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Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. This is a lie, of course. I haven’t been ‘out’ of strategy autobattler Mechabellum since I started playing around the 1.0 launch back in September. There I was, just starting to get to grips with the card-house-careful balance between each of its units when, bam, makers Game River dropped a Jenga block on top of it. It’s a stealth block, too. Didn’t even see it coming.
Update 1.1’s new unit is the Phantom Ray, which Game River describe as “a medium-sized aircraft with high HP that excels at striking enemies at close range with high-damage missiles”. It’s a mid-tier flier, costing 50 to unlock and 200 to field, and for that you get three of them per unit. As for default tech, you’ve got some range and fire rate unlocks, alongside an oil drop. The headliner here is the stealth buff, which cloaks the Phantom Ray by default until it attacks. When it does, it all gets a nice 40% bonus to damage.
As for how they perform, I’ll have to go ask Graham to give me the rest of the day to test them. For research purposes. And the rest of the patch? I have spent most of my games writing career doing anything I can to avoid the phrase “but that’s not all!”, but since I’ve already shilled Mechabellum so hard as to resemble a frothing gameshow host gesturing at a selection of fabulous prices, I think it’s time.
But that’s not all! That patch also features various balance adjustments for units such as the Sandworm, Arclight, and my beloved Mustang. The latter is now better at intercepting missiles, and since a row of Mustangs was already pretty adept at making Stormcaller spammers weep, this sounds excellent. Stormcallers themselves now hit a bit harder, but have a longer attack interval. There are also a few bug fixes, notably an issue that would prevent sticky oil outside a shield also igniting sticky oil within a shield. And a brand new tumble dryer!
Mechabellum was not on our review slate, but I have been slowly chipping away at a full review during downtime, because I feel it deserves one. If nothing else, it’s very solidly earned a place on my personal GOTY list. I would highly recommend looking into it if you’ve ever been curious about competitive RTS but lack the reflex skills for a more traditional pick. Or the time, honestly: you can get very competent at this one very quickly. Not as good as me though, obviously.