I have to say I was not going into this game with high hopes. On first look, it came across like a pocket racer type game and wasn't that appealing. Heavy Metal Machine still showed up on my radar so I wanted to at least give it a try. I set my clock for an hour and played the beta for Heavy Metal Machine by Hoplon.
The Experience:
Heavy Metal Machines is best described as a MOBA with cars. In this game, there is a bomb that is in the center of two goals. Your team of 4 goes up against another team in an attempt to grab the bomb and drag it to the enemies goal. The issue with the course is there are walls that the bomb cannot pass through but all other players can. If you are carrying the bomb you have to navigate this track while being chased and attacked by the enemy team.
You move by holding down the mouse button and pointing the mouse in direction you wish to go. You second button kinda works as a break/revers. Kinda because try using breaking with any effect. Each player has a car specific Q, W, and an R which is your ultimate that charges over time. Everyone has an E boost to help you catch up with the pack. I only had enough time to play a few of the machines but they definitely felt different. You can pick between support, ball carrier, or an attack machine. Each role is definitely important in the team comp.
One was an attack character named Wildfire and has a whirlwind attack, a fireball, and an AOE around her vehicle for an ult. She was a lot of fun. While people attack your ball carrier, who is working on the track, you are there to mess up them up. It not just about landing your fireball but getting in their way. In the later parts of the track, there is fire on the side that will deliver burn damage to you. You can ram enemies into this area as a way to take them out but a miss can also be fatal. It makes for some really intense gameplay.
The support machine I played was Artificer and I could not have felt more important. When a team is focusing on the ball carrier their health begins to tank pretty fast. As a support, it is your job to keep them up. Your damage is paltry but the heals keep your team in it. In a lot of battle arena games support sometimes feels a little on the outskirts, this was a different feeling altogether as it felt I had to exist. In fact, rolling against a team without one is pretty easy as they can't recover from the damage your team dulls out.
In the round, you will get a token currency where you can upgrade your vehicle and skills. The game did a terrible job of showing this in the tutorial. In fact, I don't think they do. There is a tutorial video I watched outside of the actual tutorial and these were never mentioned. The only way I learned about it was two games in when I noticed the upgrades at the end of the game. I had none and had no way of knowing where to get them. After searching the menu for several minutes I found the answer on the forum. Its a small little gear button on the top left of the screen and you can buy anytime in the round. Would have been really nice to know of this early on because some of these buffs can be really important.
There is the free currency you can get from games and a premium currency that is for real money. The premium currency seems really steep as you need something around $13 to get a high-end hero. You get more tickets then you need but you can't buy more than two of the high-end machines at that price. I think that is a bit ridiculous for a game that can potentially have dozens of machines. Then again, they do have founders pack with all character now and future for around $40. It might be worth if you are really into the game and believe it has a future. One thing I find interesting about the premium cost is it really doesn't seem worth it because you tend to build in-game currency at a pretty decent pace. Each racer can be bought with this currency as well so it doesn't feel like a monumental task to get all the machines for free.
The biggest complaint I have seen on the forums for this game is the controls are a bit wonky. While they are not very tight, I think that is the great part of this game. If any of you have played the old matchbox racing games you know how easy it was to accelerate and shoot past the corner. Take that idea and add the fact everyone is shooting at each other, the bomb is zigzagging through the map, there are parts on the map that can do damage to your vehicle and you have yourself an intense brawl. I found myself enjoying it and think the controls add to what this game is.
Heavy Metal Machine was a surprise to me. I found myself really enjoying my hour and plan to put some more game time in. The player base at the moment is a bit small but once again it's in early access and I never waited more than a few minutes. For early access, I haven't run into any big bugs yet either besides the support for widescreen isn't there. It will let you pick the ratio but the screen really doesn't fit correctly so I scaled down. Other than that this is a pretty fun and generally unique take on battle arena games. Its free to play so there is no reason not to try it out if this even remotely sounds in your boathouse. I am sure there are some of you who will find it as much fun as I have.
TL;DR:
Heave Metal Machine is a pretty solid battle arena game where you play cars rather than heroes. You play it a lot like a MOBA but the gameplay is like a matchbox car game mixed with a battle system. It's free to play so it's worth a round or two if you want to try it out.
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