I don’t know a lot in regards to the Gundam franchise past just a few reminiscences of the older reveals after they aired on Toonami again within the day. Young Zack appreciated the massive mech battles. And in 2022, I nonetheless like massive mechs. I additionally like team-based shooters. So fortunate me, Gundam Evolution mashes collectively the well-known mechs from the Gundam franchise with gameplay similar to Blizzard’s common hero shooter, Overwatch. The finish result’s quite a lot of enjoyable, but additionally a bit unbalanced.

Released final week on Steam, Gundam Evolution is a brand new free-to-play first-person shooter set within the common anime universe that includes a big collection of iconic mechs from the reveals. Each of those mechs has its personal weapons, skills, and supers. These highly effective tremendous assaults are unlocked through the match as you kill enemies and full aims. If this sounds lots like Overwatch, wait till you see the in-game HUD and visuals. But hey, should you’re gonna copy one other recreation, Overwatch ain’t a foul alternative. And Gundam Evolution is extra than simply an anime reskin of Blizzard’s staff shooter.

One of the most important variations is that Gundam Evolution contains a “Down But Not Out” system ala Gears of War or Battlefield. So whenever you go down, you’ll be able to request for somebody to revive you, and anyone in your staff can deliver you again to life. However, anybody on the opposite staff can (and sure will) blast you open with a laser rifle and drive you to respawn. This wrinkle makes massive staff fights really feel completely different than in Overwatch, as a single participant operating away and looping again round to revive just a few individuals actual quick can flip a profitable rush right into a horrible failure.

While the revival system does change issues up a bit, anybody who has performed quite a lot of Overwatch will probably really feel snug hopping into this Evolution. Many of the controls and even the in-game UI really feel straight ripped out of Overwatch. What is lacking, although, is Overwatch’s stability and polish.

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Gundam Evolution isn’t damaged or something. In my few hours with the sport, it ran advantageous and I used to be capable of finding matches shortly with little to no lag. But matchmaking isn’t very balanced. Nearly each match I performed was an entire blowout. Either our staff would stomp the opposite staff in minutes, or the alternative would occur. And this may result in gamers getting annoyed and leaving, making issues worse. It’s a disgrace as a result of the few matches I performed with balanced groups have been actually enjoyable. There’s a snappiness to the fight in Evolution that I take pleasure in lots. You each really feel like a giant, highly effective mech but additionally really feel quick and exact. It’s good. But it’s onerous to take pleasure in that when the sport retains tossing me and others into one-sided slaughter-fests.

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If some of the matchmaking issues can be solved and some of the more powerful mechs nerfed a tad to stop them from controlling matches as much, Gundam Evolution could end up being something special. As someone with basically zero interest in or knowledge of the franchise, I still had a blast playing Evolution. And I imagine megafans of the series will enjoy this new shooter just as much as I did if not more, due to their historical past with Gundam. But till issues are a bit extra balanced and constantly enjoyable, it’s powerful to advocate people take a look at this Evolution until they don’t thoughts some delicate frustration and terrible matches.

Gundam Evolution is out now on Steam. It’s deliberate to launch later this yr on consoles.