Mechabellum is a conversation you should be having

Mechabellum is a conversation you should be having | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these FPS Marathon review: 77 hours later Action Crimson Desert review: The Forza Horizon of action RPGs RPG Crimson Desert is great because it’s a total mess, not in spite of it, and I hope Pearl Abyss doesn’t change too much Strategy ‘Realtime-with-pause is not dead,’ says lead designer of promising turn-based game Star Wars Zero Company FPS Marathon ignores extraction shooter ‘rules’ and is better for it Games The best indie games on PC FPS Starship Troopers: Extermination’s latest update adds a big stompy mech, ideal for squashing the shooter’s newly polished bug holes Strategy After a decade of stale turn-based tactics, Menace is a breath of fresh air Strategy In defense of XCOM: Chimera Squad RPG I’ve already put 10 hours into this upcoming RPG’s demo because it has the best combat I’ve seen outside a FromSoft game RPG Monster Hunter Stories 3 review: An excellent monster battler bogged down by a war story without stakes RPG It’s only March, but I’m calling it: Esoteric Ebb is 2026’s best RPG and the first worthy successor to Disco Elysium Strategy Terra Invicta review Third Person Shooter Let’s settle this: Should Arc Raiders add a PvE mode? Strategy Heart of the Machine review: A fascinating grand strategy RPG that starts to buckle under its own ambitions PopularSpring SaleClipsCrimson DesertMarathonBest PC gearQuizzes Games Strategy Mechabellum Mechabellum is a conversation you should be having Features By Jake Tucker published 28 March 2026 Them’s fighting words. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Paradox Arc) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter PC Gamer The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday GamesRadar+ Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you’re going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Signup + Every Thursday GTA 6 O’clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O’clock experts. Signup + Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what’s on the horizon. Signup + Every Thursday The Setup Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more. Signup + Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo’s new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play. Signup + Every Saturday The Watchlist Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter There’s a new Mechabellum season, which means I can get onto my tiny soapbox and beat my “PLAY MECHABELLUM” drum. Mechabellum is a 1v1 (and occasionally 2v2 or even 1v1v1v1) autobattler where you slap down giant mechs and then make them fight each other. It is probably one of the best strategy games I’ve ever played and yet hardly anyone has heard of it.So, prepare to be convinced.At a surface level, Mechabellum works because all of the mechs are blowing each other up. Your favourite mech is in here tearing it up. Do you want little Gundam-looking things with sniper rifles? They’re here. Tiny spider-bots? Yup. Flying saucers? You bet.Article continues below You may like Turns out the best way to succeed in this new mech vs kaiju roguelike deckbuilder is just to jump up and down on your enemies’ heads like a 200 ton Mario Battle Suit Aces review: The best spaceship deckbuilder since Cobalt Core In defense of XCOM: Chimera Squad Drop 10 hours into it, and you’ll get past that and see that what makes Mechabellum genuinely good isn’t just that it’s a well-made strategy game. There are plenty of those. It’s that it understands something a lot of modern competitive games forget: the real pleasure of strategy isn’t execution, it’s interaction.Mechabellum is at its best when it feels like a conversation between two players rather than a test of memorisation. You place a line of Crawlers; your opponent responds with area damage. You pivot into heavier units; they counter with air. Each round is a small negotiation. New seasons tend to restore that conversational feel because the “correct” answers aren’t fully established yet. It’s less about copying a meta and more about thinking on your feet. (Image credit: Dreamhaven)That idea—strategy as dialogue—is what gives the game its edge.A lot of competitive games drift toward optimisation. Over time, they become about learning the right builds, the right timings, the right sequences. You study, you replicate, and if you execute cleanly enough, you win. Mechabellum resists that pull, or at least slows it down. Because while there are strong units and known synergies, nothing exists in isolation. Every decision is contextual, tied directly to what the other player is doing right now.The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware dealsKeep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to