Have you ever played a game which catered to your tastes so specifically that it was almost suspicious? Like the developers had been spying on you, and made the weird mashup game that you had always wanted? That’s what this game is for me. Of the couple game ideas I’ve dreamt about, one of them would be heavily centered around customizing mechs. I love the mecha aesthetic, and the idea of tooling up futuristic weaponry to suit your style really resonates with me. I also love the less serious side of scifi, from pulp stories like Terminator to heartfelt looks to the future like Star Trek. For a game to come out that’s those two things smashed together, I was going to love it regardless of any inelegancies. And really, inelegance is what defines Aegis Rim. The real-time, top-down, and abstracted mecha combat is so far removed from the sidescrolling visual novel it’s attached to that it feels like two unrelated games were just glued together. Not only that, but each of the two games will occasionally block each other until you’ve made a certain amount of progress, and each of the thirteen protagonist stories can even block each other in the same way. If you don’t absolutely adore both the pulpy sci-fi narrative and the mecha combat, this clunky pacing will make you lose patience before the end of its thirty-hour runtime. However, I just can’t escape that this game unapologetically caters to a niche I love. It’s so full of twists and crazy reveals that it feels like a love letter to every piece of pop sci-fi made since 1954. The characters are all lovable and relatable, and I appreciate how their mechs have unique equipment sets to reflect their personalities. I love blasting kaiju with so many rockets that the PS4 struggles to handle all the explosions, with punchy sound design putting it over the top. It also has some notable features and polishes that I really appreciate, like automatically organizing a timeline of story events by character, and having a countless amount of postgame levels for people like me who are always looking to smash stuff with mechs. While I recognize its flaws, they’re the kind I’m able to forgive for an unapologetic celebration of my personal niche. It’s a bit like a Main Battery Heavy Railgun, in that for anyone outside the direct target audience, it will probably whiff completely, but for people like me, it hits hard.

Reviewed on Mar 08, 2021


Comments