone” (currency for upgrades), while not taking too long to make the mission and the overall story harder.
Because, you see, there’s a global timer in the game and once it reaches 100%, you’re forced into the final mission whenever you like it or not. Because of that, you want to choose the missions you take carefully, as each mission rewards are randomized, making every playthrough somewhat unique. Some of the missions, like ones for the Heretek DLC or for a hidden bonus character, have their own stories, while some others affect the ending of the game, depending on which missions you’ve chosen to undertake. In addition, as long as you’re doing missions on new locations, you’re awakening the special boss missions which, if you beat them, will make your final encounter easier. So there’s constant management of unlocks/rewards and upgrades that you must consider.
And, honestly? On paper this seems like something I’d find really tedious, exhausting and frustrating to play. But in reality, all of this is handled so well. At least on Normal mode, of course. There’s a clear sense of progression and it’s not just your cohort leveling up and getting new toys, it’s you as a player realizing more efficient ways of playing. In the beginning, the game feels rather simple in ways you can win or loose, but by the end you set up situations several steps ahead just so the combat, the mission, the mission after this mission goes really well with maximum profit and minimum time and effort spent. And, I suppose, that’s how all tactical strategy games work, really, but they rarely click with me. But Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus did.
Maybe it also helps that the atmosphere this game builds is something else. The visual design for every screen is so nicely done, despite clear low budget of the whole production. The mood of the story, the tone of the characters… And the soundtrack is just incredible. The music alone was, perhaps, one of the main reasons I always wanted to return to the game and play just one more mission.
The low budget does affect the experience, however. The game, for all of its rather simplistic look, is super demanding at times. There’ve been multiple instances when for absolutely no reason the “noosphere” view would lag the game until I reload it. Or the game simply won’t launch. Or the mouse pointer would disappear if I’d skip the intro videos too quickly. It’s so clear that the game desperately needed more time and experience put into it to truly polish it up. Which is, perhaps, why it’s so telling that despite all of this it still shines as something as evocative as some of the best much higher budget productions. Oh and also the Heretek DLC is… just kinda nice. The missions aren’t that great, especially since they’re marked as “Easy” for some reason and become available very early on. And the final fight is tedious. But other additions with the DLC are fine.
I genuinely loved playing Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus despite all odds. It reminded me of how I loved and adored titles like Starcraft or Heroes of Might & Magic III despite being absolutely terrible at them and not able to actually complete them without cheating or help. Except, this game was made on a far lower budget, which makes it even more pleasantly surprising. If you’re looking for a really cool atmospheric and unique story-driven tactical turn-based strategy RPG, or don’t even know that you’re looking for one until you try it, give this game a go. It’s something.