The original Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus was one of the biggest surprises I had experienced in a long time when I initially played it. I got it on a great deal almost a full year after it came out and after realising it was essentially an experimental XCOM game with a Warhammer skin slapped on top I didn’t think it would be much, but I loved it. So much so I’d consider it my favourite 40,000 game, though not my favourite Warhammer game. Still, for an experimental game it absolutely hit the nail on the head, and cemented my love of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Now we have the sequel, with a bigger budget, a bigger stage presence and of course bigger expectations to live up to. Does this next entry please the Omnissiah, or will this be considered a great heresy? Time to find out!
The story will be familiar to anyone who’s played a Warhammer 40K game before, and especially so if you remember the first game. There’s an alien world, Mechanicus want it, Necrons are already on it and waking up, time to fight for control of the planet. Interestingly however this is the game that finally lets you play as the Necrons, so you can choose which side you want to take in this conflict. The stories play slightly parallel to one another so you can expect to see plenty of familiar things if you choose to play through both campaigns, and whilst they are your fairly standard 40K plot there are a few interesting twists and turns, especially on the Necron side, so whilst it might not be the most engaging story it gives enough to keep you wanting to continue. I will say the lack of characterisation for the playable characters is rather disappointing however as whilst we do get names and speaking characters for cinematics actual gameplay is made rather bland for characters. You can’t really get attached to people that die if you have no idea who they are as a person. As such, this game’s story isn’t really what you’re here for, but at least it serves its purpose.
Presentation might be what you’re here for instead, after all the original Mechanicus game had some of the most effective visual styles, and more importantly, audio styles in any Warhammer game. Whilst that style is certainly still present here, tech priests gibber in monotone, robotic voices interlaced with binauric and system processes and all the speaking roles deliver their lines well and with great intimidation I’m sorry to say that Mechanicus 2 is a downgrade when it comes to presentation. Firstly the visuals, whilst they don’t look bad or anything they barely look that much better than the original game. Lighting effects look better sure and there are actual outside areas now so you get a great variety of environments the lack of visual improvements really showcases the similarly styled locations that almost seem straight ripped out of the first game. Not to mention various people have had troubles with performance issues, luckily I have not, but still this is a shame to see for a game that is now being treated as part of the big boy warhammer games club rather than an experimental strategy game. The audio is perhaps the biggest tragedy however as this game has some of the worst audio mixing I have heard for a bigger project in a long while. Cutscenes will frequently play with no sound effects for things like footsteps or characters moving, abilities and weapons generally lack a powerful ‘oomph’ factor behind them and several missions have very irritating background noises that play over them such as artillery fire, to the point of which I had to just remove my headphones for some missions, and that is a real tragedy. The ‘Warhammer’ aspects certainly work here, but for all of the failings of presentation with regards to visuals and audio I really am disappointed in this aspect.
Now gameplay is going to be a real hit or miss for people here. It’s still the same type as before, with it being a grid and turn-based combat game with greater strategic elements and a focus on resource management however the biggest changes are essentially made for the sake of streamlining the experience. You don’t really get to customise your playable hero characters anymore, instead you pick from a pre-selected series of characters with their own upgrade paths and specialisations. These characters then become integral to your combat gameplay as you need to keep them alive, if they go down then it’s game over and you need to restart from a save. This removes one of the most beloved aspects of the original game, customisability. You don’t really get to make and enjoy your own characters anymore, just stick with the presets and if none of them resonate with you then you’re just stuck trying to tough it out. Alongside this I often found that melee characters were almost useless due to this ‘defend the castle’ type of gameplay and so just stuck to playing ranged characters and playstyles as much as I could. They also removed the ability to explore locations and tomb complexes, instead sticking you on a linear path through missions. From the overview screen, and seeing your character move, it’s so clear that the team wanted to let you move around on your own, perhaps even with some form of pseudo open-world mechanic, but instead you’re just stuck moving from mission to mission on a pre-determined path with pre-determined characters. It’s still fun, and the gameplay from the original Mechanicus is still very much present, but all of these changes made in the name of simplification and streamlining just seem to remove many of the aspects that made the original game so special to many.
Aside from the performance issues that were mentioned by many people the biggest downside I really feel this game has is just how disappointing it is to see a game like this not really improve at all. The original game had such incredible potential and even though it was just a test bed for something more grand in scale it was beloved for a reason. So when we were told of a sequel, that it would be given as high of a treatment as other Warhammer games, and the extra budget that comes with that I really expected to get something… well… more than this. I was expecting grander strategy elements, dynamic combat or territory control scenarios, a more fleshed out roster, deeper customisation all that jazz. Instead we got a Necron campaign (which as a fan of the faction I did very much enjoy) and some slight visual improvements. This feels like they worked with the same budget they had previously and just looked for the easiest way to make a sequel which is deeply disappointing. I of course played and enjoyed this game, it IS a Mechanicus game after all, but I really just feel as though this could have been more.
So what a shame then. A fun game, enjoyable if you want to experience more Mechanicus but honestly, at this point, unless you’re a massive Necron fan like myself I would probably just recommend the original game over this one currently. Perhaps things will improve with patches such as the audio mixing issues, but at present, this is a simplified, less customisable version of Mechanicus and if it weren’t for the Necron campaign I would consider it a downgrade if anything. If you also had fun with it like I did, good for you, but I certainly hope this doesn’t show a trend of milking this series until it has nothing else to give. I just want a big budget Mechanicus game, is that too much to ask for?