Sometimes, it's best to read what's on the tin.

M.A.S.S. Builder. A game about building battlemechs and taking them for a test in increasingly difficult missions. Most of the game actually revolves around building your own custom mech, whether it's from stock parts (but in METICULOUS detail) or even by making your own parts from basic shapes. Even for someone who can only make a collage out of stock parts, I found the building part to be rather fun. Though it would be nice if the more complex aspect wasn't obtuse and rather unintuitive but that's nothing Earth-shattering. I managed to figure out custom paints at least.

Onto the gameplay part, the part where you're taking your mech for a (bumpy) test ride. I am playing with mouse/keyboard and am pretty satisfied with the controls. Didn't even need to rebind anything, and that's usually the FIRST thing I do in most games of this kind, 2D and 3D alike. But the gameplay is best described as a gem in the rough. On one hand, the game offers high-speed, Gundam-like action and even allows for dash-cancelling your attacks, but on the other hand, mechs still feel like mechs when it comes to combat, melee more than anything. And you'll be doing that a LOT, since ranged weapons don't pack half the power melee does. It feels as if the game has a bit of an identity crisis. The enemy numbers are pretty high (not exactly like Dynasty Warriors but still rather high) but already in chapter 3, the bigger ones start packing quite a wallop. Stop for 3 seconds, you get dogpiled on and your M.A.S.S. is blown to bits. And that's with Frames and Engines labeled as "built for sustained combat". Boss fights are... sometimes infuriating. The Quark types are colossal and VERY mobile for their size. Respawning enemies are mostly fodder you eliminate for ranged weapon ammo... but your ranged weapons are as effective against bosses as is throwing grapes at a charging rhinoceros. So most of the time, you're chasing the bosses around hoping not to get dogpiled on. You can avoid that in some fights by hitting the boss while flying, but Mission 19, for example, has enemies which actively aim at you and can take you down. The situation is similar when you're fighting enemy M.A.S.S. units. Bosses are even more mobile and elusive, often pack heavy ranged firepower, are accompanied by endlessly respawning grunts... and can always escape you with thrusters. And all boss types have VERY high HP, so the fights are awfully long with how you're constantly forced to chase down the bosses while constantly under attack from grunts. And some of them pack a serious punch, as if the bosses were not dangerous enough.

Finally, there's a pretty serious flaw with the development sub-menu between missions. It can't be navigated, so higher level options simply can't be clicked on. This REALLY needs to be fixed ASAP.

Conclusion: The game has a lot of potential both for "build-a-mech" players and those who just want the action part. But the boss fights really need some rebalancing and the player-used ranged weapons some buffing. It takes at least one entire magazine for taking down a GRUNT, so ranged firepower doesn't even tickle boss types. Maybe at least a reduction in the amount of grunts spawned during a boss fight. All in all, it's still a game I do recommend but also want to point out a few things I believe need improvement.

I may be biased, but I currently would only recommend this game for the builder.

Upon entering the game's building editor, I was really surprised by everything that you could do with it! There are custom pieces or other parts that you can unlock through the story. However, I personally only bought this game with the hopes to have the freedom to create mechs and was disappointed to learn that many parts needed to be grinded for through the gameplay missions.

The gameplay itself is... a bit mind-numbing. I personally do not find any interest with it and it has come to the point where I am setting this game aside in the hopes of having some kind of creative/sandbox style mode you can turn on to allow people to just build rather than force the gameplay. That said, parts are not necessarily required to make impressive builds! The custom pieces really do let you make some awesome stuff!

I think that this game does have potential in it's current Early Access state, but I would love to see them lean more into allowing the players to choose if they want to play the story and missions, or to have freedom to just build. It would also be worthwhile to work on the flow of the gameplay to improve it's appeal for the missions and combat. It can be a bit finicky and simple (not entirely a bad thing) but as this is an Early Access Game, it can be expected.

Looking forward to see how this game grows in the future!