Mechanicus is a pretty decent game, but unfortunately, not much more than that. If you like A) turn-based combat, B) single-player campaigns, and C) Warhammer 40k then I'd recommend getting this game IF THERE IS A SALE. What it gets right: The 40k atmosphere is spot on. There are a bunch of very talky tech-priests and other AdMech personalities that provide an overall good narrative. It's really fun the first time, easily skippable on later playthroughs. The soundtrack is AMAZING. What's decent: The gameplay is simple enough to grasp. You probably want to play a few missions, then restart the campaign. If you do, you should be able to play through it with minimal difficulty. The graphics are decent. What's not so good: The game is HORRIBLY REPETITIVE for all its good sides. Almost every mission is EXACTLY the same, with virtually no variation. Get's really tedious after the first 10 missions. The simplicity of the game system compounds the problem. You can't miss, and most weapons have only a slight damage span. There is no cover and no real tactics beyond focusing down 1 enemy at a time. In addition, the Necrons (the only enemy, but quite a few unit types) are slow AF, dumb AF, and don't do much damage if you invest in some energy armor. After playing through the game once, you definitely don't want to go back in for more. VERDICT: It's not a horrible game, but it's not a particularly good game either. It can be fun for a few hours but is ultimately let down by its simplicity. Get it on the cheap.
After KotOR 1... KotOR 2 falls falt on its face. The main issue is the game isn't finished. It's just a whole lot of good ideas, but somewhere along the line the makers just lost focus and then someone in maagement screamed "RELEASE ON MONDAY!" and then they just boxed and shipped it half-complete. There are SO MANY BUGS in this game it's not even funny. And I'm not talking about broken quests and whatnot (that too), but the sheer number of technical issues. For me the no. 1 is trying to play this on a modern Win machine, it constantly getting stuck. I try to interact with a console, but I'm too far away, so I get stuck. Exiting combat with my main cahracter selected, get stuck. Trying to move past a droid. Stuck. Trying to walk through a door. Stuck. Quick save/load usually clears it, but man is it annoying. Kind of weird they managed to take a relatively bug-free KotOR engine and make it a LOT worse :-/ AI scripts are even dumber than KotOR 1. Universally count on your NPCs running across every mine in sight. Or rushing up to then enemy to hit them with a sword - after you specifically ordered them to trigger a force power AND they are on Jedi Support. I dimly remeber raging at the screen 10+ years ago... Then there is content. I've played for hours and hours now, well into Dantooine, and I'm like lvl 14, and although I'm a Jedi I still don't have a lightsaber to my name. Nor has anything interesting happened really. The "prelude" with the droids... kind of cute, but 100% pointless. Waking up an amnesiac. Again? Didn't we do that in KotOR 1? So much running back and forth and slicing computers and opening doors... this is not a Jedi game at all. I'm jedi in name only. After what feels like forever I get off the damn rock. Then the space station. Back into a force cage. Forced into a room. Equipment gone. Ship gone. Dick around for a bit. Get a shuttle. Get shot down. Get another shuttle. Get shot down again. Force caged AGAIN. This AIN'T fun AT ALL!!!!
It's a game that takes the Infinity Engine and really improves upon it. So a big plus for me there, as I've enjoyed iE games in the past (and continue to do so). The main problem is the game is just... quite boring. Quest are boring, main story boring, joinable NPCs boring. I'm also not really feeling the classes. Maybe there are some hidden gems in there, but meh. And what's the deal with the dual health system? I just don't get it.
