Bulwark Studios has returned with a direct sequel to their 2018 turn-based strategy game Mechanicus. So, let’s peek under those ad mech robes and see what has got those pesky Necrons all riled up.
“In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war. And war never changes” – Some guy
I have a soft spot for anything Warhammer, and the lore that surrounds the Adeptus Mechanicus is some of the most interesting.
In a world where life in the Imperium means less than nothing, and Inquisitors roll around exterminating anyone who even smells like a heretic. Who are the Adeptus Mechanicus? And why are they allowed so much religious freedom?
It’s simple. Guns.
Adeptus Mechanicus
Often referred to as Tech-Priests, the Adeptus Mechanicus is a technological religious cult that controls most of humanity’s scientific knowledge and advanced technology. Its members believe that all machinery contains a sacred spirit and treat maintenance like religious rituals.
The Adeptus Mechanicus supplies the Imperium with weapons, vehicles, starships, and cybernetic enhancements, allowing them to work independently outside the laws of the Imperium.
The Ad Mech see flesh as weakness and will often replace much of themselves with cybernetics and machinery to become closer to their machine god.
Entire worlds are dedicated to their crafts, and factories will often take up the entire planet’s surface. The Ad Mech believe themselves superior, so often judgment is cast aside for pride, so when a planet is scanned for a new potential forge world, something is missed. Deep in the core of the planet, a tomb begins to awaken.
Necrons
Like the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Necrons believe themselves to be Gods. A short-lived species consumed by envy and suffering, they transferred their consciousness into living metal bodies to achieve immortality. Unfortunately, this came at a cost. Stripping away their souls forced them into a million-year-long sleep.
While the Necrons slept beneath dead worlds for sixty million years, humans and other species flourished. While the Necrons are cold skeletal metallic forms, they are based loosely on ancient Egyptian ideals, if ancient Egypt were sixty million years in the future. The Necrons serve God-Kings with self-repairing technology, reality-warping weapons, and machines that appear so advanced they seem magical. The Necrons are awakening. Determined to reclaim the galaxy and extinguish all life.
World Building Through Audio
The world Bulwark Studios has created is full of Warhammer goodies. The audio soundscape is amazing, the eerie forests, the silence of tombs, and the crackle of vox emitters all help build the experience. Most notably, the writing is fantastic. Especially seeing as every word is voice-acted, from the beep, beep, boops of the servitors to the God-Kings themselves, we are given a glimpse into their world.
Some of my favourite parts of Mechanicus 2 have been conversations between two Ad Mech. Squabbling like a couple of old men, but these old men are computers, running on dial-up and forgetting words, so an (unknown emotion) is inserted.
Mechanics-us II
Mechanicus 2 introduces the ability to play as not only the Ad Mech, but also the Necrons. Allowing us to see the same story from both sides. After the prologue that serves as your tutorial, you get to choose what campaign you do first.
While each faction fights extremely differently, they both follow the same formula.
The campaign is split up into missions and skirmishes. A mission is a single combat encounter, while a skirmish is several encounters one after another.
In the bottom right corner, your quests are split up into priority and secondary objectives. The primary objectives require you to lead the battle, while the secondary objectives require you to attach one of your leaders. Once you return from your next deployment, it will be complete.
Each faction has five leaders to choose from for each battle. However, you are forced to use all of them as certain missions require certain heroes, and each hero has a cool-down after each successful mission, which will depend on how much damage they suffered. I never had anything more than two turns to cool down.
Each leader will earn XP from successful deployments, allowing you to level up some powers and the units you bring with you.
During a single encounter, you can just throw everything at the enemy. During a skirmish, you only have a handful of support units, and when they die, your next encounter will be a little more challenging. However, when you complete the skirmish, all your lost units can be replaced.
Now, when it comes to combat, this is where Mechanicus loses me. Being a hardcore turn-based strategy game, there is no strategy to it. In other squad-based games like XCOM, it’s devastating when you lose a unit because you have put so much time into them, and it can drastically change the momentum.
Mechanicus 2 puts all focus on your hero. Every unit you bring with you can be lost with no consequences. Sure, it falls into Warhammer: 40k lore of life being worthless, but it removes the need for thought.
The turn-based combat is also quite simple. There is a rudimentary cover system, which just means line of sight. There is no turn manipulation. The turns of your units are determined at the start of the encounter and can not be changed. There is no overwatch or defense system. It’s blow for blow until only one side is left.
With no need for strategy, the game became quite boring.
I did enjoy the difference between factions, it wasn’t the same game with a different skin. The Ad Mech, being all about learning and calculation, earns something called cognition, which is earned through actions suited for each unit. A ranged unit shooting something will gain cognition, that same unit will not earn cognition if it gets in melee combat because it’s not meant to do that. This cognition can be used by your hero to activate powerful abilities that will change the tide of battle. The Necrons gain domination by moving forward. Their main goal is to wipe out all living creatures. So whenever an enemy unit is killed, the domination gained can be used by the Necron leader.
Illusion of Customization
When you first start out with your chosen faction, things can be a little tough. You only have a few support units, and the enemy hits hard. Both factions have a currency that can be spent on replacing lost units. This becomes trivial later in the game, having thousands of credits with nothing to spend them on. This is the same for all your XP tokens earned. By around halfway through Act 2, I had fully upgraded everything I wanted to and just started collecting XP.
Each leader has their own skill tree, but it’s more of a progression than customization. Each hero is locked to certain powers and abilities. You can’t change the loadout of your units, and with each campaign taking roughly 30 hours, it all seems very bare bones.
Performance
Mechanicus 2 was reviewed on a mid-level PC and played well. I had the graphics set to ultra and didn’t see any drops. There were no crashes, and it played extremely well.
Being an almost 70-hour game, I wanted to play during my commute to work, so I loaded it onto my ROG Ally X. Unfortunately, it did not run well. It opened and played, but was extremely laggy, and is not a game you would want to play with a controller.
Verdict
Warhammer: Mechanicus 2 is extremely lore accurate, with incredible writing and voice acting. However, with no real consequences to combat it became repetitive very quickly. It was great being able to see the story from the side of the Necrons, however, with two 30-hour campaigns, there was not enough to keep me enthralled.
If you are a Warhammer fan, throw it on easy and run through the story, have a laugh at machine men arguing on computing speed and you will not be disappointed. If you are a turn-based strategy fan, Mechanicus 2 is probably not for you.
Warhammer: 40k Mechanicus 2 was reviewed on PC
Warhammer: 40k Mechanicus 2 is available now on PlayStation, Xbox Series X/S, and PC (via Steam)
The Gamer Social Club was given a review code for Warhammer: 40k Mechanicus 2.
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