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jp's Override 2: Super Mech League (PS4)

[May 11, 2023 06:43:00 PM]

It's giant mechs fighting each other!

It's not a fighting game in on a 2D plane-sense, it's more like a 3D arena fighting game, but one where the characters are pretty big on the screen. Weirdly my closes reference is something like Powerstone (Dreamcast - how come that game hasn't been re-made?). You're not necessarily locked to your opponent (in the camera sense) since there are lots of different modes including 2v2 and a 4-character last mech standing mode.

My first impressions weren't overly...uh..favorable. But, as I played more, and more, and then some more, it started to grow on me. Not enough to gring my way up the ladder of leagues and things, but enough that I unlocked 8 mechs and made it from F-league in all events to C or D league in most events.

The more I played the more I appreciated the differences between the mechs I was unlocking, how to use them when fighting others, and so on. I even started to learn/understand the controls! The game uses all 4 trigger buttons, with some combos, and the face ones, and so I was sure I'd not get anywhere and would give up in shame. But no, the controls are accessible enough that I was able to get the right combo/special attacks to trigger when I wanted and so on.

I guess the game did poorly because I was not able to play against any human opponents (the game tried, but then quickly reverted my opponents to being AI) which might have resulted in a better experience for me (given how poorly I generally play these kinds of games)?

So. Here's some notes:

a. Most of the games arenas have some special features - moving parts of the world, areas rendered inaccessible, etc. Some were fun to play with because you could use the environment in tactical ways. The variety was nice.

b. Most arenas had places where weapons would spawn that you could then pick up and use. They were mostly "standard" (no super wacky stuff) but, what I thought was interesting was that you could also throw the weapons - they'd explode doing damage! So, it's a way to also deny your opponents weapons. Weirdly I don't think I ever saw an AI opponent pick up a weapon...perhaps because I never got to higher difficulty leagues?

c. Progress in the game's "campaign" is by playin LOTS of matches. Too many for my taste - but perhaps that's just me. Each time you open the game you have 4 (I think) choices of an event to choose from. Win the event and you make progress (behind the scenes, I didn't see a UI element showing how much progress I was making). What's interesting is that your preferred event style might not be amongst the options presented! Each event type is associated with a different rating (F being lowest and presumably S or A being the highest) and, I think you want to generally make progress on all of them kind of equally in order to get promoted in the meta-broader sense. These meta-promotions, also invisible/unknown just sort of happen - when an NPC character (who's sort of your manager/promoter) basically says "hey, you're now in X" and new types of events unlock. It's an interesting system and it feels much more like a "real campaign" (you're responding to opportunities available to you) except that there's no progression on a calendar or anything like that.

d. Perhaps it's due to the (presumed) lower difficulty level from being on the lower league ratings - but there were plenty of matches I felt I was "cheesing" by essentially spamming the same moves over and over.

e. Each mech has a special ultimate move. Weirdly you build it up by standing inside a circular area that spawns every now and then during a match. It's a good way to get everyone to "converge" inside the area (to build up your super meter) - BUT the super moves were pretty lame in how much damage they dealt. Looked good, just weren't very effective. The charging on the map felt new to me though...

f. The only(?) way of unlocking new mechs (there are lots! perhaps new ones appear later in the game?) is by saving up cash-points (forget the name) which you get from winning matches. BUT you can get bonus cash points by meeting match-specific goals (e.g. knock an opponent down 10 times) and by signing up for sponsor goals (e.g. knock an opponent down 100 times). They're mostly the same type of goal - but the sponsor ones are time-limited (do this in the next 30 minutes) which I felt was a bit annoying (not quite a dark pattern because they're optional). But, I thought the general concept was interesting in a "games as a service" way but in a game that is NOT a game-as-a-service.