Ever since Bandai Namco’s New Gundam Breaker last year failed to grasp what I found fun in the previous Breaker titles, I’ve always been in the lookout for something to soothe that lust for a mech-on-mech action. And War Tech Fighters for the PS4 just happened to be the latest target of my endeavors. War Tech Fighters or WTF just to keep it plain and simple is a fun yet repetitive shooter while incorporating a bit of QTE to get away from the bullet sprayer that it is.
Don’t get me wrong though, there’s nothing wrong with a little bit of bullet spraying and a bit of QTE as its side gunner. However as most games with a similar genre, I always look for a good balance. But with most of my time getting shot with hundreds of bullets and missiles, the only form of recourse is to shoot them back from a distance to avoid getting showered from every angle. And it goes without saying that it can get very repetitive with its locked-on system in place which makes it a show of holding down a button rather than aiming with carefully placed shots and delivering lethal blows from their weak spots. While it does have some melee action, they are few and far in between when most fights are comprised of shooting holes at large warships and space stations rather than dueling enemy War Techs ‘til someone loses its lower half.
But despite its repetitive nature in its gameplay mechanics, there are quite a few mission types to go through. Some are okay while some are just an excuse to get away from being repetitive. This goes from stealth missions, extractions, escorts, so on and so forth.
Finesse is required to trek the vast nothingness that is space though. And as a floating piece of metal scrap, it can get pretty dicey to traverse space with precision. While you can move forward, backward, left and right with your left stick, there’s also the face buttons to go higher and lower in altitude which can be very daunting as soon as you’ve been tasked with finding specific key points whether its consoles to hack into or other stuffs that need scanning. Often times requiring you to be close enough and looking directly at it with your crosshair before you can press the button to initiate the command. Not to mention being timed at some points in the story.
A mecha game is never complete without customization. And WTF doesn’t disappoint in this regard. There’s a vast arsenal of body parts and weapons to choose from although not as huge and varied as what a Gundam Breaker would have which is acceptable given the fact that the franchise itself has a lot to take inspiration from. But most of which are locked through research which requires you to scour the universe clean of research materials to unlock them. And the issue goes back to its roots of repetitiveness. Before you could unlock or upgrade stronger pieces of hardware, you could find yourself going through countless of missions which at some point becomes excruciatingly difficult without proper preparation and level. There was even a point in the game I find myself stalling a new type of enemy mech as my allies try to deplete their numbers. And by stall, I really just mean running away as fast as I can which is not easy considering the enemy has godlike accuracy to hit me from far distances while my shots can’t register because it was out of my firing range.
Environment and visual-wise, there’s not a lot to talk about aside from the nothingness that is called space or the atmosphere of some planets. But visually, it’s pleasant and gorgeous. It can however get cramped with so much, including but not limited to, enemy markers, incoming missile warnings and everything in between.
VERDICT
Simply put, WTF is as simple as a game that is both easy to pick up and easy to put down. A game you could enjoy in quick and short bursts but gets awfully repetitive and at times excruciatingly difficult without proper preparation. It’s a game about hovering over space with a freaking huge hunk of metal ready to shoot at anything and everything that moves. There’s something good here but with it is tied to an easy game to get bored out of. It’s commendable that there are varied mission types to get out of a certain cycle however there could have been better ways to implement them. If you’re looking for a game to play on and off that is more about shooting and customization, then it might be worth looking into. If not, give it a hard pass.
