Four years ago, when Nishiyamaju announced that he was going to make a mecha action shooter, I don't think many people would believe that they could actually make it.
But after yesterday's "Mecha BREAK" finished its technical first test, we will find that Xishanju has not only made it, but also done it well. Judging from the recent reviews in various communities, most people have also given it recognition, especially the mech design and core combat parts.
Some of the more exaggerated claims will even call this game the best domestic mecha game.
The game was first unveiled at E3 2019 under the name Code B.R.E.A.K., and is a multiplayer battle online game with PVP third-person mecha shooting as the core gameplay. Guo Weiwei once told Grape Jun that this game was prepared for 4 years just in pre-research - because the team had never made a related type of product before.
They once invested in a team from the United Kingdom that made a PS2 sci-fi game, and also communicated with many sci-fi-related Japanese experts, and the team spent about 4~5 years researching to solve the design problems on the entire sci-fi product line.
It took another 2 years to build a new production pipeline based on hard surface modeling and mecha-native skeletal animation. It wasn't until November 2021 that the project officially began, and it had already been re-established three times before.
The team put the official first exposure of "Unlimiting Machine" on the TGA not long ago, telling everyone that this is a PC/console product. Judging from the information displayed so far, the game will not log in to mobile platforms such as mobile phones and tablets for a long time in the future.
To be honest, the transformation of Xishanju was not smooth, "The Other World" was shut down, and "Dust White Forbidden Zone" was not as expected. Now "Limit Relief Machine", as a bottom-of-the-box sci-fi project led by Guo Weiwei, has naturally become the top priority of this change.
And after five nights, I think it might be possible.
01 I have an inner taste
"Limit Relief Machine" came up with a novice tutorial to show off its muscles.
This is a one-player process of about ten minutes, with a plot, a battle, and a boss at the end of the level. After abandoning the mobile game platform, we can feel that the product has let go of its hands and feet in terms of picture quality.
This plot flow is basically a collection of classic episodes of some robot radish chips: the space station is attacked, and the protagonist enters a new type of machine.
After escaping, he fell to Earth to start a new round of battle.
Just from the rhythm and expressiveness of this scene, the game really makes the flavor of a single-player game, especially the giant boss battle at the end of the game.
Of course, the game is not a single-player game, and the team will put more energy into polishing the core PVP gameplay. Therefore, all the worldview content, including this novice plot, plays more of a role in guiding the experience process in the game, and it will not do a lot of content filling.
The overall framework logic of "Unlimited" is very similar to that of multiplayer PVP competitive terminal games such as "Overwatch", "Naraka: Bladepoint" and "Calabichu": the game lobby, single-game system, and the core commercialization means of selling mechs and appearances, players experience the core battles in different modes, while completing tasks to earn currency, cultivate and collect.
What is different is that the game treats the mech itself as a major selling point of the product, providing many moments to show off the charm of the mech and the pilot. Players can go and see the details of each mech's modeling.
You can see the role of each combat part, and you can also change the livery of the body.
And each sortie will also have a cutscene of the pilot entering the cabin and the preparation of the airframe.
The airframe is charged, the projection is activated, the operation is synchronized, the indicator light is on, the catapult accelerates, and the hatch is opened...... These ceremonial cutscenes are exactly what mech players want.
In particular, the Mach ring of this acceleration spout, as well as the detailed display of the inertia of the pull rope, have made many comments and barrages addictive - we rarely can experience these contents in domestic games.
There are also special exit animations, including the destruction of the body.
It is not difficult to see that the team has put a lot of effort into giving full play to the advantages of the theme, and many places are indeed in line with everyone's imagination of mecha games. But for a multiplayer PVP game, the most important thing is whether the core battle itself is fun and durable enough, and it can have enough game changes while having a certain competitive depth.
02 Play lively, show coquettish
There are two ways to play this test game, one is a 6v6 battlefield mode with a wide map based on occupying points, carts, and seesaws, and the other is a 3v3 arena mode that is based on breaking the body to win and fighting quickly.
Each mech's attack method is divided into primary and secondary weapons + 3 types of weapons, and the attack types are divided into four types: live ammunition, energy, explosives, and physics, with different weights, displacement capabilities, and attack swing back and forth. This makes the handling feel very different from one body to another.
For example, the characteristic of Long Yuan is that after the HP is empty, it will take off its outer armor and become a more flexible and fast light state. And when the skill CD is ready, you can re-summon the outer armor and change back to the reloaded form.
Another example is the Hellfire, which has the highest firepower output, and the armament is even more straightforward, and a full laser energy cannon can send away the crispy skin.
In addition, there are also Triceratops, which can set up cannons, mainly in positional warfare, and has super high defense, Narukami, who has the ability to create illusions and high mobility, and can snipe stealth, and there are also many types of melee combat, such as the Black Panther, which emphasizes cutting the back row, and the Red Sky, which can divide the battlefield.
And the most handsome may still be a falcon with a full sense of speed and can turn into an airplane.
At the beginning of the test, everyone was still in a state of "where the light is up, the CD will be played", and the whole battlefield was full of artillery barrage, which was very lively. But after just a few nights, the combat system showed considerable potential, and some advanced players played the game to a very high operating limit, and it was very likely that Meng Xin would be killed by a kite without even touching the body.
In addition to the understanding of the body's armament, high-level games also have a lot of requirements for players in terms of catching the opponent's hard stun, canceling the backswing, and the rhythm of the gun. To achieve this level of core combat, the competitiveness of the game has been guaranteed at the most basic level.
Coupled with the teamwork between different mechs and the changes brought about by different map modes, the most critical part of the game is basically standing. At the same time, many of the game's details show enough quality, such as the fact that the mech will have different traces when driving over sand and water, different bullets will leave different craters and scratches on buildings, and even the release of laser rays will ignite the vegetation.
Of course, this test also exposed some deficiencies in the game's action performance, and the balance between different bodies needs to be further optimized. Finally, there is the problem that the driver model is rendered with a plastic feel.
However, considering that this is only a technical first test, there are still plenty of opportunities for the game to improve and tune these issues.
03 How big is the chance of sci-fi?
The periphery of "Unrestricted Machine" basically follows the mature scheme of multiplayer PVP competitive games, and the commercialization is mainly based on mecha and appearance, and is placed through channels such as daily missions, battle passes, and case opening, and krypton gold can mainly speed up the acquisition of these contents.
It's also worth noting that although the game uses mecha as its core selling point, it also invests a lot of resources in the driver and makes a lot of display space.
The game has not yet announced whether it is a buyout + in-app purchase model, because many competitive games will use buyouts to restrict external plug-ins and other behaviors. The game cycle is based on seasons, and new meshes, maps, gameplay modes, and more are constantly being introduced.
Guo Weiwei has previously revealed that there will be a lot of gameplay in the game, and now there are gameplay teams on the market that will refer to it. In other words, if there is really a strong demand from players in the future, it is not impossible for the game to launch multiplayer PVE or single-player PVE gameplay.
Of course, there are many regrets in "Solving the Limit", in the three previous re-projects, the team may have struggled with whether to do PVE single-player gameplay, whether to challenge the whole scene to be destructible, such an imaginative but difficult to achieve gameplay - Guo Weiwei once thought that this is the biggest feature and selling point of the game.
In the subsequent design concept, the team wanted players to be able to level a city or a mountain, which was not only visually cool, but also brought new changes to the battlefield terrain, players could create new cover through the ruins, and also use the physical collision of falling objects to damage enemy aircraft.
But after throwing away the burden of making content games, as well as the obsession with technological innovation and breakthroughs, now "Limit Solving Machine", which has a clear direction, has become more likely to be made. At least in the mecha action shooting track, "Limit Breaker" can be said to have no rivals in the domestic market.
At the beginning of the project, the game carried the goal of Xishanju's globalization strategy. Guo Weiwei once told Grape Jun that in the global film and television or game market, science fiction will account for 10% of the market share, but in China, compared with this number, science fiction still has a lot of room for market growth.
"Whether the game can provide a unique experience" is very important in today's market competition, and "Unlimited" can be said to have achieved it. Now the only question remains, how big is this plate that has never made a hit battle online game before, but the market demand seems to have always existed.