Custom Mech Wars is a Third-Person Mecha Game developed and produced by D3PUBLISHERS. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Custom Mech Wars Review Overview
Custom Mech Wars Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Excellent Mecha Customization |
Awkward Gameplay Mecha-nics Campaign Can be a Slog Lack of Game Modes |
Custom Mech Wars Overall - 52
Custom Mech Wars is a Mecha shooter game filled to the brim with issues that could have used more time in the repair station before getting deployed. Although the game lives up to its name with endless mecha customization possibilities and, at times, fun gameplay, it ultimately fails in its story, mechanics, and lack of game modes.
Custom Mech Wars Story - 4/10
Custom Mech War has a bland story that fails to be engaging or meaningful despite having a promising premise at the beginning. The game is filled with uninspiring dialogue delivered by forgettable characters that fail to provide any emotional impact. It’s clear that the developers didn’t focus on the narrative, as its only purpose is to provide context and filler for the gameplay.
Custom Mech Wars Gameplay - 7/10
Custom Mech Wars’ gameplay mechanics are divided into two aspects: the Omega Customization System and missions. Although combat starts off strong, it will start to feel monotonous over time because of the lack of map variety, janky controls, and lackluster enemies. On the other hand, customization is the most engaging aspect of this game. Designing your mech has never been more entertaining with its fantastic variety of cool and wacky parts.
Custom Mech Wars Visuals - 6/10
For the most part, the visuals are underwhelming in terms of graphics and art style, but what really bumps up its points is the variety of mechs you can design. Your mechs can really make a unique appeal that sets them apart from the others, which compensates for the game's glaringly poor graphics. Only your imagination is the real limitation.
Custom Mech Wars Audio - 5/10
In terms of audio, the game’s music is generic and monotonous overall. There really isn’t a single track that stands out or gets your blood pumping. Although the game is entirely voiced in Japanese, and regardless of how forgettable the script was, you can always count on Japanese voice actors to make the best of what they were given.
Custom Mech Wars Value for Money - 4/10
Although mecha customization is its best feature, which is full of hilarious options to play with, the game itself is utterly mediocre or downright bad in most of its other aspects. At its current state, it's not worth picking up with its $49.99 price tag, and it is best to wait for the game to go on sale.
Custom Mech Wars Review I A Creative Goofy Robot Mess
Most mech games have a feature that allows you to design your own mecha. It’s part of the charm and what distinguishes the genre from your typical shooter. People like the idea of piloting their own giant robots while smashing enemies and buildings along the way. But if there’s one thing that Custom Mech Wars truly delivers, it’s what its name implies. On the one hand, that can be seen as a compliment for its straightforward branding. Still, on the other hand, it also implies that this game has neglected other aspects that could have rounded itself out to be a top contender in the genre. Let’s go into further detail with each category, starting with its story.
Sadly, in the beginning, you can already tell that the developers did not really care about constructing an engaging narrative as the game starts with a bland text scroll, effectively giving you a long exposition dump. This is truly a shame because the premise is actually quite promising.
The campaign is rather repetitive and boring because most missions start and end similarly. You are given a brief description of your mission, tasked to destroy all enemies, and forced to listen to uninspiring dialogue about your mission or some lore drop. Rinse and repeat. This cycle gets old fast, and it doesn’t help that the characters, locations, and enemies aren’t memorable at all. With such an interesting premise about Mechas going rogue and the world being scared of a looming natural threat, it’s such a shame that they dropped the ball hard on the campaign, especially when they could have given so much more to their message about AI progression and natural disasters. This would have been the natural direction to take since the Mecha genre is known for dwelling on topics like politics and war. At the end of the day, it just felt like another generic and forgettable battle robot anime.
Let’s talk about where the game shines the brightest: the customization system. The Omega Customization System acts as its character creation feature, where you can build your own Mecha quite literally from head to toe using looted parts. This feature can be unlocked shortly after a few chapters, and, right off the bat, there’s already a variety of parts to choose from. This game has one of the best creation modes, as it lets you explore your imagination and express yourself with as much freedom as you’d like. The only thing you need to keep in mind is the mecha’s weight, as it acts as an intuitive limit to how many parts you can add to your robot. Don’t worry; the weight only increases as you finish more missions, but besides that, you’re free to create your mecha however you want as long as you have the parts for it.
That brings us to the shooter aspect of the game. Once you select a mission, you are deployed to that location, and your task is to defeat waves of other mechs. The gameplay is like your average third-person mecha game where you can shoot using your primary and secondary weapons, fly and dash with your jetpack, and collect parts and special items to customize your mech. Where it falters, though, is just how janky the game feels in terms of control, as input can feel very awkward at times. Yes, it’s fun to destroy waves of enemies with your masterpiece of a mecha, but shooting can, at times, feel imprecise.
Sound effects, on the other hand, are very important in shooters because they’re one of the sensory signals that confirm whether your attacks hit the enemy or not. While Custom Mech Wars does have the appropriate sound effects for these circumstances, it does not provide any satisfying ones. The music is also lacking, as it’s just forgettable at worst and decent at best. Only its voice acting can be considered noteworthy as if the voice talents have made the best of what they had. Most notably, the engineer and your superior deliver some really charming lines.
Lastly, the visuals. There isn’t much to say about this, as the game has nothing noteworthy in terms of graphics and art style except for when you create your own Mecha. The developers found a way to make these Mecha stand out, especially with the right colors. They are unsparingly used in customization since vibrant colors tend to be more effective in contrasting the dull and washed-up colors of the environment and enemies. The mecha parts themselves can go from generic-looking to really absurd in a weird, fun way. The visual juxtaposition of a Gundam-like torso with a car for legs is something you can’t ever get from other games. You can tell the developers really put a lot of thought and love into the mecha creation feature, so it’s such a shame that the rest of the game feels so rushed or watered down.
Pros of Custom Mech Wars
| Things Custom Mech Wars Got Right |
|---|
|
Excellent Mecha Customization |
Excellent Mecha Customization
If there’s one thing this game absolutely does right, it's Mecha customization. The Omega Customization System stands out from the rest not just because of the freedom to create almost whatever you want but also because of its self-awareness that it doesn’t take itself seriously. Mecha games tend to focus on the "cool factor" for aesthetics and parameters to guide your preferences for each part you consider. However, this game allows and even encourages you to explore your wild, childish side from the moment you unlock this feature. For example, one of the first parts you get is a train and a car for mobility. While these are certainly meant to be taken as a joke, they are also good options to consider under the right conditions. You can even forgo everything else and just drive a car or a train around, as the game lets you create mechas with incomplete body parts, such as a missing head or chest.
Although the Omega Customization System can be intimidating at first, given how many options you have, thankfully, the game gives you a proper tutorial beforehand. Parts and weapons are essentially divided into groups, and you can freely place as many as you want as long as you don’t exceed the weight limit and your mecha still has legs. Weapons are important and diverse, but I recommend only using guns when you play, as melee weapons are hard to use due to the enemies’ awkward hitboxes. However, the fact that the game isn’t really hard lets you know that this game gives you more leniency and freedom with how you want your mecha to engage in combat. Whether you want your Mecha to be an anime waifu with a lot of HP or an Evangelion that does tons of damage is all up to you.
Cons of Custom Mech Wars
| Things That Custom Mech Wars Can Improve |
|---|
|
Awkward Gameplay Mecha-nics Slog of a Campaign Lack of Game Modes |
Awkward Gameplay Mecha-nics
The main problem that really hinders this game is the battle gameplay. All the hard work and hours you put into making your perfect Mecha could all be for naught because of this oversight. Although wreaking indiscriminate destruction can be fun, it feels janky most of the time due to the abnormally small hitboxes of enemies, stiff and unresponsive mecha movements, and unsatisfying audiovisuals when defeating foes. Your main weapons tend to miss a lot because of how bad the aiming can be due to crosshair alignment and awkward hitboxes, so using the secondary weapon is preferable because it automatically locks on the enemy. The lack of impact most of your weapons make also affects the experience.
Although there’s an option for players to eject from their mechas, it feels pointless, given how relatively undemanding the game is and how easy it is to get killed once you’re on foot. This is especially true with how it’s almost impossible to get killed, given how little damage your enemies do while you’re in your mecha. The only reason to do that would be if you’d wanna pilot another one of your custom mechs. The best way to play is with a controller, but if you do decide to play with a keyboard, it’s best to reconfigure the keys.
Slog of A Campaign
The story is set in a futuristic Earth in peril due to a comet set to cause catastrophic damage across the world. Because of this, the majority of humans have evacuated into shelters.
In order to maintain the existing infrastructure, artificial intelligence-driven mechs, or G-Mechs, are employed to maintain the security and stability of those once-inhabited cities. You play as a nameless newly-hired pilot, a part of the Four-Seven G-Mech Team tasked to investigate AI-controlled G-mechs suddenly going rogue.
As interesting as that may sound, the game does a disservice to players interested in the story by its use of forgettable dialogue and lazy storytelling. Most of its story is delivered through dialogue boxes as you play the game. It’s a hassle to read mid-combat unless you can understand Japanese, as it is the only voice language option available. This wouldn’t be such a bother if the dialogue box was not beneath your mecha and placed on the upper right side of the screen.
Lack of Game Modes
This shouldn’t be a surprise, but shooting games, especially mecha games, should have different modes. Having one makes the game very repetitive and tiresome, after all. It's such a missed opportunity. Unfortunately, campaign and multiplayer are the only game modes available, and a co-op of three is the only available setting in multiplayer. Sure, it’s fun, but it would have been better to have others such as versus mode where you and your friends could duke it out like in Armored Core. This is honestly one of the most disappointing aspects of the game as this affects replayability and value, but hopefully, the developers add more game modes soon.
Is Custom Mech Wars Worth It?
This Mecha Game Goes Needs to be Repaired
The game is priced at $49.99; a completely unfair value for what the game has to offer. Custom Mech Wars has the most enjoyable customization system in any Mecha game to date, but it’s also riddled with problems that need to be addressed. It’s better to wait for the game to be ironed out or for it to go on sale.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Steam |
 Playstation |
||||
| $49.99 | |||||
Custom Mech Wars Overview & Premise
Custom Mech Wars is a third-person shooter mecha game where you can create and take to battle your unique giant robot called G-Mech in this thrilling story about saving the world from thousands of AI Mechas.
Custom Mech War FAQ
What Other Games Is the Developer Known For?
The developers, D3PUBLISHER are known for their game called Earth Defense Force, which has similar gameplay mechanics to Custom Mech Wars.
Where Can I Play Custom Mech Wars?
Custom Mech Wars is currently available for purchase on Steam for its PC release and on the PS5. There is currently no news regarding a possible physical version of the game at this time.
Custom Mech Wars Product Information
 | |
| Title | CUSTOM MECH WARS |
|---|---|
| Release Date | December 14, 2023 |
| Developer | D3PUBLISHER |
| Publisher | D3PUBLISHER |
| Supported Platforms | PC, Playstation 5 |
| Genre | Third-Person Shooter, 3D Action, Shooter |
| Number of Players | Offline Single-Player (1), Online Co-cop (1-4) |
| ESRB Rating | T |
| Official Website | Custom Mech Wars Official Website |
