whenever i think about "keep politics out of video games" dudes i think of the fact that the most undisputed ftw mecha game series of all time starts with a choice of two missions, which are:

"kill some squatters"
"kill some strikers"

this is not intended to be a nice place (even if it does have reverse joint mecha)

whine about the controls if you like, i won't stop you, but it's my esteemed opinion that they got the feel of piloting a big magic metal dude so right in just this one game that they kept the core controls basically the same for the many many games between this and armored core nexus

absolutely abysmal balancing -- that one secret collectible weapon could beat the whole game if you welded it to a pickup truck -- but that only adds to the charm. you have to think carefully about your build, and often have no idea what the next mission could require. you'll have setbacks, you'll have absolute disaster missions. the difficulty spikes are a feature!