Megaton Musashi W: Wired was supplied by LEVEL 5 Inc. for assessment. Thanks!
Once I began enjoying Megaton Musashi W: Wired, I had little data of the supply materials, however after enjoying the sport, I turned extraordinarily within the franchise. The unique recreation was launched in 2021 in Japan solely, whereas an anime adaptation was created later that very same yr. Earlier this yr, we obtained an English launch after a ton of content material had been launched, and it was all packaged collectively on this model of the sport. And after I say a ton of content material…I actually imply a TON of content material, and I adore it all.
The story of Megaton Musashi W: Wired, and actually your entire collection itself, hooked me nearly immediately as soon as I discovered what was occurring. Earth was attacked by aliens, and most of humanity has been worn out. To save lots of whoever they might, the remaining people had been put right into a dome-like metropolis with new recollections so they might proceed residing with out the burden of remembering what the horrific assault took from them, whereas a small group would battle again utilizing big robotic mech fits that they created. All through the length of the sport, we’ll observe excessive schoolers who’re recruited to pilot these mechs and hopefully save the world.
The story itself began off on a excessive word and went proper into the majority of the story comparatively quick. There have been a stable quantity of tutorials to undergo, which did put on me down a bit of since I needed to get to the gameplay, nevertheless it makes a bit of little bit of sense since our heroes are new to this. I discovered every of the characters to be fairly distinctive and distinct from one another, all whereas attempting to deal with an enemy they do not utterly perceive. I liked the primary battle of the story, and whereas it falls into some anime tropes because it continues, I used to be hooked till the top.
There are two distinct artwork kinds used all through the sport. For if you end up outdoors of missions, we’ve a extra 2D anime fashion to run round from place to put, whereas in missions, you’re enjoying on a 3D aircraft with a bit extra element to it. Each of the kinds look nice and work extraordinarily nicely for the sport, although the 3D environments did look much less detailed by comparability.
Then, we’ve the gameplay loop, which is well my favourite a part of the sport. There are two elements to the gameplay loop, and I’ll begin with the precise missions. Within the missions you settle for, you’ll go round an open subject in your mech and take part in hack-and-slash fight, destroying different big robots made by aliens. You go in with three melee weapons and three weapons, which you’ll both shoot from the hip or intention down in third-person sights. Additionally, you will have completely different particular assaults that may do large quantities of injury.
It is a bit senseless, however as a fan of the Dynasty Warriors, this was up my alley. It is also fairly cool to have the ability to swap between every of the weapons you convey with you, with execs and cons for every. Enemies have completely different weaknesses to particular weapons or weapons, so bringing a diversified arsenal is crucial to take advantage of out of your assaults. The particular assaults are additionally very distinctive and thrilling, all of them having cool visible results and a few having some type of interplay with aiming. You’ll be able to even “pause” the sport to restore completely different sections of your self in battle. It does not really cease the sport from operating however places you right into a menu to restore.
Megaton Musashi W: Wired additionally has a ton of missions and completely different modes. There’s offline missions that embody the story, aspect missions, treasure missions, and problem missions, however we even have on-line modes that let you partake in missions with associates, in addition to a Colosseum mode to go face to face in 3v3 versus fight.
Then, we’ve the mech customization outdoors of missions, which is each large and deep. Whenever you full missions, you’ll get supplies and new elements on your mech, which might drastically change your stats. You will get new melee weapons and weapons, however may get new heads, arms, and leg sorts to equip. These vary in design, rarity (which signifies what number of mods you possibly can placed on it), and rank. Increased-rank tools tends to have higher stats general, so it would be best to improve steadily as you get new stuff. You’ll get this new gear, supplies, and tools fairly often, so the grind does not really feel too troublesome.
We are able to additionally customise our motherboard, permitting us to place in much more modifications and alter out our particular strikes. We are able to unlock extra mods and particular strikes utilizing crafting supplies you get whereas enjoying to analysis them. These supplies may also be used to craft new elements and weapons and goal particular rarity ranks. You can too swap out completely different pilots that every have their very own expertise which you could unlock and improve.
On prime of all of this, we’ve retailers, premium passes, collaboration content material, completely different courses of mechs, completely different sub-types of weapons, weapons, mech proficiency bonuses, and extra which have elevated what gadgets we are able to use to customise. There are even methods to not solely change your mechs look with completely different coatings of paint, you possibly can even put in little equipment within the cockpit. The quantity of choices you may have is insane and may typically really feel a bit of bit overwhelming. Fortunately, there are methods to let the sport optimize for you, which makes it simpler to decide on gear for many who get confused.
As a result of recreation releasing with all the content material that it had accrued over a few years, the quantity you may get and do is insane. And with a lot content material and replayability, it’s a good recreation for the Steam Deck.
Megaton Musashi W: Wired – Steam Deck Efficiency
Megaton Musashi W: Wired’s construction is ideal for the Steam Deck, and by chance, efficiency follows swimsuit! The 2D areas the place you’re operating round speaking to individuals run flawlessly on the Deck, getting beneath 8.5W battery drain at 60 FPS, however the 3D areas could be a bit extra taxing on the system. Relying on the mission, there will be some excessive battery drain and a few framerate drops, however we do have some adjustments we are able to make to create as a lot of an fulfilling expertise as doable.
Lots of the framerate drops got here from being too near results, some particular strikes (just like the Megaton Punch), or a lot of enemies on the display together with a giant boss or mini-boss.
Really useful Settings
My most popular technique to benefit from the recreation was at some decreased settings, together with a forty five FPS framerate restrict and a TDP restrict of 9. This felt like essentially the most secure mixture that additionally decreased battery drain to stay beneath 13W always with a median of 10.5W drain in missions. Every part nonetheless feels fairly clean, and there should not practically as many drops as when attempting to play at 60 FPS.
95% of the drops that may happen at 60 FPS are fastened with these settings, however there should still be drops in some missions. Within the missions I skilled them in, I did return to replay them, however I could not replicate the difficulty. I’d take into account {that a} good signal, however use these beneficial settings realizing there might be some doable drops right here and there.
60 FPS Settings
I additionally performed round with the settings to discover a 60 FPS construct, and whereas there are a couple of extra drops, this works nicely. We are able to improve the standard settings to be near the utmost, too, since we already want an unlocked TDP restrict to stay to 60 FPS as a lot as doable. There are nonetheless some moments, like I discussed above, that may have some drops in-game, and there are a bit greater than the beneficial settings, nevertheless it nonetheless works rather well.
More often than not, battery drain will stay round 13W – 14W, however can improve to 21W relying on the scenario. I additionally seen that the sport would typically stick at 59 FPS as a substitute of 60, nevertheless it nonetheless feels extraordinarily clean.
Accessibility
when it comes to the settings you possibly can change, we’re in a position to change digicam pace and vibrations, message show pace, randomize mission completion dialogue, flip off cutscenes for tremendous uncommon gadgets, toggle cross-play, and completely different shows, change completely different results on the HUD, change keybindings and sound bars, and select completely different textual content languages (although voice traces will all the time be in Japanese).
Megaton Musashi W: Wired does not help 16:10 resolutions sadly, nevertheless it does have cloud saves and controller help. You’ll be able to allow HDR, however sadly, it solely makes issues very saturated.
Conclusion
Megaton Musashi W: Wired blew me away on a number of fronts and has turn into one among my two favourite mech video games to play on the Steam Deck. The hack-and-slash gameplay loop with the intensive, deep customization choices to make the mech I needed to have. I like the constant grinding and getting new tools, which occurs fairly often and makes the grinding really feel rather more fulfilling. And the loop is ideal on the Steam Deck, which we are able to fortunately expertise with out a lot challenge!
Our assessment relies on the PC model of this recreation.
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