AirMech Arena

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Free to play "action RTS" that appears to have MOBA elements; coming to PS4 this spring.

AirMech Arena will be heading onto Xbox One and PS4 in spring 2015. Bring the free-to-play action strategy experience into the new generation and compete against the rest of the world. Take control of transforming weapons called AirMechs and protect your base against enemy AI or other players. Collect up to nine AirMechs and deploy defense units to stop your opponents from getting to your base. Zip around the sky or transform into your ground mode to engage enemies head-on.

As you progress, you’ll earn kudos (in-game currency) that can be used to unlock upgrades, pilots and units. You can also customize your appearance with exclusive skins and effects. Complete quests in solo games or partner up with friends and play cooperatively online. Work together to take down your enemies and capture their territory. Test your skills in a ranked match, or try out an unranked match for some practice. If you don’t feel like playing, you can always try out the spectator mode. Watch your friends’ matches or check out some of the top competitive players in action.

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Fellow UbiBlog Editor Gary Steinman and I are deep in a 2v2 co-op match in AirMech Arena. As one of us builds units and drops them on the battlefield, the other runs scouting missions to take in the defenses of the enemy bases and get a general feel for the map. I grab a few tanks and send them out toward the closest base, making sure to attach healing bots to them in case they run into too much trouble. As we push forward on the map, Gary sets up turrets around the bases we win. I warn him of an enemy Mech approaching and we work together to take him down. This teamwork and communication is the heart of AirMech Arena, and James Green, Co-Founder of Carbon Games, took us through some of the intricacies of the recently announced game.

So what exactly is AirMech Arena?

AirMech Arena is the Xbox version of our free-to-play action RTS game. We’ve wanted to make it for a long time. We started on the PC side of things because it was easier to iterate, but we wanted this game to really live on consoles. From day one we designed it to be played with a controller because we wanted this to be an action RTS. I wanted it on the Xbox even before the 360 came along. But now is just the right time for this type of free-to-play MOBA hybrid game.

What makes now the right time?

When I originally designed AirMech MOBAs didn’t really exist on consoles, but now they do so it’s a lot easier to get people excited about the concept. We needed a publisher that wasn’t going to try to change the game. Ubisoft was the only publisher that agreed it should be free-to-play and follow the competitive eSports theme. They haven’t messed with us at all over the gameplay. We were comfortable working with them and that’s why it’s great to do this right now.

What’s different between the original PC game and AirMech Arena?

It’s the same full game as the PC. The updates we made to the PC version – new classes, new maps, balance changes and tweaks – will all make it over to the console version as soon as we can update it.

What are the different modes we’ll see in the game?

The core game is built around either 1v1, 2v2 or 3v3, played cooperatively or against other players. You can sort of pick what competitive level you want to enter at and I always suggest people start with co-op. Playing two-player co-op – even if you’re playing with random partners – is a good way to ease into the game. You’ll see people bringing down tanks and doing different things and you start to learn from somebody else. Then you can decide you like the guy you’re playing with and you can make him your friend, play more, practice, and maybe go into PvP eventually.

Some people only play 1v1 because they’re super hardcore competitive and they don’t want to rely on a teammate or they’re afraid the teammate is going to screw them up. 1v1 moves at a slower pace and it’s more tense. If you’re playing 2v2 or 3v3 it’s more chaotic.

Then we also have the Survival mode, which is a spin on tower defense. We had all the pieces in place. There was no change to the AirMechs or the units. We just put one fortress in the middle and keep spawning waves of enemies. It works really well.

But is playing against the AI as fun as playing against other people?

The mechanics are what make the game so fun. It’s really fun to just fly around, pick things up, experiment with strategies and upgrade your Mech. It’s very cat and mouse when you’re playing against the AI. When I play against the AI it’s relaxing. The AI is competent and scales up as you get better, but it’s still a controllable experience. It’s a relaxed, Zen-type feeling. See how fast you can beat the AI or try out a different strategy.

What sets this apart from other MOBAs?

If you look at DOTA-style games, most of them just have one map. You can play that one map forever and ever and it’ll always be different because of who’s playing and what classes they’re using. We have that same thing with different classes and different players, but now you’ve got different units you can take with you and different maps. We’re not locked into that one map.

I can also jump into air mode and fly anywhere I want. The whole concept of having lanes for gameplay is just thrown away. Some maps have little islands, others are wide and open, and some have twisting canyons. It doesn’t matter. We’re going to let them edit their own maps on the PC side. They can upload them and the best maps will come over to the console.

What types of Mechs will be available?

The first Mech is the Striker, which is based on the F-14 Tomcat. He’s like the Ryu of our game. He’s the starting character. He’s pretty good at everything but he’s not too crazy. We start people with that to get them used to the game. Then they can choose if they want to go down one path like the Support class or the Melee class or the Paladin class with buffs and stuff for crowd control.

Then we’ve got our Trickster class, which can use stealth and stun people with stasis blasts, but he’s fragile as a result.

Then we have another Mech that’s more like a Walker-type thing on four legs. It has this giant death beam that it can burn things down with. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s also a bit more fragile. It’s also really hard to catch him because he’s got this blink ability that lets him do a mini teleport. He’s a lot of fun, but he’s definitely a Mech for a player with a higher skill level.

It’s all a tradeoff over how exposed you want to leave yourself. When you play co-op modes where you’ve got 2v2 or PvP modes where you have more players, you need to coordinate with others. You can pick all your own units, so it’s best if you’re complementary – both your AirMech choice and your unit choice.

Does AirMech Arena have an eSports future?

We built spectating into the game. You can watch the games your friends are playing or you can watch all the highest-ranked games. Learning through observation is a huge part of the game. So we built spectating into the game from really early on. We keep adding features that casters ask for because they broadcast the game on Twitch.

A lot of our players like the competitive aspect of it so they will spin up a tournament with other people and then they’ll spectate the game and they’ve got special controls that let them jump the camera around and zoom in and see how much income the players have. That’s what they asked for. We just keep giving them what they want. We really want to make the big push into eSports when it’s ready. I’d love to do it, I just want to make sure we’re doing it right, and Ubisoft has a lot of great ideas for that.

[Sennex 1,903]

This was on Steam for a bit. I had tried it out but sadly I don't remember if it was any good.

[J4MES OX4D 10,161]

I swear I had this on the Xbox 360 and the servers were abysmal. Pure pay-to-win too if I remember rightly