I’m not a smart man, but I am wise. Just wise enough to understand that I am not a smart man. You see, I love tactical games and when Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus II slid across my desk like someone was trying to bribe me with a fresh $20 bill, I had to accept. Spending hours with the game, I must say that what I got out of it is a lot more than I expected, but it also has its flaws. Either way, Kasedo Games and Bulwark Studios built something interesting and tactical with enough Warhammer cheese that it makes a Philly cheese steak look like diet food. So, let’s take a look at Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus II!
Fitting In
Warhammer lore in general is quite interesting. There are two segments to the lore: everything written specifically by Games Workshop and material written by the players. Anything that Games Workshop releases is the pure canon. Whatever they say happens, happens. On the other side, everything written by the players is also canon but it is treated much differently. Instead of being seen as something that seems like fan fiction, it actually has a place within the lore. Except, anything written or created by other players is treated like someone is telling you a story that someone else told them. It becomes legend, a tale told through the generations.
This is important when approaching various Warhammer games and it is no different with the Mechanicus games (generally speaking). War is a way of life for everyone in the Warhammer universe, and there are so many events that occur that some of it becomes noise and Mechanicus II is part of that noise.
Mechanicus II continues what was established in the previous title but adds a few twists. You’ll see some recognizable faces, but there is more to it than just that. In the first title, you played as the Adeptis Mechanicus, a group of cybernetic space priests who love tinkering and killing. Unlike the first game, you also get to play as the Necrons, a race of Terminator-like soldiers who can occasionally rise from a dead state.
During the prologue, you get to try out both sides and understand the mechanics that fuel both factions. Afterwards, you can choose which faction to stick with as you explore a story of high stakes and an unfathomable amount of choices.
Tacticus Situationis
Mechanicus II plays out like most tactics games where you have characters with different abilities and you place and move them around a grid-based battlefield. You have powerful units along with standard troops. Leaders have a lot of special abilities which allows you to synergize attacks and defensive abilities to better manage the battlefield. You can also upgrade these commanders between battles to enhance their abilities.
See, Warhammer is all about the grimdark future of war in the year 40,000. Everything is life and death and the idea of soldiers being killed so that a superior can escape is just your average Tuesday. Hell, in the Warhammer universe, people die just refueling the giant cathedral-like ships that transport your units. So you can’t get too attached to who you take with you on a mission.You must get used to units just dying, but as long as your commander is safe, the game progresses.
Gameus Playus
Every mission is made up of several steps. Each one starts with picking the commander of your choosing and which units you want to bring with you for that mission. Once you are ready to go, there will be some narrative chunks and the mission will begin. Your commander will be roaming around an area while a bar fills up at the bottom. This highlights the various events that will occur on the map and you’ll be given a few narrative choices with interesting results. Some decisions will not result in anything, but if you want to be a bit risky, you can. Some choices will gain the attention of the opposing faction, so you must make your choices wisely especially if you want to avoid as much conflict as possible. At some points, you can reduce how much “heat” you have on you so you don’t trigger a major event.
When you do enter a combat round, you can choose several units from the pool of soldiers from before you launched your mission. You choose to deploy a number of these units within a “safe” area, and then you are off fighting. Now, don’t feel bad about who you choose and don’t choose. Later in the battle, there is a phase where you can reinforce your deployment with the left over units which adds a bit of the tactical mindset to this game. Do you want to leave behind a ranged unit just in case or deploy them out the gate?
When it comes to navigating the battlefield, you have a few options both with units and with the environment. Some units can hide behind cover, some can buff other units, so on and so forth. The important thing is to try to get the enemy before they get you. In many cases they will. There have been a few times where my party gets killed and I stare at a game over screen simply because I didn’t have enough battlefield information present to me and the way that combat phases operate feels kinda off.
During the battle phase, you have to move first then act instead of adopting a free-flowing state. You are always on the move in a way which is a good and bad thing. It kinda dampens some of the tactical concepts of the game and prevents you from really hunkering down if you need to make a defensive line. It is aggressive in nature and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just comes off as an odd choice.
When it comes to objectives, there are a decent handful of goals that must be met within each battle and you have a couple of stratagems that you can enable to make the adventure a bit more interesting. At one point you will have to kill all the foes on the battlefield while another mission may revolve around you trying to reach an extraction point to escape from the area. I found the ones where I have to retreat to an area to be really tough as you have to manage not just the enemies on the battlefield, but you have to keep your main character moving. When you consider many different aspects of how the game operates, it can become quite the challenge! But as the saying goes, you can’t make an omelet without cracking a few eggs.
Audius Soundus
Warhammer at its heart is a satire. The designs of the characters, voice lines, and the lore of the game is all over the top. Lines are spoken with a sense of gusto that encapsulates how ridiculous this all really is. But, there is something within it that I find quite exhilarating. It is taken so seriously that you cannot help but crack a smile at it.
For instance, did you know that the faction of the Adeptus Mechanicus has these mechanical bird-like machines they can ride into battle? Did you also know they don’t know how to turn them off, or at the very least are too afraid to do it because they fear they won’t turn back on? Yeah, there is something relatable there within the lore that tells you to not take it too serious.
That being said, the voice acting is excellent! If the voice actors were told to ham it up, they did a fantastic job. There are various audio filters of course, but that is to be expected when you enter the Warhammer universe. Personally, I think it helps when it comes to the immersion aspect but I can see how some folks would find it to be a bit too much, but that is the agreement you made when you got into this game.
Other audio elements like the moody music and sounds of blaster fire ringing through decrepit hallways fills my ears with glee. I honestly love how much attention is put into various sound effects. I love hearing the rifle sounds that come from a few of the Skitarii units in particular.
Artius Designus
Warhammer has a very distinct design philosophy when it comes to factions. Each faction has a unique look with a silhouette that makes it easy to tell who is from what sect. Just from a mere glance you can tell what units do what thanks to how they are designed. Both the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Necrons are distinct, which means you can’t really confuse units all that much, and you can easily determine who should be the focused target. You can also tell who you should avoid, who is going to be a long range unit and who is going to try to get in your face. I love this methodology to be honest and I have always loved the art that Games Workshop brings to the table.
Design is more than just characters though. I have found various environments that I am battling in to have a bit of style that encapsulates the “war all the time” theme of Warhammer. Dark and dank cellars, massive religious iconography on various space vessels, and so much more. The gross embellishments strewn about the game really does a great job of giving me that Warhammer style that is more than just a darkened hallway. We see other elements of the universe, like downed vehicles and leftover remnants of previous battles. Everything is done to lean into that style that Warhammer is known for.
I would also like to point out the awesome art that is displayed when characters are talking. It is this brush-styled look that really stands out. It feels finely crafted and practically alludes to what I was saying before about how stories like this one are treated as if you are interpreting it yourself. Art in its own right wants to tell a story, it wants to pull you into a thought and that effect does the same here.
Conclusionus
I’ll be honest, I don’t have many complaints other than how the combat system plays out. I’m never bored out of my mind, but I do feel like some parts may be a bit too overwhelming for new players. I tested the game out on multiple difficulties and found that while normal and higher difficulties are punishing, I felt my best at the narrative concept. Unfortunately from what I experienced, you can’t change difficulty between missions although that may have been a bug. I honestly cannot tell.
I would go as far as to say that fans of the first title will find a lot to enjoy here. We have practically double the size of content compared to the first entry. There are more units, more locations to explore, and a story that keeps me personally interested in the events. If you don’t know much about Warhammer, there is enough here where you sort of grasp what it is going on. Everything outside of the game isn’t necessarily important, it is good to know and may help immerse players into this game, but you can walk in blind and still come out with something. Perhaps a love for one of the two factions? I know I feel inspired to pick up a few Adeptis models myself.
Thank you to Kasedo Games and our PR partners for providing review access to Mechanicus II. You can find Seasoned Gaming’s review policy here.