HOMEMADE ARENA FIGHTING MACHINES

A First Look At Garrison: Archangel’s Early Access Build

Brian Maniqus | Fat_Mamba

Garrison: Archangel first showed up on our radar during the Denki Megatech convention. Its developer, Indigo Entertainment, had a couple of laptops set up to showcase their upcoming giant robot fighter. The game immediately caught our attention with its fast-paced three-dimensional mecha combat. Representatives Paolore and Flip then approached and explained their project to us: It was drawing heavy inspiration from Zone of the Enders, and would have fully customizable mechs à la Armored Core.

Fast-forward over a year later, and we’ve begun our second season of the Cosmic Clash: The GA community’s monthly meetup, beta test and tournament. It has also hit its first major milestone with its Steam Early Access release, boasting far more options to play around with.

The leap from the beta is huge, and we’ve been exploring how far it has gone since we last played it. Here’s what we’ve discovered so far.

The first screen to greet you is avatar selection. The right pilot is just as important as the right mech.

Build Up! Personalized Metal Avatar!

In the beta, builds fell squarely into three archetypes: Speedsters, tanks, and balance. The Early Access version rebalanced these statistics — creating a distinct axis of speed, strength, and armor that branches off into agility, stunning power, and stability. Selectable parts for each type have doubled, even tripled in some areas — with varying degrees of mixing and matching from the core three stats. Players can spend hours upon hours mixing and matching for their desired arena fighter. While this might overwhelm rookie builders, a selection of pre-built mechs makes it far simpler to jump in and play.

The names have a few hidden references and in-jokes.

Crash! Measuring Every Step!

Earlier footage shows players levitating a few feet above the field, zooming around at high velocities. An animation tweak and movespeed reduction replaces this float with a more leisurely walk. Movement thus becomes deliberate, as every step is a conscious decision. Either chug along slowly, or spend your boost meter and risk exposing yourself later.

You’ll want to keep a closer eye on that gauge.

A concern raised during the beta was that the arenas were too large. Dedicated ranged fighters could chip away at an opponent’s armor, then either run the timer out or bait them into committing misplays. In response, the arena stages became smaller. Then, the devs made forward movement significantly faster than sideways or backwards, forcing players to brawl quick and often.

As with all fighting games, the corner is a bad, bad place to be.

Duel! Encounters in cyberspace!

The long-awaited online multiplayer mode has arrived. Sadly, lag became an immediate concern. However, this was quickly identified as a desync issue: the visuals in online gameplay aren’t completely synchronized with what’s actually happening. Another issue was the rematch system, or lack thereof. After every fight, you were kicked back to the lobby, requiring a new room. The process was tedious, and can become a crucial detriment to the overall experience. Fortunately, developers promised that their current priority is optimizing the online system, so we’ll definitely be on the lookout for improvements in the near future.

You could be standing up on your opponent’s screen, but you’d actually still be in the invincible knockdown state.

Rise! Steel Wings Take Flight!

In its early days, Garrison: Archangel was defined by comparisons: Zone of the Enders, Armored Core, Gundam Versus, and Virtual-On. Now, the Early Access build’s tweaks made this game stand on its own robotic legs. The myriad options for building one’s dream robot provide freedom of expression, whether you’re a crafter or a pilot. Technical problems aside, the new online feature promises interesting avenues for community interaction and growth.

The local tourney scene is in full boost.

As for the local fanbase, it enjoys complete support from Indigo Entertainment themselves. The staff often drops by events to play and interact. Several community in-jokes have in fact become integrated as canon to the in-game lore. While the gameplay has traditionally been duels, the studio has hinted at fully engaging in the 2v2 format. Foreshadowing more interesting builds and strategies, perhaps? Guess you’ll have to get the game to find out.

For its current price of Php 399.99 ($14.99 for U.S. Steam users), Garrison: Archangel is more than worth the buy. While it has enough features to be a full-release title, the devs are eager to polish it to perfection, making it THE Mecha Arena Fighter. We’re looking forward to seeing you and your archangel in the arena!