Action-y, Flashy and Grindy.
At first glance Nitro Gen Omega looks like my kind of game. Bright and flashy anime mechas with an RPG turn-based battle system; I mean this is speaking my language. Nitro Gen Omega (NGO) is set in a bleak future dystopia where humanity has moved to cities atop massive pillars to avoid the rogue machine monsters who have roam looking for parts to make horrible human-machine abominations. Players will control a group known as the Fools, who make supply runs for these cities. I was into the premise of the game, but NGO’s steep learning curve and deep systems quickly overwhelmed me, and while I did find some fun, it took me much longer than I would have liked to get there.
The main narrative here isn’t anything new and is serviceable but the real emergent stories come from the bonds between the crew. Just like in the Fuga: Melodies of Steel games as the game progresses relationships between the crew members will grow and change as they battle side by side. The cool side about this system is that while some will become friends’ others can become rivals, which makes for some interesting situations as they will have to work together towards a common goal. Players will be able to send the crew to do activates on board the ship, things like karaoke, weightlifting and more. As players progress, they will unlock more activities like gardening or cooking. The spontaneous nature of the relationships helped make the game feel more alive and added to the main narrative.
MSRP: $29.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $29.99
These side activities will act as a way to recharge to crew in-between missions as well. In combat each crew member has their own traits and things that will make them better suited for a specific part of the mech. One might be better at driving, which also controls melee damage, another might be an engineer who is the support class. But don’t become married to any of the pilots as they can be killed during combat and they won’t respawn, which means all the time and effort spent on that person is lost, a lot like what happens in XCOM.
Mech combat is brutal, flashy and fun; players will be rewarded if they use a proper strategy. Each fight is broken up into four areas, each labeled N,E,W and S, these can be moved between and fought in. Melee combat requires that the target be in the same quadrant as the players mech, while ranged combat needs to be the opposite. Mechs can be equipped with a wide range of weapons, from flamethrowers, rocket launchers and more. As players progress, they will unlock more mechs with specialized buffs, like the Monk which was a melee brawler. There are lots of neat tricks that the games combat system allows too, like the ability for on member to give up their turn for another. Make sure you are certain before you lock in an attack because Nitro Gen Omega doesn’t let players go back and rechoose, which I for one didn’t like.
The area where Nitro Gen Omega shines brightest though is absolutely in its visual presentation. I don’t know another way of saying it, the game just looks downright cool. Like the classic anime that I grew up on in the 90’s and early 00’s, its all very flashy in its production. That being said though, the animations from battle maneuvers can get repetitive kind of quickly, especially in the early goings when players will have limited attacks. Another really big issue for me that may not be as big for others is Nitro Gen Omega is an EXTREMLY grindy game.
What that means is players will be forced to run contracts back-to-back in order to earn money to upgrade their mech. As they progress and complete main missions for some reason the game will spit some real high-level opponents at you and grinding levels and upgrades is the only way to continue. As much fun as the fights are, they begin to wear thin when you are forced to have 10 of them in a row, but if you love grinding in order to be OP my mid game, well then this is going to be on that you will love. As the menu and UI are really busy for no reason. Weird fonts and colors, then the fact that you have to navigate to so many screens just to do a simple task, it almost becomes too much.
But look though, even with those issues I still found Nitro Gen Omega to be a fun, charming, slightly frustrating, flashy, open world game. The combat is going to take you a while to get used to before it all clicks into place. It’s also one heck of a grind fest. Nevertheless, the top tier teambuilding and social systems really help to push players to care for their crew and with that Nitro Gen Omega manages to rise above the little issues that I had with it.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
