Up to 317,000 people played new shooter on Steam. Mecha Break faces heavy criticism from Chinese players
Open tests of Mecha Break have attracted a surprising number of players, but reviews of the game on Steam leave much to be desired.
The number of players isn't everything, especially in the case of demo versions. This is clearly shown by the case of the beta version of the online action game Mecha Break, which was played by over 300,000 Steam users simultaneously, yet only about 33% of the players rated it positively. Negative reviews mainly come from China.
Let's agree: even against the backdrop of other free demo versions, the result of the new multiplayer game by Amazing Seasun Games studio (Ballads of Hongye) is impressive. At its peak, over 317 thousand players were playing Mecha Break Demo at the same time (via SteamDB). This surpasses the peak of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, suggesting the demo's release can be deemed a success for the developers.
Another thing is that formally it's not so much a "demo" as it is an "open beta." Which doesn't change the fact that the Amazing Seasun Games team has reasons to be happy. Kind of.
Changes for the worse or impatience of Chinese players?
Unfortunately, this outcome isn't matched by reviews - which speaks volumes, as players are typically more forgiving for demo versions. Some of the players who rated Mecha BREAK had already had the opportunity to play the previous version of the game and apparently had a much better impression from the alpha tests than from the current build. The gameplay itself doesn't raise major objections: moreover, many players still believe that it is excellent.
Source: Amazing Seasun.
So what didn't work in the demo version? Overlooking minor details (like voices in the English dubbing, an odd tutorial, or controller handling), it's important to note that a significant portion of the reviews (including negative ones) were written in Chinese, with the main issue highlighted in these comments being difficulties in joining the game after the release of Mecha Break Demo. Considering the absurd "peak" of demand, it probably shouldn't surprise anyone.
As some internet users point out, the majority of English-language reviews are positive. So it's possible that the Chinese servers simply couldn't handle the thousands of players, and those who couldn't get into the game had no mercy for the Amazing Seasun Games studio.
The devs themselves appear to identify these flaws as the primary issue noted in negative reviews and have arranged a modest compensation (via X).
Monetization and "oversexualized" personalization don't discourage
It's surprising that in most Chinese reviews, there's not even a mention of what seems to be the main problem of the game in the eyes of other players. Yes, the rest of the world seems to be more favorably inclined toward the Mecha Break demo, but that doesn't mean they don't see potential issues.
If you exclude those first comments, mentions of the monetization system appear quite often. Microtransactions seem to be inspired by gacha games, which always irritates some players.
This is accompanied by occasional complaints about changes in the balance of mechs compared to alpha tests and... excessive "sexualization" of pilot customization. While such accusations don't dominate the reviews, they aren't entirely rare either.
Nonetheless, there is a chance that soon the reviews of Mecha Break Demo on Steam will stop being "mostly negative." First, the fact that 33% of the reviews are positive is an improvement compared to the weekend results, when only 21% of players rated MB positively.
Second, even now, 4 days after the launch, over 185 thousand people are playing the beta version at the same time. This likely isn't a result that could have been sustained over such a period if the game itself were as awful as the number of negative reviews appears to say.
