Suit up because it’s time for the full Last Salvage Squad review!
Waku Waku games dropped the Mecha FPS on June 17th to very positive reviews.
But what does this 2.5d shooter do differently from the rest and is it worth?
The Last Salvage Squad
In short this is Last Salvage Squad is a good boom shoot! It is short and sweet taking about only 2 hours to complete. Although it could take up to more than 4 going for EX mission completion.
But in detail this is a solid Mecha shooter and one that you should pick up if you like them. However, there are some caveats with regards to how much you will enjoy this game.
Firstly, the style is unashamedly Anime and Mecha inspired. Although that is a plus for most people on top of that the game looks like a Virtual boy game. The colours are stark black and red with a few whites to highlight you and effects.
However, even if you can dig the low poly virtual boy motif and 16-meter anime girls there is another drawback. The enemies themselves are not similar anime girl mechs but instead aliens. In fact, Last Salvage Squad has the best interpretation of War Of The World Lankey aliens I have seen realized.
These enemies are based off of OG pulp sci-fi designs with long tentacle arms and lasers. But in missions each one behaves and interacts uniquely and are immediately classified. It’s easy to tell when a big armoured one has spawned in and when 10 rush drones have.
But really the big reason this game works is how it gets the feel right. Mech games even Gundam Evolution often screw up the weight of the mecha. Often, I end up playing just a scaled-up model no different from any other shooter. However, in Last Salvage Squad it feels like I am a weighty 16-meter-tall robot anime girl. Even with upgrades movement is weight with clunky sounds and most buildings you tower over.
Robot Doom
However along with the good movement is solid fast paced moment to moment gameplay. 25 small level-based missions drop you in to scale urban environments. Immediately the gameplan is to salvage a gun from your peers and get to work killing in spawned in aliens. Although levels are small the destructible environment allows a lot of expression for shooting. Buildings can be climbed, destroyed or hidden behind and under from cover of aliens.
Its smaller arena-based skirmishes where prioritizing is key to survival and I like that. Enemies drop salvage points which can be used for permeant upgrades and items. Each upgrade can change dramatically how you play from a bulky tank to a fast tipple glass cannon regaining quickly from kills.
Although story is not key for these games Last Salvage Squad gets the tone right. Most if not all humans are dead so missions are broken up with base area intermissions with small dialogue boxes with teammates . You can chat with fellow girl droids to get the vibe of the situation. It’s no Tomino dialogue but everyone is expressive enough.
Give Me More Last Salvage Squad
Honestly the only issues with this game I had were autistic and nit-picky. Firstly, fall damage killed me the most during my first play-though. It took me a while to realise that the triple jump height was enough to damage me. Kind of felt like it did not convey fall damage being a thing well enough.
Secondly there are multiple varied weapons but they are locked behind certain missions. I get the point of the game is to salvage weapons upon death but locking weapon options to just one per mission felt a bit limiting. Especially when on repeat it is still locked to the few options originally even after finding new weapons later on in the missions.
I just ended using the base gun the most as it had the most ammo and DPS from the get-go. More options mid mission here would have been way more fun.
Lastly my biggest complaint was(apart from the length I want more) was the lack of Mecha-on-Mecha violence. Near the end of the game and on some EX variant missions you fight another Girl Mecha. Although the aliens are cool and unique the game felt at its best during these fights.
Fighting another mech girl with the same move-set, style and guns as me felt like a thrilling matchup. I wish this game had more humanoid similar mech based enemies to fight that made me utilise the mechanics more.
But when the biggest complaint I have for a game is simply more please than it’s a sign the game is solid. This is a great small indie game to pick up for the couple bucks it asking for. If you like your boomer shooters and mechas then give the demo and full game a whirl.
You can pick up on Steam and it’s coming out on Nintendo Switch 2 soon.
