Game:

Garrison: Archangel (2018)

Duration: 5:09

263 views

0

Our blood burns... for justice!

After a very long drought of mecha games, a glint comes by like a shooting star! That comet's name is Garrison: Archangel.

This one hits quite a bit close to home for me. I first read there was a new mecha fighting game developed by 'Indigo Gaming'. Excited, I quickly checked it out, and a 3D mecha dueling game hit me like a truck. It looked like Zone Of The Enders versus, with Armored Core Customization, and some bits of Custom Robo.
I soon learned that almost every weapon in this game transforms one way or another, and I'm a huge fan of gimmick weapons. And then I saw a giant drill lance. Always complaining that games never get lances (my favorite weapon), the least I expected was to see that here. And this one is a drill, and transforms into a hammer! The last thing that got me was... tower shields. Lance and shield is my favorite battle style ever, and now there was a high speed mecha combat game where I could use that?!

I actually used a lance with a gun here to better show off the gameplay, though. I'm always thinking of my viewers with videos, you know, I admit that my turtley style isn't the best thing to see.

Anyway, the game functions as you'd expect. Left and right arm attacks, shoulder, and rear armaments, all depending on what weapons you chose (rear units can be boosters instead for extra movement). Most weapons are melee, and melee has neutral, forward, side, and backward attacks, and each arm weapon has a special function, generally transforming, but guns just reload. Shoulder and rear armaments otherwise mostly consist of missiles and gatling guns right now. There are also shields, which allow blocking that can play a pretty vital role in your playstyle, as they completely negate damage, can bounce back strikes, and even parry, but that means you'll only have one main weapon. Or, you can just dual wield anything, including shields, bash some stuff like a hotblooded mobile fortress bunker.

You move around normally or mostly by boosting, which can be done in any direction except down, and quickboosting, which gives you strong bursts but use up a lot of boost. You can actually cancel any animation in the game with quiick boosts, but it will cost extra. You can also quick boost during hitstun, but that will be an extra steep boost price.

Parts customization is made up of head, core, arms, and legs. Rather simple, and not much to work with so far, but it's just great to have so much customization in a solid mech fighter. Parts mostly dictate strength (loadout), durability, and weight. You can usually compromise a little of your build for looks without it affecting your goal too much. When a build is above the weight limit, your speed starts to grow exponentially lower, but it's hard to notice unless you really start piling on. So customization mostly boils down speed, balance, and HP.

It's a very simple game so far, but very promising. Despite the basics, the game can play fairly complex with managing weapons, ammo, and boost. One thing worth noting is that you don't necessarily get stunned when hit, very often melee is a hyper-armor clash until one mech 'destabilizes'. It's rather unclear how that works so far, but your mech starts flinching after destabilized. Seems to be a mix of your parts (weight, HP?), and the weapon you're using, as it seems almost impossible to stop the lance's drill attack, or the giant railgun sword, while smaller arms will get stopped in their tracks in a clash.

I'm not sure how I feel about that dynamic, on top of being able to boost out of everything, including hitstun. The fighting gamer in me feels it's messy, unpredictable, and mashy with two players wailing at each other as two unstoppable forces... but at the same time, it becomes an elegant ballet of melee as two mechs swing around at each other and trading hits, quick-boosting trying to best each other at every step to minimize the hits taken, the safety of ranged attacks being a tempting break in the flow of battle. Shields change that flow quite a lot, however, which I feel are slightly dominant against melee (the main aspect of the game) so far.

That's a lot of stuff. This game is still very early in development, and isn't going to be free, but the demos for now are, and they've been consistently putting out demo updates. I'm excited to see how this game will shape out, and yes, it will have online multiplayer. The game also features up to four-way mecha battles and team battles, if that's your thing.

I can't help feel like this game was fated for me. It's such a basic premise that has been awkwardly lacking in mecha gaming.

Get the game here:
https://indigogaming.itch.io/garrison-archangel

And finally, come stop by at our Discord, Link Contact League. Mechs or not, just about anything goes, we're just friendly gamers looking for friendly discussion, and maybe to play some games.
https://discord.gg/EzJb3jj

Music:
Various tracks from E.X. Troopers

Other Statistics