The concept of survivor-like no longer needs to be presented, but let’s go there anyway, for possible newbies: through multiple instances where you face a large number of enemies, you can unlock improvements and additional levels, just to vary the pleasures . And if Mercenary Battle Company: The Reapers has one or two advantages to its credit, the rest is more of a painful experience than entertainment.
Across various biomes, you will have to decimate entire populations of monsters of all kinds, including classics of the style, those that explode, those that fly, those that spit poison…
To achieve this, our hero, installed in a combat robot, will not only have to choose from a range of main weapons, but also, if necessary, equip himself with drones and improve his ordinary by collecting the gems dropped by the creatures. dying.
And here we are entitled, undoubtedly, to the main interesting aspect of the game: using our main weapon releases heat and increases the risk of overheating; If this happens, our robot will be unable to use its cannons for a few precious seconds.
You will therefore have to learn to manage the use of these weapons, even if it means releasing the button on occasion. In addition, of course, to looking to equip upgrades to reduce heat output, speed up cooling, or both.
Reheated
Moreover, the mechanics of Mercenary Battle Company: The Reapers have already been seen 1000 times, except for this sort of “last chance mode”, where our character triggers his “superpower”. And seeing the three characters that it is possible to try, in a few hours of play, we wonder why we don’t always do business with the young woman who, once this mode is activated, allows you to obtain 1% of life points for each critical shot on enemies.
But again, this skill is not always clear, nor is the effectiveness of certain improvements that can be purchased in the store, between two rounds. Thus, the “regeneration capacity” of our life points does not seem to be a passive aspect, but rather to be linked to other powers which depend on the randomness of the attributions of the improvements, in the game.
Unsurprisingly, to hope to survive, this ability to regain life points is essential. As is, ideally, a modifier that turns your bullets into poisoned or flaming ammo. However, it is entirely possible to come across mediocre “bonuses”, or to want to vary the pleasures, and even if the previous game ended with a victory, the next one can absolutely end in just a few minutes.
Moreover, another irritating point: there is no countdown of the time elapsed since the start of the game, or even any indicator of the victory conditions. We will eventually understand that you have to kill a giant wasp twice, at least in the first level, but that’s it.
Furthermore, the detection of hits on our robot is particularly poorly programmed, even though being able to avoid problems is an integral part of the mechanics of this type of game… At least, good games of this type. We are far from the dodging abilities of Death Must Die, For example. Worse still, we seem to have a certain “shield” capable of absorbing blows, but impossible to know its strength, recharge time, etc. The same goes for our “super power”, which is also recovering, but without precise indications.
Oui, Mercenary Battle Company: The Reapers only costs US$5, but quite frankly, there is no shortage of more interesting alternatives, despite the pretty visuals and an overheating mechanic which has the advantage of being innovative.
Mercenary Battle Company: The Reapers
Developer and publisher: Black Marsh Studios
Platform: Windows (tested on Steam)
