The Last Mech Standing has a very generic story. The story is that you’re a mech commander or pilot that must save various planets you “land” on from the alien infestations.
I initially went into The Last Mech Standing thinking that it was going to be an epic mech game that would be similar to that of the Mechwarrior series or even Mech Assault from the days of the original Xbox. Instead of a massive mech to take control of in the games mentioned above, what you get with this game is a tower defense style game that the Meta Quest seems to be full of, but with no towers. You’re given a sword to attack your enemies with and after so many enemies are killed, you get a random perk you can choose from. You can’t run around in the mech, you’re just stationary, standing or sit in a single spot, swinging your sword (arm) around trying to kill the alien bugs and creatures that come at you in multiple waves.
Getting so far into the game or taking out enough of your enemies get you points that you can put towards a permanent bonus structure. But truthfully, the game is so slowly paced and tedious, that I couldn’t bring myself to play long enough to get to that point. The game tries to break it up by giving you flying enemies that come in, and you find yourself reflecting projectiles back at the enemies, which is fun at first, but quickly turns into an unwinnable fight to the death. Lasting for too long makes the game throw so many enemies at you that you are certain to die and forces you to take another run at the mission that you were destined to fail.
Last Mech Standing looks impressive with the size of enemies the game puts in front of you, and makes use of fog well. But aside from the hordes of bugs and the occasional environmental set pieces, the stage (can’t call it a level) is just dull and barren. Animations are well done, and the game performs really well with no slowdown or choppiness to the gameplay.
With there being next to no substance to the game, if the graphics and performance any worse, I would be hesitant to even call it a game at all. The game feels like the devs took an old school FPS shooter from the late 1990’s, bumped up the resolution, made the “mech” super small, and tossed a coat of “VR” paint on it and called it good.
Sound is really where the game shines, and is really the only place it shines. I mean yes as mentioned above, it looks and performs great, but the music is outstanding. Each track is punchy and hard hitting. Giving the game an action movie or action packed Quake “FPS” sound to it. The music in the game really makes it fun to take down the enemies with your sword and other weapons (presumably) you get.
Last Mech Standing could have been a hard hitting and action packed VR game that would have been a stellar experience, but what we got was so much less than that. The music with as awesome as it is makes it seem like at any minute, you’re going to break out of your comatose stance and just charge through the stage taking down hordes of enemies as you listen to a killer track!
So with the music giving you a false sense of action packed awesomeness, is the game worth picking up? Well if you like tower defense games without towers to manage, a sub-par rogue-lite experience, then yes, pick up The Last Mech Standing.
I hope the devs use this game as a means to learn what the Quest platform is capable of and we can one day get an awesome hard hitting mech game like I feel The Last Mech Standing could have been.
In addition to writing articles, Ryan Byers also creates content for his YouTube channel called "Obscure Games and Consoles", collects video games, and dabbles in video game development.