It’s Like Overwatch With Mechs

I don’t know a lot concerning the Gundam franchise past a couple of recollections of the older reveals once they aired on Toonami again within the day. Younger Zack preferred the large mech battles. And in 2022, I nonetheless like massive mechs. I additionally like team-based shooters. So fortunate me, Gundam Evolution mashes collectively the well-known mechs from the Gundam franchise with gameplay similar to Blizzard’s common hero shooter, Overwatch. The tip result’s a variety of enjoyable, but additionally a bit unbalanced.

Launched final week on Steam, Gundam Evolution is a brand new free-to-play first-person shooter set within the common anime universe that includes a big number of iconic mechs from the reveals. Every of those mechs has its personal weapons, talents, and supers. These highly effective tremendous assaults are unlocked throughout the match as you kill enemies and full goals. If this sounds quite a bit like Overwatch, wait till you see the in-game HUD and visuals. However hey, when you’re gonna copy one other sport, Overwatch ain’t a nasty alternative. And Gundam Evolution is extra than simply an anime reskin of Blizzard’s crew shooter.

One of many largest variations is that Gundam Evolution encompasses a “Down However Not Out” system ala Gears of Warfare or Battlefield. So while you go down, you’ll be able to request for somebody to revive you, and anyone in your crew can deliver you again to life. Nevertheless, anybody on the opposite crew can (and sure will) blast you open with a laser rifle and power you to respawn. This wrinkle makes massive crew fights really feel completely different than in Overwatch, as a single participant operating away and looping again round to revive a couple of individuals actual quick can flip a profitable rush right into a horrible failure.

Whereas the revival system does change issues up a bit, anybody who has performed a variety of Overwatch will seemingly really feel comfy hopping into this Evolution. Lots of the controls and even the in-game UI really feel immediately ripped out of Overwatch. What’s lacking, although, is Overwatch’s stability and polish.

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Gundam Evolution isn’t damaged or something. In my few hours with the sport, it ran fantastic and I used to be capable of finding matches shortly with little to no lag. However matchmaking isn’t very balanced. Practically each match I performed was a whole blowout. Both our crew would stomp the opposite crew in minutes, or the alternative would occur. And this could result in gamers getting pissed off and leaving, making issues worse. It’s a disgrace as a result of the few matches I performed with balanced groups have been actually enjoyable. There’s a snappiness to the fight in Evolution that I take pleasure in quite a bit. You each really feel like a giant, highly effective mech but additionally really feel quick and exact. It’s good. But it surely’s exhausting to take pleasure in that when the sport retains tossing me and others into one-sided slaughter-fests.

If among the matchmaking points may be solved and among the extra highly effective mechs nerfed a tad to cease them from controlling matches as a lot, Gundam Evolution may find yourself being one thing particular. As somebody with principally zero curiosity in or data of the franchise, I nonetheless had a blast taking part in Evolution. And I think about megafans of the collection will take pleasure in this new shooter simply as a lot as I did if no more, because of their historical past with Gundam. However till issues are a bit extra balanced and constantly enjoyable, it’s robust to suggest of us try this Evolution until they don’t thoughts some gentle frustration and terrible matches.

Gundam Evolution is out now on Steam. It’s deliberate to launch later this 12 months on consoles.