Although it offers a dark and iconic setting that should be perfect fodder for video games, the Warhammer 40,000 license has often been something of a poisoned chalice for developers. It’s only really been in the last decade, with the arrival of the significantly patched Space Marine 2, Darktide, and Rogue Trader, that the license has finally received the digital respect it deserves. The original Warhammer 40,000 Mechanicus, released in 2018, was a very good turn-based strategy game that pitted the deeply unsexy cyborgs of the Adeptus Mecahnicus against the relentless hordes of robot-zombie-pharaohs, the Necrons. With the sequel now released, have developers Bulwork Studios delivered on the XCOM-in-40K promise of the original?
First of all, if you’re a fan of the multitude of Warhammer books published by the Black Library, then you’ll love the ridiculously excellent storyline that accompanies Mechanicus 2. With veteran author Ben Counter in charge of writing the storyline, you know you’re in good hands. Additionally, fully voiced dialogue brings characters to distinctive life in 40K. Overall, this is a deeply satisfying game, filled with copious amounts of fan service, and it’s the type of gripping narrative that will keep you playing through what is unfortunately a rather lackluster strategy game.
Things start off promisingly enough in a neat prologue that alternates between the player taking control of the Adeptus Mechanicus and Necron forces. It’s an excellent setup, effortlessly introducing the main protagonists and key strategic differences between rival armies. After the intro, you are free to choose your side and dive into the game proper. This is where the game suddenly falls apart. A good strategy game is all about choice: the player is inundated with a range of tactical options – ideally with many solutions for a given combat scenario – and must correctly differentiate the right approach. This is what gives action to the player, providing them with the opportunity to experiment and then rewarding them with a feeling of satisfaction when they achieve their goals. This is not the case with Mechanicus 2, which is relentlessly and mostly linear.
Despite the presence of an overarching map, you are not free to engage the enemy wherever you please and must instead complete missions in a strictly linear order. Then, once in a mission, your selected unit follows a prescribed path, encountering enemy forces along the way, in a manner reminiscent of an old JRPG. You can’t attempt to avoid or go around an enemy, you just run into an invisible opponent and suddenly fight. There are a few tactical choices to make during this section, in which you must choose between a variety of text-based options, but the solution is usually so obvious that the entire mechanic is rendered useless. When in doubt, choose to err on the side of caution every time.
Once you get into the turn-based combat, things improve, but not as much as one might hope. Yes, there are many differences between the units that make up the Necrons and the Adeptus Mechanicus, but they rarely translate into significantly distinct gameplay. The structure of combat doesn’t help here either, with control – as in the original – shifting back and forth between the player and the AI once each individual unit’s turn is over. This proves unsatisfactory, as it means it is impossible to move your forces together to deftly initiate a clever flanking maneuver or defensive stratagem. Instead, the fight proves piecemeal and piecemeal, with victory achieved through attrition rather than skill. I mean, it’s good turn-based fare, but it quickly becomes repetitive due to the lack of player agency.
Add to all this numerous technical issues on PS5 – including one where the entire game often has to be restarted when the controller stops working – and painful loading times and you get a disappointing sequel that is far from improved on the original game.
