Game News Mechajammer Released

[Infinitron]

Tags: Mechajammer; Modern Wolf; Whalenought Studios

Over six years after its original announcement as Copper Dreams, Whalenought Studios' cyberpunk RPG Mechajammer was finally released yesterday. Over the course of its development, Mechajammer became notorious for its frequently shifting visual styles and missed deadlines. What began as a scenario-based tactical game with a Grandia-inspired combat system gradually turned into a open-ended and fast-paced turn-based action game, a transformation that was reflected by the game's change of name. Things seem to have come together at last when it was picked up by indie publisher Modern Wolf earlier this year. Here's the launch trailer they put together along with the accompanying announcement post:

The jungle colony of Calitana might be a dark cesspit of corruption and villainy, but today the sun is shining. Today is a bright, glorious day. Today, Mechajammer launches on Steam.

And you can play it right now.

If you like your CRPGs dank and grimy then you’re very much in luck. Mechajammer, with its distinctly dirty flavour of cyberpunk, tasks you with escaping Calitana by any means necessary. With more player-agency than you can shake a pair of dice at, you may choose a path of violence, stealth, or coercion. Or any combination thereof. Just pray that lady luck is on your side...

Ok, less talk, more gameplay. It’s launch day, and as is tradition we have a launch trailer for you. Make sure your socks are on tight because this is going to blow them clean off.

In bringing the Mechajammer launch trailer to life, we’ve partnered with the daddy of dark and brutal synthlines, Ital Tek, to create a new track for the game. “Calitana’s Handshake” is available now via your streaming platform of choice, and anybody that purchases the game will also get a free, exclusive copy of the MP3 with their download.

Mechajammer was developed by indie-duo Whalenought, and after years of development, today the gates to Calitana are thrown open to the masses for the first time. It’s a big, deep game, with a design philosophy that shuns hand-holding in favour of player exploration and discovery. As such, we are eyes open and ears cupped for your experiences and stories from the frontlines of Mechajammer’s immersive sandbox.

If you’ve been playing already and have a specific question, do check out our Player FAQ, where an answer might be lying in wait, and feel free to head over to the Mechajammer Discord Channel to pick up the conversation there should you wish.

Thank you to everybody that has supported Mechajammer up until this point - we can’t wait to hear what you think. See you on the other side.
​

There are no launch day reviews of Mechajammer. Apparently the game is in a pretty rough state, which is very disappointing after six years of development, although it makes more sense if you think about it as Whalenought developing the same game six times. I'm sure there are lots of cool ideas here, but Joe and Hannah might want to consider switching to a genre that is more well-suited to their habits as developers. If you'd like to give the game a try, it's available on Steam and GOG for $25 with a 10% launch discount until next week.

 

[Tyranicon]

I was pretty excited to give this a try but then I saw the Steam reviews.

Ooof, it's getting blasted. But Steam's a fickle place. Any prestigious codexers give this a try yet?

 

[gothfox]

this doesn't look half bad, anyone played it?

e: i guess i'll wait until they bugfix it a bit.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Any prestigious codexers give this a try yet?

I was going to before they began their art style switch rodeo a few years ago. Now I have no idea if the final game is related to the original Kickstarter pitch in any way.

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

The steam reviews are shit.

 

[don_tomaso]

I am not prestigious but I have played an hour. Will uninstall and wait a year for it to leave early access. My biggest issue is that this is one of the most obscure games i´ve played. You have no idea at all if "this attack" is worth it or not. Why shouldn´t I always go for head shots as they have the same hit chance as a torso shot? Or do they? I have no idea.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Just buy the game at full price so that Hannah and Joe can have a nice Christmas ok?

 

[Kev Inkline]

I am not prestigious but I have played an hour. Will uninstall and wait a year for it to leave early access. My biggest issue is that this is one of the most obscure games i´ve played. You have no idea at all if "this attack" is worth it or not. Why shouldn´t I always go for head shots as they have the same hit chance as a torso shot? Or do they? I have no idea.

So it's much like going in blind and raw into a Polish brothel?

 

[Tacgnol]

I'll wait for patches and/or sale. It's a real shame it was released in such a raw state.

Even by indie KS standards this seems to be a rough launch.

 

[Lady Error]

Sounds like a clusterfuck of CP2077 proportions.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

honestly I think you're all just bigots who can't handle a game with non-binary genders

 

[don_tomaso]

I am not prestigious but I have played an hour. Will uninstall and wait a year for it to leave early access. My biggest issue is that this is one of the most obscure games i´ve played. You have no idea at all if "this attack" is worth it or not. Why shouldn´t I always go for head shots as they have the same hit chance as a torso shot? Or do they? I have no idea.

So it's much like going in blind and raw into a Polish brothel?

I´m not exactly sure why but I loled.

 

[Tim the Bore]

Holy shit, they actually released this?
I wonder what it's like to work on a game for six years only to release it "unfinished". Like, that's more than half a decade that went nowhere.

 

[Fargus]

Sounds like a clusterfuck of CP2077 proportions.

It's like comparing WW2 to a 2008 War in Ossetia.

 

[Joyvankek]

Played it, and it's buggy af.
You also need to have shit load of luck when it comes to RNG. Or maybe you just have to drop all of your dices into singular skill you want to focus on.
I created a char with main focus on social/charisma build + hacking and some laser weaponry. Not even a single roll ended up in a positive outcome. But game doesn't tell you how much of a chance you have with your rolls, so it's all a guess game with what it's minimal requirement to put in a skill for it to have reasonable chance of being useful.

Right now I'm thinking about refunding it.

 

[felipepepe]

I really like the game's presentation, but it's really still an early, early access game...

You can feel this game was many things in the past, because some things it offer simply don't make sense. Like, it has 10 weapon skills, plus social, stealth & hacking... but first area only has knifes, slug pistols and laser pistols. You can break windows, sneak around and even jump across gaps, which allowed me to sneak into the boss room without fighting a single enemy. Cool. But the boss character always fights and is a melee asshole that kills me in 2 hits. If you use a gun on him, all enemies in the area hear and rush you.

So it's an Deus Ex-like RPG where you can only beat the first boss by making a pistol build, killing every enemy in the map & kiting the boss (which is really easy because enemies can't jump windows).

Now, apparently I can charm NPCs to help me, but here's where the bugs really hurt the game: my map is empty of NPCs. BUT sometimes when I load a save, 50 hobo NPCs spawn at the same time. I could recruit them to help with the boss fight, BUT my "charm" always fail, even though I have 1 skill point in it and this is the first 10 min of the game. In fact, I could never pass any lockpick, charm or hack skill check, I have no idea if they're really hard or the game is broken.

There's certainly a lot of potential here, I won't refund it, but it still needs more time to fix bugs and balance stuff out.

 

[PEACH]

So it's an Deus Ex-like RPG where you can only beat the first boss by making a pistol build, killing every enemy in the map & kiting the boss

I agree with everything else you said but I snuck in and killed him in melee just fine. Twice even due to a bug where he reanimated.

Did it with a weapon that I wasn't specced for too, without body armour, and while going uphill both ways.

 

[felipepepe]

I agree with everything else you said but I snuck in and killed him in melee just fine. Twice even due to a bug where he reanimated.

Did it with a weapon that I wasn't specced for too, without body armour, and while going uphill both ways.

How? My dude has 1 skill in knifes, 2 in muscle mass and 1 in pain threshold, he's made specifically for melee with knife, but my attacks only take like 10% health of the boss, no matter where I aim, while he kills me in 2 hits always. I even tried using the stun grenade, but he instantly awakens when you hit him.

 

[PEACH]

I agree with everything else you said but I snuck in and killed him in melee just fine. Twice even due to a bug where he reanimated.

Did it with a weapon that I wasn't specced for too, without body armour, and while going uphill both ways.

How? My dude has 1 skill in knifes, 2 in muscle mass and 1 in pain threshold, he's made specifically for melee with knife, but my attacks only take like 10% health of the boss, no matter where I aim, while he kills me in 2 hits always. I even tried using the stun grenade, but he instantly awakens when you hit him.

I walked in the room, lured him to a spot where I could target his head, and attacked a few times. It took 2-3 tries but each time I failed it was by a thin margin.

My stats were:
2 Quietness
1 Grace
1 Perception
1 Learning
2 Impact
2 Burglary
1 Hacking

And I was using the standard Knife, no socket or additional equipment. Looking at your stats I would've assumed you'd have a much easier time than I would, so I really don't know.

 

[Tyranicon]

So it's an Deus Ex-like RPG where you can only beat the first boss by making a pistol build, killing every enemy in the map & kiting the boss

I agree with everything else you said but I snuck in and killed him in melee just fine. Twice even due to a bug where he reanimated.

Did it with a weapon that I wasn't specced for too, without body armour, and while going uphill both ways.

There's bugs, and then there's bugs where bosses come back to life.

 

[felipepepe]

There's bugs, and then there's bugs where bosses come back to life.

I also got this bug. Now I honestly don't know if enemies respawn or if loading the game is broken and revives enemies nearby

 

[Norfleet]

fast-paced turn-based action game

A what? That is just word salad. How can something be both fast paced AND turn-based AND action? You can have fast-paced action. You can have action that isn't particularly fast. You can have turn-based. You cannot put these all together, that is just word salad.

 

[EnthalpyFlow]

There's bugs, and then there's bugs where bosses come back to life.

I also got this bug. Now I honestly don't know if enemies respawn or if loading the game is broken and revives enemies nearby

Yes, enemies respawn sometimes when you load a savegame.

 

[Ninjerk]

fast-paced turn-based action game

A what? That is just word salad. How can something be both fast paced AND turn-based AND action? You can have fast-paced action. You can have action that isn't particularly fast. You can have turn-based. You cannot put these all together, that is just word salad.

Battle Brothers feels pretty fast-paced

 

[oneself]

Bought, but not going to touch it until things are patched a bit.