War Tech Fighters Review
Game Details
Title: War Tech Fighters
Developer: Drakkar Devs
Publisher: Blowfish Studio Games
Website: http://www.drakkardev.com/
Genre: Action, Arcade, Mecha
Platform: PS4
Audience: PEGI 12
Release Date: 27/06/2019
Price: £14.99 – Rapid Reviews UK was very kindly provided with a review code for this title.
War Tech Fighters is an arcade style shooter that mixes Japanese anime mecha and Hollywood style cutscenes to make something new. But does it deliver?
Have you ever felt like you wanted to pilot a Tech Fighter (Mecha) and kill everything that moves? How about something that looks like it is from the Michael Bay era of Transformers? Here you have it War Tech Fighters is something for you to get your teeth in to. Do not let the Michael Bay references deter you. The game is rather fun.
The overall story is pretty simple. Travelling across the galaxy, the rebel colonies of Hebos and Ares join forces to battle against the Zatros empire. Straight out of the Gundam playbook, and there is nothing wrong with that in my honest opinion. There is a slightly deeper story within the missions, but it is not the focus. BLOWING STUFF UP!!! is what we want to do.
The Developers Drakkar have mixed anime style mecha with Hollywood (the Michael Bay will soon become clear) style explosions and fight scenes. Let us look at the mecha first. These come in three styles, the smaller faster Tech Fighter, the medium jack of all trades Tech Fighter and the big tank Tech Fighter. There are pluses and negative stats depending on the Tech Fighters’ style you choose. For instance, the smaller one is fast but can take the least amount of punishment, whereas the big one is the opposite.
Here is where the meat of the game will be. Each of the Tech Fighters, play style, can be customised and outfitted with a LOT of different parts, each boasting different stats. The pieces come in as head, arms, body and legs, sword and shield. Each section has a primary function. The head improves lock on, and arms equip different fast weapons. The body can be fitted with different heavy armaments, and the legs change mecha speed.
Sword and shield are self-explanatory. Along with these primary functions, there are also statistics like power (how long the mecha can boost for or shoot), armour, speed and power. Mixing and matching these parts will allow for the best set up for your playstyle. However, some sets focus mainly on playstyle. To top it off, all the different parts look different and are visibly different. For myself, collecting the parts needed to upgrade and the money was my main focus in the game.
Also, there are overall boosts in the form of research. These give a stat bonus for the Tech Fighter along with the parts. For instance, it could take 10% less bullet damage, or lower shot cost by 10%. In the later levels, these upgrades will make a difference. These two components alone will give the player a tonne of replayability with this title.
War Tech Fighters is split into missions, main and side tasks. Within each of the missions are a handful of set missions to complete. A mission is usually broken up into four parts or objectives. Complete the objectives and finish the mission. There are escort missions, item retrieval and destroy missions, and it all takes part in SPACE! Each area allows for lateral and horizontal movement, giving the feeling of mass space. The controls for this movement can be set to arcade or realistic. In Arcade mode, the War Tech moves the direction you are looking whereas realistic, to change the height and turn direction it will take both left and right analogue sticks to move (I preferred this setting).
While out on a mission, there are a lot of small attack ships to fend off with a combination of fast, weak attacks and heavy, slow attacks. It is not as easy as lock on and shoot thankfully. There are a lot of times you will need to defend attacks with the shield, as the small fighters are fast and flank the War Tech easy and the bigger ships have multiple weapons. It is not new or innovative but does break up what would have been a very arcade feeling game. The shield does not mitigate all damage; it only takes away a percentage of the damage; this pushes the player to be offensive also.
So now I hear to ask, how is this relevant to Michael Bay? I shall tell you. There are a few ways this could relate to him.
The War Techs are not the best looking; they are stiff and lack the sleeker design of anime mecha. I got the feeling of Transforms from the overall aesthetics.
While whittling down an enemy fighter, the health bar drops. When there is a quarter left, there will be a prompt to do an action move finisher in the form of a cutscene. For instance, the War Tech Fighters could cut the fighter in half, and it explodes behind it, or grabs the fighter and pull out its power source, and it blows up. The first few times, these look great but after a while gets very dull. Luckily, they can be skipped.
In some missions, there will be an enemy War Tech. These can be dispatched the same as the other enemies by shooting them, but who wants to do that when there is a mini-game to destroy them when facing off? (Bare with this one it still connects). Getting too close to the other War Tech Fighters will initiate a boxing match of sorts but with swords, where you pick a light or a heavy attack along with where to attack, and the other will defend these attacks. If you beat the enemy, (here it comes), there is a cutscene of cutting the War Tech Fighters in half and a close up of your War Tech Fighters which looks like something out of a Hollywood film.
Do not let the comparisons to Michael Bay’s Transformers put you off. War Tech Fighters is rather fun. It is nothing new, and it will not break the mould and offer anything new. But what it does deliver is a good arcade action game with a decent story and competent mechanics. It will keep you coming back for more.
Rapid Reviews Rating
You can purchase War Tech Fighters from the PlayStation Store on the following link, https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP1191-CUSA14235_00-WTFIGHTERSPS4000
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