The main selling point of Mekkablood: Quarry Assault to me is its UI. A dirty, greasy mecha cockpit obstructing the majority of the screen is a clever way of presenting an old-school shooter in a different aspect ratio without sacrificing the screen space provided by the modern, larger resolutions. Unfortunately, I once again had to face the sad truth that one cool idea does not a good game make.
Regardless of this cool perspective, Mekkablood is just a completely dull experience. A first-person retro shooter with nothing to offer besides an idea for how to present them to a new audience, occasionally mixing the constant mindlessness with a drop of irritation. At one point, my body tried to forcibly make me fall asleep so that I did not have to engage with it further. I suppose that was a unique feeling, so it has that going for it.
In these maze-like levels requiring keycards to open certain doors you will find room after room of completely unthreatening enemies and crates providing a seemingly endless supply of health, shields, and ammunition, just so that you do not have to worry about anything for too long. Starting with a shotgun and close-range saws, you may get the impression that the close-range combat may make for exciting encounters, but that bubble bursts soon after, each new weapon providing ways of eliminating everything at a safe distance.
The few rushing enemies do deal a lot of damage, but with a game where some guns have infinite range, you have to force yourself to face any danger. Far more threatening are explosive barrels, which destroy you in one shot and often hide right next to the aforementioned crates. One little nudge and boom! A loud death screen and then back to the last checkpoint, which also respawns all enemies in the level.
The few deaths I did experience were largely at the hands of these explosives, with the others caused by risks taken in a desperate attempt to maybe run past enemies and get to the end of yet another drab stage. There is little to spice up the gameplay here, and the few attempts do an awful job. An elevator with few turrets strewn throughout, an instakill crusher which is the only time where you might want to use a melee charge ability, a platforming section with moving platforms that are way louder than anything else in the game, and whose sound effects constantly crackles on top of that.
On the audio side, Mekkablood is among the worst shooters I have played in the past few years. Be that your guns or enemy projectiles, everything lacks a punch, with slight improvements coming in the form of upgraded weapons found later in the game. Still, they do completely drown out the music, and with no audio options to speak of other than a master volume slider (same for the majority of other options), there is no way to even adjust this issue on your own.
Not that it is much of an issue compared to everything else, as the music consists of uninspired, AI-generated guitar riffs that loop in a completely unsatisfying manner. That is far from the only part of the game that is AI-generated. Suffice it to say Mekkablood did not convince me that these kinds of tools are beneficial to the development of games, with textures, pixel art, and voice acting, all also AI-generated to some extent, sometimes awful to the point of comedy.
If I were told that every visual in this game was AI-generated, I would not be surprised. The side profiles of these 2D enemies and objects which snap to your position as you move, are often comically disproportionate in size to their front-facing models. The color coding is also incredibly poor, with no thought being put into making any elements pop out against the drab tilesets of the quarry you are traversing.
Each level begins with what sounds like someone held at gunpoint to say anything of substance about the upcoming level, even if there is nothing to be said. The protagonist’s (Bill’s) friend Rusty sometimes attempts to joke about the mecha pilot’s intelligence or smell, but for many levels, he says little more than “an X thing” is in the level, to which the protag groans in his best, though still awful, Duke Nukem impression.
This really culminates in the level in which Rusty claims we should watch out for falling rocks, mocking Bill for his inability to read. Minutes into the stage, however, you will discover that no falling rocks are present. All of them have already fallen, and serve as little more than meaningless obstacles that can be destroyed with saws. What was the point of warning me? They present zero danger, and the level plays the same as any other: completely lacking in variety.
At times, in the later stages (and with the added caveat of forcing myself to rush forward and not eliminate all enemies from a distance), Mekkablood felt like an almost semi-competent retro shooter. Coupled with the straight-up awful AI content and sleep-inducing level design though, the whole package feels like it purposefully tries to take you out of the experience, remove all tension, and just crawl to the end of a generic four-hour campaign. It does not just lack intensity, it is a game that is actively anti-intensity.
What is there to derive from an experience that feels like it does not even care about making sure things look right when looked at from an angle, let alone what a player is supposed to feel? Really, how am I supposed to feel when my reward for beating the game is three AI-generated and animated faces on a black background meant to represent these awful non-characters mentioned throughout the game, throwing more awfully voiced quips? Once you get past the store page and into the game, nothing about Mekkablood: Quarry Assault is worth checking out. Like the piles of trash overflowing Bill’s cockpit, this mess is best forgotten.
Mateusz played Mekkablood: Quarry Assault on PC with a review code.
I like this game. I often play online games. But I like this one for its unique combination of retro aesthetics and modern gameplay. Mech control provides a sense of power and weight, and a variety of weapons allows you to choose between ranged attacks and melee combat. A detailed cockpit with interactive elements such as rearview mirrors and collectible figures adds depth and personality to the gameplay experience.