Video Game Review - Override 2: Super Mech League

Rob Lake reviews Override 2: Super Mech League on Xbox One...

As any fan of Power Rangers, Transformers and even Pacific Rim will know: giant robots beating the scrap out of each other is awesome. The ability to control these towering mechanical beasts as they lay waste to their enemies with various weapons and flashy anime-inspired moves is pretty much every boy's dream. With this in mind Override 2: Super Mech League should tick so many boxes, but does it?...

Override 2 is a big departure from its predecessor. The planet defending storyline has all but vanished, as has the unique control scheme. In its place, however, is a generic brawler that feels anything but refined. 

The setup for Override 2 is very much like a brawler. You choose your mech out of a pool of 20 and then battle your opponent throughout a closed-off arena. The quirky controls of the original Override are now gone, and in their place is your more traditional brawler controls. With various light and heavy attacks at your disposal, you'll soon be laying waste to your opponent and the arena. Each mech also has an incredibly powerful super attack at its disposal. Although this requires a hefty charge time, utilising it is often devastating to your opponent. Its also mapped to a button, so is easily accessible to inexperienced players. 

If you here for the long game then Override 2 isn't for you. It's great as a pick-up and plays the party game, but don't expect an in-depth brawler such as Street Fighter V. There's a distinct lack of both game modes and types. There isn't a single player per-say but due to the lacklustre matchmaking, you'll struggle to find another player. This is the core issue to Override 2's problems. So participating within the Mech League sees you and your chosen mech participate in various battles. These range from 1V1, 2V2 and a fatal four-way. The problem is that 9/10 times you'll end up fighting a bot due to the lack of active players. This kind of defeat the object of having built-in matchmaking, and much like Street Fighter V, Override 2 would benefit from an option to turn this off. 

There is also a lack of variation within moves too, as there isn't any skill involved in winning. It all boils down to who can mash buttons the quickest. Due to this, I couldn't play Override 2 for any length of time. It just wasn't fun. Even the inclusion of 80's hero Ultraman couldn't build my enthusiasm for rising the Mech League. 

It's clear from playing with the bots that they aren't what Modus Games had in mind when developing the game. The bots lack any finesse and spend the majority of the bouts running away from you rather than attempting to fight. This more often than not results in a cat-and-mouse game as you attempt to chase the opponent mech down. Sadly upping the difficulty doesn't affect this, and even on the highest, they would still try to run rather than fight. 

If chasing your opponent down isn't your thing, there's also the constant fight with the game's camera. The camera issues boil down to being too close to your Mech. On occasion, the camera would physically get stuck behind a piece of scenery which then results in some frantic thumbstick jiggling to get it central. It's a nightmare when you're chasing the opponent Mech to suddenly be looking at a piece of the scenery. 

A more comical error can see these giant killing machines being beaten by a simple ditch. The first few times this happens it's pretty funny, but due to it happening quite often the novelty soon wears off. In one match early on, my A.I. opponent stood in a damaging pool of larva until it's health bar whittled away. 

My time with Override 2 was spent playing on the Xbox Series X. The title also benefits from also being an optimised title for the flagship console. It looks incredibly good, and combat (when it works) is filled with neon blasts and technicolour delights. 

Sadly these visual delights are hampered by the occasion loss of frame rate - which again is mainly down to the games poor camera. 

It's not all bad as the greatest thing about Override 2 is its character roster. There is a mech to suit every playstyle, and they all come in different shapes and sizes. My personal favourites were Aura and Pascal. Aura resembles a giant mechanical Angel who's equipped with twin swords that resemble beams of light. She's agile and pretty speedy - handy when you've got to run! 

The second mech is Pescado. So Pescado resembles a giant fish, who also happens to be a Luchador. It's fantastic to see a giant anthropomorphic fish send it's opponents to 'suplex city'.

Override 2: Super Mech League is a great party game. Regretfully it's nothing more than that. Whilst it has a fantastic roster, and great flashy anime-inspired visuals, it's hampered by poor controls and a camera that's anything but refined. The A.I. also lacks polish in its ability to fight, which goes towards a dull game, if you're not fighting a human opponent.

Rating 5/10

Override 2: Super Mech League is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC.

This title was reviewed on the Xbox Series X.

A review code was kindly provided for this review.

Rob Lake - For more comic book and video game chat why not follow Geek Culture Reviews on Twitter and Facebook @GeekCultureRev