Mecha Break Open Beta preview - Multiplayer mecha action like no other

Following its previous Closed Beta, Mecha Break recently launched its latest Open Beta, allowing players to engage in heated mech-on-mech skirmishes. Developer Amazing Seasun Games' latest multiplayer action title has varied mechs (called Strikers), each boasting different setups and playstyles. The Open Beta, which is open for anyone to sign up and partake in, saw a peak of over 50,000 players.

That said, what is the game like and is there enough substance here or players to look forward to in a full release? Let's find out. Here are our early impressions of the Mecha Break Open Beta playtest.

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Mecha Break Open Beta is home to fast-paced PvP mecha battles

The early tutorial section in Mecha Break Open Beta (Image via Amazing Seasun Games)

After booting into the Mecha Break Open Beta, players will be prompted to create a customizable character - namely the Striker Pilot. Following that, a brief tutorial featuring AI-controlled enemy units will play out, allowing players to become familiar with gameplay fundamentals like movement and skills using the starter mech Alysnes.

Upon completing a couple of PvP tutorial matches, players will finally unlock other aspects of the game, such as matchmaking, friend requests, and inventory. Following this, they will also be able to team up with their friends or match up with random. However, before that, players must pick the Striker of their choice.

Beating the tutorials will net players more than enough in-game credits to unlock all mechs, each of which falls under different categories: Attacker, Defender, Brawler, Sniper, and Support. These in turn have variants under different weight types, namely Light, Medium, Heavy, and Ultra-Heavy, for a total of 13 different Strikers in Mecha Break.

Unlocking Stego (Image via Amazing Seasun Games)

Overall, these designations make it clear how each Striker works on a fundamental level, like the Ultra-Heavy Defender Tricera or the Light Support Luminae. Players will still need to test each mech to see how it works. Each Striker is fundamentally different from one another; Panther for example utilizes melee-range attacks and chases down foes with chained combos.

On the other hand, Stego is a moving fortress, that hunkers down to deal big damage, or the Falcon zipping around the battlefield akin to Starscream from Transformers. That said, each mech has a primary fire, a secondary fire, and up to three different abilities. All Strikers are capable of dashing and flight, though at the cost of Energy, which must be smartly managed to avoid becoming a sitting duck.

That is key because Mecha Break is a chaotic multiplayer game, with a lot happening at once. This is also why I preferred to stick to the Light Sniper Narukami, one of the most powerful units in the game - if utilized correctly. While its heavier counterpart Aquila is about governing the battlefield from above, Narukami specializes in stealth sniping.

Narukami's stealth is great for capturing points while the enemy is distracted (Image via Amazing Seasun Games)

To compensate for low health and defenses, it can deploy decoys and go invisible, allowing players to take shots from a safe distance. Given the high burst damage dealt by Narukami, it will be the priority target for most opponent Strikers. If a foe Panther or Aquila tries hunting the player down, they can also grapple and latch onto a vertical surface like Spider-Man and go invisible, which is honestly the best part of using this Striker.

Of course, the game provides ample opportunity to test out each mech across its various match types, all of which follow familiar multiplayer game conventions such as capturing and holding points or pushing the Payload. Most of them were fun to engage in, with the wide-open maps being the best of the bunch to fight around.

Regardless of the Striker picked, the combat feels punchy and impactful, and the mech movement is polished too, making this Open Beta a fun PvP experience. That said, what wasn't fun was the monetization aspects. Mecha Break Open Beta featured a battle pass system, however; both the rewards and inventory management felt haphazard and cluttered.

Additionally, certain match progression elements are not clear and I have had more than a few instances where my allies did nothing more than rack up killstreaks instead of proceeding with the objective, so this aspect can be improved too. On the other side, the final launch is still a while away so the developers have enough time to fix the community's gripes with what was shown thus far, and I eagerly look forward to it.