Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus II

Very disappointing sequel sadly. it runs fine for me, but I have no idea why the structure and customization got worse. It feels like the developers didn't understand what people liked about the first one. Or maybe it is a case of them not being able to do all tha tbecause this time they had to create two factions and two campaigns?

Beat both campaigns, Mechanicus on Normal and Necron on Hard. I'll keep this review simple. 1. This game is not as good as the first. So I would play that first if you haven't. 2. The game genuinely gets better once you get through the first act of the game. The customization isn't as bad as other reviews make it out to be. 3. Try this game if you like 40k and enjoyed the first game, its a satisfactory sequel. Certainly not an improvement, but its alright.

I never played the first Mechanicus, but the demo for Mechanicus 2 really hooked me last autumn, so I’ve been waiting for the full release. And I liked it. Finished the AdMech campaign — good visuals, fun combat, cool heroes, and overall I had a good time. There are bugs and performance issues, and replayability isn’t that high, but the amount of hate this game gets feels way over the top. Reminds me of DoW3, where fans of the previous games basically hated it to death. It has its flaws, but it’s a good game. Recommended!

TLDR; Go play Mechanicus 1 if you like turn based tactical strategy games and/or the Adeptus Mechanicus faction. It's a better game in both respects even if a bit older. In preparation to play this I played through the first Mechanicus game and god it’s so much better. I may not have played much as of yet and might return once I have finished the game. The Adeptus Mechanicus is my favorite faction in the entirety of 40K and god how they massacred the Mechanicus characters. Every character feels way way too human, especially with the whole point of the Mechanicus being an extremely inhuman faction that's part of the imperium. All of the dialog is just some person speaking to us. Scaevola isn’t overly direct in communication and doesn’t do her running calculations as part of her dialog. Videx doesn’t even quote the verses of his dogma. The characters just don’t feel the way they do in the first game. On top of that every character is just a copy of a Mechanicus model, they’re either based on the Dominus, Manipulus, Engineseer or Datasmith. There's no creativity in the character design and the Mechanicus 1 art gave them so much character. The music of Mechanicus 1 is just significantly better. There's a reason Children of the Omnissiah is a classic piece of 40K music. Gameplay wise the game seems so much less tactical then the first one. A lot of tactical elements are just missing, the Cognition system is just kinda useless and the whole Dungeon Crawling and Awakening system are just missing which are parts of what made the original game good. In general the entire game seems super linear, missions are on a rail road no choosing if you rush a mission or spend time exploring stuff at the cost of awakening, you can’t build a Techpriest to do a specific job or jobs you have those 5 choices and their upgrades and that's it no outfitting them with different kinds of wargear or anything. As well as how you requisition in the first game you could take any number of Techpriests and troops you wanted no randomness no forcing you to take 5 Skirarii rangers. For a few good things I like about the game to finish off. I like the global map and that you have to establish infrastructure to get upgrades. It makes the game feel more like a campaign for the world rather than a disconnected series of missions. I also like that you can see how you gain access to different troops through the tech tree so you can rush for certain troops if you want a specific one. I also really like the idea of being able to play the Necrons although it seems that unit balance might have suffered. Haven't encountered any game stability issues as of yet but im sure they will come seeing from other reviews. Theming: Mechanicus 2 feels like how the Mechanicus are in other Warhammer 40K games like Space Marine 2. They feel like the boiled down version with no understanding of their appeal or even what makes different parts of the cult unique. Gameplay: Compared to Mechanicus 1 a downgrade in most respects, customizability worse across the board and tactical aspects just gone. General: Mechanicus 1 is just the better game it isn't perfect and is 8 years old at this point but it's just a better turn based tactical strategy game and representation of the Mechanicus go play that.

I liked x-com and I love warhammer. Read some reviews and checked if I should buy it. Felt like a no brainer with a theme I like and good reviews for the first one. With no random chance it could be a fun puzzle. Tried it didnt like it first but thought that if I just persist I will get more troops and more option and will unlock the fun. In the end I didnt feel like playing any more since it was not fun so I have now abandoned the game (started the necrons campaign). I feel like I gave it a fair chance and I might return to it in the future but at this moment I do not find this game enjoyable.

Giving this a thumbs up because it's not a bad game. It's one of the above average Warhammer 40k offerings and that is a win in and of itself. If you enjoy the lore of the Adeptus Mechanicus and Necrons, this is a game that does both factions justice. On a game design level this game is is "worse" than the first one however. Instead of expanding on the Mechanicus 1 formula they threw the baby out with the bathwater and instead kept the superficial look and sound of the predecessor to make a pretty generic and linear story campaign. Sounds pretty bad at first and depending on what you were looking forward to, it can be a deal breaker. But it's a really lengthy and chunky campaign. Significantly bigger and broader than part 1. One campaign each for Adeptus Mechanicus and Necrons with an Epilogue bit if you complete both Campaigns. These campaigns are super linear with a very meagre offering of side content that really just exists to buff up your guys a bit, if you want to, and to give you the illusion of a "war campaign". It's not convincing for very long. My suggestion is to just dabble in the optional quests a little and then just focus on the main questline. It took me around 40 hours to complete one campaign. I'm probably gonna take another 40 to beat the other. These are beefy offerings. I enjoyed the Necron campaign as well as their roster. The missions were either fairly bland or interesting. I'd give it a 50/50 split. All in all this game is easier to like if you haven't played and loved the first game. It's really not bad at all. It's just uninspired and it's difficult to understand why they took an interesting spin on Turn Based Strategy and turned it into the same kind of TBS that everyone else is doing. I like the genre so I didn't hate it. I liked it even. But I do understand the many thumbs down by the fans. The gameplay potential was squandered here, clearly.

The balancing is super bad, the fights are uninteresting, the bugs are still there, and this all takes place in the shadow of a truly inspiring game. Mechanicus one demonstrated how oft overlooked elements of a game, such as music, can elevate a great game into a fantastic game. Now they airblasted all that charm and care away to give you an inferior product. They replaced high tier music with ambient garbage. I would literally play this game to the old soundtrack and it still worked perfectly. They didn't even need a new one why would they just downgrade such a good part of this game? That's pretty much the skeleton of my criticisms for this game. Downgrading most things the game had to offer so that its now a worse version of Battlesector. [u]Liked their innovative and cool mechanic about gathering cognition points to use on abilities?[/u] Now its just a generic self generating resource like in any other game with no environmental interaction. levels that could be tailored based on this resource are now boring and simple. [u]Liked the fact that you control multiple specialist tech priests and units which can synergize with each other?[/u] Now you get only one priest per mission, limited customizations, unavailability of your preferred tech priests, and zero synergy. [u]Didn't like that underbaked pre-battle choice simulator?[/u] Now its even more braindead and still a part of this game But wait guys, they added the necron campaign....... at the price of the whole thing being very mediocre. There are much better games out there in the genre to spend your money on.

To keep it short, this is not an awful game when it works. This is an aggressively mediocre game that must have had some pretty severe issues during development to leave it in its current state. Beyond all the technical faults, the biggest problem with Mechanicus II is that it simply doesn't have enough content to go around, and what stuff is there, looks and feels noticeably half baked. This is a game that can easily go over 40 hours of playtime with around 10 hours of actual content. You will be going through the same missions, on the same maps, with the same units, fighting the same enemies, with the same strategies, on repeat, long before you actually reach the end. And this CAN be fun, if you enjoy the setting and just want to burn some time. But as a whole, the repetition, questionable writing, endless intrusive dialogue, limited customization, static mission structure, and overall lack of polish, make this a very underwhelming experience. If you want to try it, wait for a sale. Out of respect for the first game I did my best to see everything there was to see here, and while it wasn't a wholly terrible experience I cannot recommend this game at full price.