Introduction

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus is a turn-based strategy game made by Bulwark Studios. Most importantly, in this age of Games Workshop handing out their IP to anyone that bites, it is one of the few Warhammer games made recently that keeps both TBS and Warhammer lore fans happy at the same time. No mean feat! Bulwark Studios are well known for… well, not a whole lot really, which makes the fact that this game is the opposite of terrible all the more of a surprise!



Not only is it true to Warhammer, it's even more faithful to the whole Mechanicus lore. From dialogue, units, equipment, and just about everything you can possibly imagine, Mechanicus knows exactly what it needs to be, nothing more, nothing less. The game features a little dungeon crawling, a little turn-based strategy gameplay, and no small amount of unit customization. Aspects of it will remind players of the late XCOM, although this game is not quite as challenging or ruthless in its execution. Overall, I was quite looking forward to playing it and did not expect to be as pleasantly surprised as I have been over the last week. I've already forgotten how many hours I've lost to the game.

I also made a video review, see below:

Storyline

The storyline is not too dissimilar to the events that happen in the novel "Sisters of Battle – Hammer and Anvil". The Mechanicus land on a planet with a deep cave network to explore, and a techpriest and his Skitarii cohort awaken the tomb of the Necrons and die/go missing. A few months later and your teams of Mechanicus techpriests follow in the footsteps of the previous expedition, quickly learning what happened on the planet those few months ago. The plan is to gather as much technology and data as possible before the entire tomb-planet awakens, either through blunt force trauma with a macro plasma pistol or scanning Necron interfaces with questionable effects. Much of what you choose to do will either greatly accelerate the Necron awakening or minimize its eventual effects. Along the way, you are advised by a group of techpriests, some in search of data at any cost, some overly pious in their way, shunning the alien technology, and others that sit between these two viewpoints. The game is clear that there are benefits and unpleasant side effects from both.

Gameplay

Overall, things aren't too dissimilar to XCOM, but the simplistic, randomly generated dungeon crawls break up combat and cohort management really nicely and allow for some extra depth modifiers in battles. At the main screen, you can select from half a dozen missions from each of the main techpriest characters. These will always offer rewards, give you intel on what enemies to expect, and give you an overall difficulty level. They don't disappear either, so if you want to come back to them later you can. On this screen, you can view your unlocked tech, although that screen really doesn't achieve a whole lot, so I'm not entirely certain what its use is other than to inform you that there are a hundred odd other things you don't have yet. The other tab is where you manage your cohort of upgradable and customizable techpriests, as well as view the troops you've unlocked. You can't directly customize troops in any way, but you can give your army an overall color scheme, though that is locked to two colors. It's an unnecessary but decent addition to making things a bit more personal.

In terms of customization, things can get very deep and interesting. Techpriests have numerous equipment slots, like, more slots than a normal body has room for, but these guys are the finest Mars has to offer. They can equip all the usual body trappings, two ranged weapons and a melee weapon, three utility items and more. They are, however, limited in the amount of gear they can equip, and this limit is only increased by using the game's only currency (black dust) to level them up. Currency is earned for killing units, completing missions, and investigating random events when dungeon crawling. Equally, currency is used to repair units after each battle and select troops on the squad screen. Each level up costs a bit more each time. In terms of leveling up, the techpriests have eight disciplines, all totally different from one another. The main ones are melee and ranged orientated, and there's a fair few support disciplines of varying types, one of which increases Command Point acquisition and another which allows the techpriest to buff accompanying troops. They're all damn good, so it's nice to be able to play as you please or mix and match. Once you unlock a discipline, you can use a slot attached to it to unlock gear for that particular character.



General mission gameplay is quite straightforward, but has plenty of layers of depth. Once you've selected a mission, you need to choose your squad. It can comprise of techpriests and as many troops you've unlocked as you see fit; however, their deployment will cost black dust. You can also choose three Canticles, something Warhammer veterans will be familiar with. These are single-use (per mission, not per game) abilities that buff particular stats a hell of a lot. These include things like healing a unit by 10 HP, increasing the next energy attack by 10 points, or penetrating any army value by 5. Along this vein, weapons have two damage types, energy and physical, both of which have corresponding armor values as well, with energy shield and armor. Obviously, energy weapons are great vs. things with armor, and physical weapons vs. energy shields, etc. These armor values work quite simply - by negating their value from the total damage received per shot. Anyway, back to gameplay: once you've chosen your squad, you deploy into a randomly generated dungeon.

These dungeons usually contain a bunch of rooms interconnected in numerous ways. Golden diamonds are main objectives, green runes are instances where you can either help or hinder yourself by clicking random Necron runes you'll eventually memorize, and exclamation marks are random instances with three choices. Green runes usually offer something like healing a damaged unit or black dust, but can occasionally screw you over. Exclamation marks on the maps are the primary method in which the game grows the complexity of the battle. Every room with one will offer you three options. Usually, these are something like "do nothing", "do a bit" or "do a lot". The "do nothing" option can sometimes be a wise choice as the others are likely to screw you over by increasing the enemy awakening counter for the round, either increasing the number of units or increasing their initiative for the battle, which causes them to go first. Occasionally, doing nothing will screw you over, however. The other options can have a wide range of side effects. Sometimes, you'll get extra command points for the eventual battle, find tech, end up taking damage to a unit, or increase the enemy awakening counter, among other things. Basically, dungeon crawling is a gamble, and the more you gamble, the more difficult the final battle, or battles in some cases, will become. On the plus side, taking gambles can sometimes be lucrative. It's an excellent addition to a TBS game because it adds a little variation and a bit of a break between long sessions.



Battles themselves are just so random and in some cases quite complex. They can be as simple as killing all enemies or as hard as scanning multiple consoles while endless enemies spawn throughout the rounds, and then the game ends up telling you to drop everything and escape with your techpriests alive at all costs. Some of the harder missions involve named character bosses, and they are by far the most interesting and probably the most successful implementation of bosses in a turn-based strategy game. Ever. Enemy units all pack a punch and all have bizarre abilities that can really keep you on your toes. The bosses are even more of a jack-in-the-box since you have no idea just what things they're going to pull on you. Unfortunately, despite all of this work, a highly developed techpriest just seems to outright stomp any enemy the game throws at you. I once started a "Hard" mission with nothing but four level 9 techpriests; the game threw up a named character, and I killed him in a single battle round even though he had an enormous gun and 40 hit points plus energy shield and armor. Three canticles and some tactical use of command points and the poor guy was teleported back to the aether. Much of the game becomes a bit trivial once your techpriests hit a certain level and you unlock the big guns, plus the troops wielding bigger guns. I still had fun in the late game, but I did feel like I was a bit too powerful after a few hours into the main story.

Battle is extremely open ended. There are no phases like in tabletop Warhammer or even normal TBS games. You can shoot, melee, move, double move, or use abilities any time you want. Your movement is only limited by the amount of spare command points you have, and units don't have any kind of action points that get depleted. Initiative is a thing still, which decides who goes first and when. However, in all my time playing, I didn't once see a clear indicator of a unit's initiative or how it was all being decided. Battle being so open ended limits the complexity of tactical choices quite a bit, however. At first, it felt wonderful to do what I wanted at any time I wanted, but eventually, it dawned on me that this was what made the game too easy. Yes, the enemy can do the same, but it can't abuse the system quite as severely as you can. Maps are all suitably random, as are enemy spawn points and timings, and sometimes, you think you might be done, but then another wave of enemies spawns in right behind your character, and you're reminded you're in the Necron's home. All of these missions seem random, but they all count towards the planet's overall awakening counter, and once that hits 100%, the good stuff happens.