Stack and build your blocked-out vehicle of destruction!
The Intro
We start off with building your very first Tech when you choose to play campaign. Build Beam, by pressing B on the Xbox controller will allow for your Tech to levitate so that you have full access to build your new weapon/Tech vehicle. With the ability to have full 360 degree view you get unlimited possibilities to build however you'd like. Stack from top to bottom or side to side. One of a kind game right here. I absolutely fell in love with it. I had so much fun sticking guns and wheels on configuring different variants of builds for my tech, I spent the first hour just playing around and drilling trees with the drill bits that were equipped. Shooting enemies will grant you more pieces. When an enemy is defeated they will drop their Tech parts and you then can pick those parts up and add them on to your Tech. Various parts will drop as you progress onward into the game.
Let's Build
We start this Tech journey with only the most import parts, at first. The cab. The cab is your source of life and your way of surviving. Like Legos you will be able to build side, top, bottom. Blocks are your body and with your body comes strength and stability. The more you stack or stick, the more wheels you need. Let's take our cab and three blocks. Cab in front, stick on block directly behind it and the other two blocks on each side of the block hanging off the cab. Now we have a short T shaped Tech. Pick the wells off the ground and stick the on the cab and the two outer blocks, now you are mobile. Guns stick to where empty x spots that verify that you can place any item you pick up. I usually in the beginning put the Machine Gun Tech on the top of my cab so that I can get directly up in an enemy's bubble and make sure the bullets penetrate.
Skip Ahead on Building
This is where the game gets good. You will soon find a trading post where when you have enough money can purchase more items to add onto your Tech. Radar is always probably one of the main items I keep on my Tech along with my solar station and 1 or more battery orbs that go hand and hand with the solar station. Battery orbs will be your only way of powering up your solar and healing yourself when you get hurt. Make sure to always have one handy. You also will find a little later a blue power orb that will provide a shield. Solar, it will only power on in the day time, not at night. You can find a battery that you can equip also that will power your solar station so that you can heal while driving around instead of stopping, grabbing the solar off your tech, putting it on the ground the grabbing your orb to attach. Easier right? Yes. Very convenient indeed.
Harvester Tech pieces are another I keep on deck. When you stick drills on the front of your Tech, you can then harvest all kinds of raw material. Let us keep it simple and call these materials for what the color represents IRL. Gold, sapphire, emerald, trees, fruit and more. As you drill your Harvester will automatically grab them and the materials will then go with you wherever you go until you turn the in to the trading station. For trading these materials, you will also get money and is probably one of the easiest ways to get funds and build your Tech until you feel that you have enough equipment to go out and fight and be able to heal yourself with your Solar station that you tow around with you. If you do not carry these items, you will find yourself dying a lot from either the computer in campaign or players in multiplayer. So, your best bet is to play the campaign and get used to the mechanics of the game before thinking that you are going to jump straight in.
The Bigger the Better
After acquiring a couple of missions and beating them, you will be able to find different type of Tech pieces. Big yellow pieces resembling CAT construction vehicles. Big, yellow and a lot more defense than the simple gray tech pieces. It takes a while to collect all pieces necessary to build one of these Techs, but very rewarding. Bigger drill and bigger guns. Big is always better. The wheels for the yellow Techs are huge and look just like we have IRL. You get better traction therefore giving you more momentum to climb hills.
Too Many Pieces
Too many pieces on one Tech will certainly cause you vehicle of death to teeter or not move at all. Be aware of how you configure your items and spread them evenly or you will find out quick that you will have to take everything off and rebuild. This can be a pain when you get further in the game like I have and must literally take off 20 pieces. When this happens, everything falls into one pile and is messy. You must pick up pieces one by one.
Final Thought
Absolutely brilliant. This game, the concept and depth kept me hooked. Before I knew it four hours passed. There is so much to do and so many pieces to acquire, that it keeps you wanting to see how big you can build your Tech or how many guns you can fit on it before you die and die you will, so don't worry when it happens. Every time I died I never built the same Tech. How could I when there are so many ways to build it? Always interesting to see what I come up with and which enemy has a piece I've never seen before and taking it from them. I like this game a lot. Two thumbs up.