Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus

I am a warhammer 40k fan and I absolutely love this game. Game visuals are awesome and the gameplay is pretty unique.

Difficulty is fully up to you, perfect for skill level of any type.

While the way combat mechanics are simple, customization of your tech priests goes DEEP, you can go any and every play style. Up to you.

Lore is deep and intriguing. Voice acting is a great touch

Whether you are a strategy maniac or a -1000 chess elo rank. Mechanicus is well made strategy game for those who want to enjoy the fine works of the 40k universe.

Я подумал - надо поставить класс играм которые мне нравятся, очень сознательный поступок. А эта мне очень нравится.

Simply amazing soundtrack and soundscape

Way better that xcom, how people cant fix those mistakes despite knowing the inspiration is beyond me

Excellent atmosphere - setting, music, charaterisation. The tactical aspects are limited compared to some others in the genre but it is still enjoyable. The difficulty scaling is off (presumably it will be better in II) but again, that doesn't mean it's not enjoyable. It's a really really solid title.

Glory to the immortal empire, long reign the silent king.

The game's setting is awesome and I'll keep coming back to the music for years, but the combat mechanics and the entire concept of the game is just pure "meh", maybe 3.5/10.

Neat. But it's NOT "x-com in 40k". No sir.
1. The unit order is determined by initiative.
2. It's brutally hard at the start (gets easy as you progress)/

In addition to being a great 40k game, it has perhaps the best turn based combat systems i have ever seen in any game. Two main factors that make me say so.

Firstly, no awful RNG. There is about 20% damage RNG, just to keep you a bit on edge about someone being finished off or not, bit not enough to frustrate you. And no hit chance RNG whatsoever. No 99% chance sniper misses.

Second, no lame move first than attack phases that so many games adhere to because someone came up with it 40+ yeas ago. This game completely drops the rules you have seen in other 40k games. You have certain free movement points, and certain free shots. Beyond that you have universal cognition points that can be used for more movement or more firepower. You are free to move a bit, then shoot a bit, them move some more, then shoot some more, and then get to cover. This really opens up the depth of combat strategy, and your brain decides how hard or easy this game will be. Removes a lot of frustration.

Overall i would recommend this game not just to 40k fans but to any tactical combat game enjoyers, even if 40k seems weird to you. It is also a pretty good gateway drug for for people looking to get into 40k. Good replayability factor too, my 160h came from 3-4 playthroughs.

This game is fantastic. Although I'm not experienced with games like this, the learning curve is easy to overcome.
From the alien tomb-world architecture to the techno-organ soundtrack, the game really immerses you in the grim dark galaxy of the 41st millennium.

Taking the role of a Magos your goal is to explore and uncover the secrets of a Necron tomb-world, finding and unlocking more unit types and upgrades for your tech-priests the further you venture in. Though the further you delve in, the more your alert the Necrons of your presence. causing more to show up in combat.

Everything in this game is masterfully crafted. From the cold and emotionless tech-priests to the to the equally soulless and unyielding Necrons, each faction is done justice. Although the higher in the command chain you go the soulless automatons that are the Necrons, have more personality than any of the tech-priests. except that one zealot who wants you to purge and burn anything in your path, hes the GOAT. This is accentuated by the the fact that all of the humans talk in bineric chatter while all of the sentient Necrons speak English.

Overall this game is great and should be played by anyone who like 40k.

gets pretty easy after a while, still fun though, mostly because of the great soundtrack and neat style

TL; DR Let me be frank, this is one of the best Warhammer videogames and is an easy recommend for any fan of the setting, but it is also a fun, perhaps a bit easy tactics game that is well worth your time if you want a game with intriguing writing, great music, and fun gameplay.

Note I am so glad there aren’t any Space Marines in this game!

Story

In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war.
And there can be no war without the Adeptus Mechanicus, the industrial heart of the Imperium of Man, mechanically enhanced priests who seek and hoard forgotten (human) knowledge with an idolatrous zeal. They scour the galaxy in search of forgotten worlds, archeotech, and new weapons to bear against the enemies of man, and sometimes, they happen upon things best left dormant.

The Cult Mechanicus understands the transience of flesh so there is an instinctive pull to pair them with the slumbering rulers of Silva Tenebris, the Necrons, and it is one of my all-time favourite matchups. They are such interesting foils to one another that I am invested from the outset.

Does Mechanicus deliver? Yes, and it seems effortless. Its small cast of characters are memorable, well-defined and offer contrasting, opposing, and sometimes complementing arguments for any and all courses of action.
As Magos Dominus Faustinius this is your quest, you are in charge of the ship, so the Tech-Acquisitor Scaevola and the Lector-Dogmatis Videx must acquiesce to your orders, as does everyone else.
However, as you sit there, overseeing an operation they will attempt to sway you to their side. Videx will spout out his catechism, quotes, and precepts from his unending repository for each and every eventually, meanwhile Scaevola has abandoned even her vocal cords in favour of the machine, she “speaks” completely in Lingua-Technis, perhaps blessed Binharic, her words come out as code, with comments to state the topic, mood or her desired outcome.
So, you have Videx spouting dogma in one ear and Scaevola positively gleeful at the thought of hoarding heretical knowledge on the other, what’s not to love?

Now, do not fear, you, who know nothing of Warhammer lore, isolate those emotions, and disable them from your bios, the machine knows no fear.
Mechanicus is great at getting you into the world, because the only things that matters are the Necrons, and the Tech-Priests. Scaevola, Faustinius, and Videx forms your Overton window, everything more extreme than Scaevola is heresy, anything more dogmatic than Videx might just destroy the entire planet from orbit, and your player avatar is somewhere in the middle, balancing them, and giving you an in-depth understanding of both positions.
The other characters delve into other aspects of the Adeptus, the values and worth of their troops, the single-minded determination of a being completely redesigned for assassination, but Faustinius remains as the core, the everyman, and that will tell you how extreme they are.

Presentation

Mechanicus takes place inside a tomb, in fact, the entire planet is a tomb, and it is swarming with its interred, robotic masters. It is all one, massive megastructure, the catacombs extend throughout, littered with traps, monuments, factories and ruins, you feel small when you explore it, almost like you are doing something wrong by engaging in some jolly graverobbing.
While there is definitely enough visual variety to satisfy a 20-hour game, I do wish we could have seen more of our starship, what is not to love about a giant flying, gothic, church-factory? If you do want to play on it, you will need to buy Heretek.
With that said, we also get a bunch of customisations for our Tech-Priests, I love my cohort of mutilated cyborgs! However, I do wish we could go even further, I want even more monstrous, deranged designs, yes, I love my Myrmidons, but I want something like Scaevola, so “enhanced” that they are barely recognisable as human, so “improved” that the Necrons are more relatable.

This game also features some sick sound design, weapons feel distinct and threatening, but as mentioned the dialogue portrays the conflict at the heart of the faction, the obsession with the machine and the veneration of human biology, Mechanicus would not feel the same if the humans spoke English like the Necrons.
On another hand… there is a reason why you can buy the OST on vinyl. Its quite special, blending a religious mass, with dark ambience, and electronics, every song is memorable and frankly fantastic, it is the perfect OST for Mechanicus but I believe my personal favourites are Millennial Rage, or Overlord.

Gameplay

Faustinius is a Magus, of course he should not risk the remains of his flesh against the alien menace, and with his emotions contained, but not expunged, he can make callous but necessary commands while being emotionally cognisant enough to read the morale and mood of his less favoured servants. So, send your cohorts into the dark depths of the Tomb World, search for forbidden knowledge, engage in holy Xenocide, all from the comfort of your bridge!

Mechanicus is split into two parts, your pre-mission preparations where you handle equipment, chose missions based on advisors or the randomised rewards; and the planetside portions of the game where you deal with events, destroy Xenos, and try to escape before the entire Tomb World awakens and launches a crusade against the Imperium.
That does mean what you think it does, there is a time limit, the longer you stay on a mission the harder it will become, and once you have completed the mission the Awakening Guage will increase by that amount. Once the Guage is maxed out… finale!
It is not as alarming as it sounds, there are ways to decrease the meter, and I had a wide margin remaining after finishing every single mission. If you are worried, here are a few tips: focus on the objectives, you will have plenty of items by the end of the game no matter what; destroy terminals, preferable after looting them; look at the catacombs before you start exploring, reset the mission if absolutely necessary, and do not pick the long way around because you failed to pay attention.

As for the actual combat it is highly enjoyable turn-based tactics, this is partly because of the sound design, but also because of the vast array of tech, and abilities you get.
One of my favourite strategies is stacking movement on my melee Tech-Priests and sending them rushing across the map to engage Immortals or other powerful ranged attackers. Another is stacking a bunch of buffs on one of my (Myrmidon) Destructors and clearing an entire room with a single shot from my Heavy Grav Canon, maybe killing one of my servitors in the process.
Which is another important part of Mechanicus, this is not a cohort of Tech-Priests, it is a cohort of Tech-Priests and their guards, this includes relics from the Legio Cybernetica, regiments of Skitarii, and an army of lobotomised servitors. Some of them are worth keeping alive, but not servitors, they are here safeguarding your holy corpus, you can even analyse their wounds to increase your combat effectiveness!
All this to say that they make you play like a Magos Dominus, servitors are free, you are rewarded when they get hit, while you lose resources if a Skitarii dies or a Tech-Priest gets injured, the mechanics incentivises roleplaying.

We also get a couple of unique, and fun bosses. They all play vastly different from each other, and they all have some sort of gimmick, like summoning an army of adds, throwing a gauntlet at you, switching their resistances &cetera. This is fun and a nice change up pace, and since you are fighting a single, powerful unit, it is always fun to surround them with a buffed firing line of Skitarii and decimating them with a volley or two!

"Lite" version of XCOM. Not difficult, not lengthy, not much depth. Just blast the soundtrack and blast the Necros.

Amazing tactical game.
Highly recommend to play on Ironman mode + Perma Death

This is a frustrating, unbalanced slog. Its pretty much a frustration based game.

Great spin on the tactical RPG genre. The game leans way less on randomness when compared to games like XCOM. Only thing where you can get shafted is in the random unlock department and the in game events choices, which can feel a bit arbitrary.
At the tail end it got a bit easy, because you can make some absolutely busted combinations. Troops felt pretty weak when compared to a squad full of techpriests and servitors, especially because troops consume the same resource you need to level. You also lose this resource when tech-priests get damaged, but it is pretty easy to end a mission with all your tech-priests at full health.
The cognition mechanic took some getting used to, but there are classes that help a lot with cognition management. I ended up really enjoying it.
All in all a solid 9/10 on its own, legs. Heartily recommended even if you aren't really into 40k (I'm not).

Most WH games are doodus. This one is an actual, competently made game. It's a bit too x-com lite for me, but that's a preference thing. It's a good game.

Not bad game, very simplistic in look but challenging in strategy

Xcom and Darkest Dungeon had a baby in the Warhammer 40K universe, I got it on special and it's good.

Maps and game modes can get a little repetitive, other than that another win for Warhammer

A fan of the 30k Mechanicum I was someone excited to play a game that focused on the Martian Priesthood. It took me a minute to work out gear and level options but I highly enjoyed the game and would recommend for anyone who enjoys this style of campaign.

Art style is excellent and faithfully represents the setting; my favourite part was that the Tech Priests all speak in binaric

Turn based strategy with an exploration choice style for maps. I didnt think I would like it at first, but it is a lot of fun and worth playing. The world building, the lore, and of COURSE the MUSIC and dialogue is amazing. I cannot wait for Mechanicus II.

Tool tips and tutorials are misleading. Enemies shoot glitch and shoot through walls, etc.

An incredibly well-presented game. Beautiful to look at with some of the strongest music and sound design in the business. As a tactics game, it is a little lacking, I'll admit. It is mechanically very simple and way too easy to dominate as you unlock more tech priests and bigger guns. It's also very repetitive, with a small selection of maps and an even smaller number of mission objectives. The overarching pressure mechanic a la X-COM is easy to game as well, and stops being a serious threat halfway through the game. But still, I had a really good time overall just listening to the music and stomping the Necron menace into the dirt. I enjoyed the story as well. It doesn't require excessive knowledge of 40k, and I found the NPCs entertaining, especially the one who seemed incapable of communicating in anything but hunting references. The Necron lords in particular are standouts, despite the briefness of their appearances. There are some truly excellent villain speeches in this game.

Recommended.

Beautiful game, beautiful soundtrack, but the one who decided that the DLC last boss shall have a second phase and have this time 2x HP must be fired and beaten.
But for the rest it feels too easy even on max difficulty, with permadeath and on ironman.

7/10

A good, though not great tactical strategy/rpg. Can be brutally difficult at times, even on lower difficulty settings, so be prepared. Best for 40k fans or those who love tactical rpgs.

You like strategy, Wh40k and ambience? Move your arse and buy this game, though beware of one thing; the difficulty curve is reversed! Meaning that the game is much, much harder at the start, but anyhow, this kind of game is what you getwhen the devs love the IP. Very recommended.

Enjoyable turn based 40k game - worth buying just for the soundtrack!

This is a great dungeon crawling game, fantastic music as well.

Mechanicus is one of the few games to fully take advantage of the Warhammer 40.000 franchise and it shows right from the introduction. The campaign is long and fun (supported by an incredible art direction and memorable soundtracks), with an interesting feature (it can be disabled) that sets the tone and urgency of the main quest: the player can play a limited amount of missions before the "Necron awakening meter" reaches 100% and closes all quest options with the exception of the final boss (the player will also have to fight all the Necron leaders still alive at this point). This forces the player to decide which quests are worth pursuing and which ones must be ignored, as weapons and equipments for the characters are rewarded at the end of each expedition. To access all missions players can either disable this feature or play multiple runs of the campaign, which also aids replayability.

The only problem worth a mention with Mechanicus is the difficulty curve: played at the higher difficulties, the game is unforgiving in the first missions only to turn trivial once the right equipments are obtained.

Buy for the soundtrack.

If you want other reasons, it has a powercreep on par with Xcom: Chimera Squad. You will feel that a single turn can make the difference. Easily stands among the better turn based combat games.

Unforgiving and highly rewarding combat with kits that drastically change the playstyle for each tech priest.

Excited for Mechanicus 2. Also I'm pretty sure my Magos' say "SOUP" like half the time. 10/10

Amazing game. Even better soundtrack. Looking forward to play sequel

Boy oh boy, friends, the ongoing exploration of the Shoulderpad Conflict is just getting bigger! See, it turns out that on top of the shoulderpad men who like zombies, and the ones who like blood, and the giant green Haruhis, there's another group we need to consider: What about the nerds?

Well, my friend, if you ever looked at Big Bang Theory and thought to yourself 'What if those guys wore masks and killed ancient egyptian robots... Well, to start, no you didn't and stop lying. But also, this game is going to meet your very specific requirements! Because we got all sorts of geeks, nerds, dorks, and dweebs, and they have all sorts of metal bits stapled on. You have

The Guy Who Thinks It's Funny To Talk Like A Computer - Scaevola, whose dialog will do its best to sound like computer code. He even manages to capitalize "GOTO" while talking. What a badass!

The Geekier-Than-Thou Guy: Videx is here for all of your 'I like geek stuff more than you like geek stuff' needs. He will never miss a chance to cite his 'scriptures,' many of which are actually just pop culture references!

The 'Emotions Are For Losers' Guy - Our friend Faustinus, who will make sure you know that when he has a feeling, it's because his emotional processors made him have it, it's not like he would ever do something as foolish as actually FEEL things.

And finally

The Big Brother Who Keeps Them Out Of Trouble - Big sister in this case, but Khepra is here to keep all these nerds from getting themselves killed.

At any rate, all of these fellows are followers of someone called an "Omnissiah," which may and may not be the Emperor. What we do know is that someone apparently did an "Omni" on him, because that's what the '-iah' part comes from. It makes the "Mashah" (the act of anointing) into something that was done to him (He is "The Anointed"). Now, how you go about Omni-ing people, I'm not sure, but I have no doubt that will be explained and the people who make Warhammer 40k definitely consulted their Hebrew-to-English dictionaries when writing it!

Now they've gone to Robot Ancient Egypt. Robot Ancient Egypt is a fascinating place, in that it's just a bunch of tombs and you go around and get attacked by robots in them. Apparently you and your buddies have gone to this planet to do some archaeology, and as anyone who has watched the Mummy movies knows, doing Archaeology around Egyptian tombs tends to lead to undead-based murder, and this is no exception!

Sadly, I have no idea what, if anything, this has to do with the saga of Guys Who Think Shoulderpads Should Have Spikes vs Guys Who Think They Shouldn't. Maybe there's nothing at all. Maybe this is the lynchpin of everything. Who knows? Not me, I'm determined to keep my knowledge of 40k exclusively to things I kinda picked up from the videogames. So goodbye for now, and I'll update this if the game reveals what any of this has to do with shoulderpads!

From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me.

I craved the strength and certainty of steel.

I aspired to the purity of the blessed machine.

Your kind cling to your flesh, as if it will not decay and fail you.

One day, the crude biomass that you call a 'temple' will wither, and you will beg my kind to save you.

But I am already saved.

For the machine is Immortal.

Even in death, I server the Omnissiah.

Extremely immersive game design. Great gameplay, similar to XCOM but without probabilities and an additional layer of exploration between combat levels and the campaign overview. It's got all the techno-lovecraftian tropes you'd hope to find in a mechanicus vs necron story. Also the music is some of the best to come out of a video game.

Just had to keep playing until I finished it. Was very enjoyable!

Ive been playing strategy my whole life and had been looking for a challenge, this hit that spot, the details, the story, all fit nicely.

Would recommend this game to other people^^

Great tactical game, amazing atmosphere, W40k fans will enjoy this.

Great visuals
Fantastic soundtrack
Fun gameplayloop

For everyone who likes Xcom (without the 90% misses) and a truly great addition for any Warhammer fan.
Bulwark Studios gave a niche faction a great moment to shine.

Play if you like the Mechanicus, if it's on sale, you like turn based strategy, and if you're really, really bored. Don't play if you're considering this as your entry into the 40k franchise or a Necron fanboy.

This game lacks a lot of basic QoL elements in the UI, such as telling you how much unused installation points you have for your tech priests, the range of the weapons, what type a module you're looking at or allow you to hover over a unit to check how much health a unit you aren't controlling has left. It could of also done with a form of cover element or an easy way to tell when an enemy has line of sight and range on your units. Pro tip: If the combat objective is anything else than 'kill all enemies', treat the objective like it said kill all enemies, because 9/10 times it's still going to make you do that.

Very atmospheric, very fun, worth the price of admission. But! Certain disappointments. Lacks certain mmph of competitors like XCOM, can't quite put finger on it. Also, branching paths disappoint, Faustinius did not change in outlook or temperament when siding with Scaevola! I wanted to go further down the rabbit hole! Hopefully Mechanicus 2 will take this further, keep up the great work!

Steamroll by specking every Priest into a portable Nuke and self-sustaining Apothecary.
It's monotonous but if you had roles, it'd be doubly so.
Poor on map layout variety and no challenge.

Seems to be some kind of character limit because the frustrating ambushes that cut you off in the beginning don't happen anymore, as you're able to fill out your roster for every excursion, outnumbering the enemies..
Soundtrack Good enough to be excited for the sequel...

Great game. Just got into Warhammer and fell in love with the Adeptus Mechanicus. Great intro to the army, and a fun turn based game play. The atmosphere is perfect!

A fun and interesting tactical game, definitely a game for 40K fans and fans of turn-based tactics games. Looking forward to its sequel.

Top notch soundtrack.
X-COM style gameplay without the accuracy.

Introduces the lore at a pace that beginners could still understand.
Worth it.

Battle system is fun but no deep non-battle strategy unfortunately

It's an easier and more forgiving XCOM-style game. The dialogue feels like a campy parody of how a race of engineers would communicate, but the gameplay loop remains fun.

It's got 40k lore, it's got X-Com style tactics, and it's got fun.

This game doesn't do anything amazing out of it's top down tactics gameplay but it really shines in it's lore and style. If you are a Warhammer 40k fan, this is a must play. Everything in this game from the weapons to the dialouge, even down to the in mission choices you make, are all inspired by the Adeptus Mechanicus. The writing is fantastic and you will learn more about these Adeptus Mechanicus freaks and why, IMO, they envy the necrons so much.

My biggest complaint is the "pick a path" choices within a mission seem very hard for me to understand. If you pay attention to the person you are doing missions for and their dialogue you can make informed decisions but I found them arbitrary and punishing at times. I wish a little more was done to clue you in on what to do.