Live service titles have been put on the endangered species list in 2025. The descriptor has become synonymous with gamers running for the hills, as other disappointing options like The Day Before continue to poison the well for the genre. In 2023, Mecha BREAK was announced at The Game Awards to a reasonable amount of hype despite adopting the live service label.
This is the same year GUNDAM Evolution told fans ‘last call’ (RIP), and seeing as how Mobile Suit GUNDAM Battle Operation 2 is console-exclusive to PlayStation, Xbox fans could finally scratch that giant robot itch left behind by GUNDAM Evolution. Mecha BREAK features exciting giant robot battles, customizable pilots and rigs, a surprisingly deep combat system, and giant robot combat in spades. The fix is here.
I was immediately taken to a character creator screen for my pilot after booting up the title and agreeing to the terms of service. There are myriad customization options for the pilot to tinker with. With the wealth of presets and toggles, you can craft your very own digital twin (minus decent hair options). Aside from personality and player preference, the pilot almost serves no purpose aside from running around the home base hub in the Hangar. Seasun Games smartly allows Mecha BREAK to shine the spotlight on the huge mechs you will be doing battle with. This is a great choice, although the addition of jiggle physics on female pilots may be a questionable one.
“Mecha BREAK features exciting giant robot battles, customizable pilots and rigs, a surprisingly deep combat system, and giant robot combat in spades.”
The forced tutorial (which follows the character customization screen) of Mecha BREAK doubles as an introduction to the world state. The story for Mecha BREAK stumbles and trips over itself to get out the door. Dialogue is spoken as if the player has lived in the game world for years, which leads to a few confusing fill-in assumptions that do not receive corrections.
This confusion swirls further when talking to background characters in the home base hub. Simply put, humanity has undergone a catastrophic event, and the discovery of a mineral called Corite has everyone fighting over its control. The Corite is a valuable and almost sentient dangerous mineral that threatens to consume the world. It’s up to the player, as a member of the organization S.H.A.D.O.W., to pilot powerful Striker mechs and uncover the mystery of the mineral (at least this is what I understand).
The beautiful thing about Mecha BREAK is its focus on gameplay and teamwork, which effectively erases the need for a cohesive base story. This allows each battlefield to tell its own story, whether you’re playing an objective-based mode or even a traditional team deathmatch. You could be top dog on one battlefield but at the bottom of the barrel in the next game.
There is a staggering number of Strikers and gameplay types to take onto the battlefield. There are five roles to play: Brawler, Attacker, Defender, Sniper and Support. From the FALCON Striker’s ability to change from humanoid to full jetfighter to the tank-greave equipped STEGO’s incredibly slow playstyle and heavy rocket firepower, there is a choice for every player.
These design choices allow Mecha BREAK to double as a giant robot fighting title and a hero shooter all in one. However, the huge amount of options available to you shows how poorly the forced tutorial sets the player up in the grand scheme of things. You pilot the Medium Attacker, ALYSNES, and it’s a jack of all trades, which can falsely give the sense that all Strikers are like the ALYSNES from the tutorial. Seasun Games has seemingly thought of this and included individual tutorials for each Striker in the home screen, giving players the ability to learn how to use each Striker before jumping into a game.
After firing up the heavy brawling WELKIN, I jumped into Mecha BREAK’s Operation Storm game type with a group of randomized matchmade players. In this mode, Mecha BREAK allows players to team up in groups of three (think a Destiny 2 strike team) and face off on the Mashmak map. This PvPvE mode felt a whole lot like my time with Exoborne.
You can stick around on the map for as long as possible and gather better rewards, but if another team of pilots kills your team, you can lose all of your spoils. Like Helldivers 2, in this extraction mode, you need to escape or you lose your loot, except you can’t shoot your teammates, and other teams want to loot your mechanical corpse.
Operation Storm is high risk, high reward, and it’s important to watch your teammates to determine when the best time to extract is. The WELKIN brawler comes with a duelling shield that can trap opponents in a barrier, forcing them to fight you in a cage. This could remind players of that scene in 2001’s Spider-Man, when the Human Spider faced off against Bone Saw.
Instead of three minutes, you have seconds. I was able to deploy this shield to trap two opposing mercenaries for seconds while my two teammates escaped via extraction. While not escaping with loot felt bad, helping the squad and receiving “Kudos” is what Mecha BREAK is about. You can be your very own action hero.
After realizing melee combat might not be my strong suit, I jumped into the Heavy Sniper AQUILA Striker. After colouring it like Amuro Ray’s RX-78-2, I dove into a King of the Hill game type in Operation Verge. Operation Verge is the best thing Mecha BREAK has going for it, and I lost a few hours in one sitting due to how varied and expansive each battlefield is. This chaos is where Mecha BREAK breaks the mould.
Like other hero shooters, Mecha BREAK forces teams to select different Strikers to help balance squads in the fight. You can’t go into a game with six Reapers in Overwatch 2, and you can’t terrorize an Operation Verge battlefield with six STEGOs. Each game type is deployed on a different battlefield. There is an escort mode similar to Overwatch 2, a Territories game type which feels yanked from Halo 3, and other modes that feel right at home on the PvP landscape.
“Operation Verge is the best thing Mecha BREAK has going for it…”
The AQUILA is a force to be reckoned with. You can utilize a small claw to hold enemies in place for a few moments while you unload heavy sniper fire on their defenceless frame. Pressing the special button (it’s X) can let the sniper lock on to multiple enemies at once, and firing hits all locked enemies at once in a flurry of gunfire reminiscent of an Arthur Morgan Red Dead Redemption 2 Dead Eye.
AQUILA also deploys two energy gauges (unlike WELKIN’s reliance on just one), one for its ability to hover in midair and the base energy gauge that lets the Striker do all of its functions. Balancing the main energy gauge is as important as keeping an eye on your stamina in Elden Ring Nightreign. If you spend it all, you catch a small delay that can get you killed.
Where WELKIN can take a beating and has a shield, AQUILA has two energy gauges that can keep the Striker moving fast forever if the gauges are maintained. WELKIN can slam the opposition with a huge battle axe, and AQUILA has an allergy to melee combat. It’s important to pick your battles in Mecha BREAK, and Seasun Games balances these play types well in practice.
The final game type in Mecha BREAK is a 3v3 deathmatch mode called ACE ARENA. This is a sweatier-than-usual affair that’s as straightforward as can be. Kill the opposition eight times to win. This is where teamwork is celebrated. Rushing in will get you killed, so deploying smart team tactics is essential for victory. After a teammate’s FALCON weakened an opposing Striker, I was able to deploy the AQUILA’s claw ability and take down the rest of the Striker with a well-placed sniper shot. There are too many of these synergies to count in Mecha BREAK, and Seasun Games almost demands each team find their own synergies to deploy.
Another thing Seasun Games allows players to do — unlike many other live service titles — is that they’ve given players a way to host private games. For a game based on smart tactical combat and smart teamwork, giving players a way to practice outside of throwing them in the deep end and shouting “SWIM!” is a godsend.
This also allows for the development of synergy strategies and gives players an arena to settle their trash talk. Often, my friends and I would say, “I could beat you one-on-one!” back in the Gears of War 2 lobbies when we would lose a game and point fingers at each other. Seasun Games now says ‘prove it’ and allows this infighting to happen once again, embracing the old style of PvP talk.
Mecha BREAK is a fantastic live service offering. With the death of GUNDAM Evolution, Xbox console players now have a way to settle their differences while piloting a gigantic robot. Seasun Games takes inspiration from hero shooters, first-person PvP games, extraction shooters and even old-school Xbox lobbies to deliver a surprisingly deep experience that is free to play.
There are many classes and roles to choose from, and the Strikers are top-notch and balanced for the game types Mecha BREAK dropped with. Somehow, even the Starscream-adjacent FALCON can transform mid-battle, and it works seamlessly in design. However, the shoo-in story and predatory microtransactions sour the experience.
Advertisements for microtransactions could be described as “MADDEN Ultimate Team.” On the Striker design screen, there are two locked options for Styles 1 and 2. If you press on the locked Style icon, it will unlock without warning, spending 2,000 of your battle-earned mission coins, which could take hours of play to earn and no refund option in sight.
Even with its shortcomings, Mecha BREAK delivers a deep enough experience full of fun moments that make the price of admission a steal. To this day, I can compete on the battlefield and not spend a single dollar on the marketplace. If you’re looking for giant robots, Mecha BREAK is what GUNDAM Evolution should have been: Fun, well-designed, and ALIVE.
