GALAHAD 3093 Beta First Impressions

The mech gaming genre has certainly had some ups and downs over the years. Metal Wolf Chaos is a hysterical, campy mech title. Steel Battalion has one of the most legendary controller peripherals of all time. Its follow-up, a Kinect exclusive, didn’t fare too well. I had a look at the less-than-stellar MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries in 2019 and was left pretty dejected and hopeless on mech gaming’s future.

Then I got curious about GALAHAD 3093. It compelled me to see how mech battles would mesh with a hero shooter aspect. I was also excited to see that I could fully-customize my mech, not having to unlock anything or pay for upgrades behind a paywall. At the time of playing/writing, GALAHAD 3093 has had 4 rounds of betas. I knew I had a lot of catching up to do, especially with no tutorial before my first match, but thankfully, a developer provided me with an 8-minute briefer that answered any questions I had.

Boy, did I have a ton of questions. In my first round, I got decimated three lives in a row. It was after consulting that video that I realized my loadout wasn’t fully utilized. In my 4 or 5 rounds, I tried the full spectrum of primary weapons, one for each hand. This ranged between miniguns, energy snipers, rocket launchers, etc., and included secondary weapons to switch to in tight spots. In addition, there were perks that truly made the difference in my fights, like increasing movement speed, adding a shield boost at critical health, and more, only limited by a divvy-up of points between your loadout to make things balanced.

The fights I had with the enemy team’s mechs were tense and usually down-to-the-wire. I mixed my movement with a focus on DPS and found I had a pretty even K/D ratio when all was said and done. It never felt like an enemy completely had their way with me, as anyone I failed to destroy was usually mopped up by a teammate. As such, I typically stuck to engaging with my team. The jump mechanic feels divine, as entering/exiting battles is as easy as hitting one button and covering a great distance in seconds.

One thing I noticed across all my matches was that the community was tactical, friendly, and welcoming. I’ve been exposed to the nasty side of the likes of League of Legends, Rainbow Six Siege, and generally any other online game’s voice chat, filled to the brim with toxicity. That wasn’t the case for GALAHAD 3093. If someone had a question, they were promptly answered. Callouts were aplenty and turned the tide of most skirmishes. It was truly refreshing to experience.

I now have high hopes for GALAHAD 3093 and will be returning for subsequent betas. The game is in a very polished state right now and the only issue I ran into, after I got used to it, was some audio getting cut out by voice comms. I didn’t spend enough time in the settings though, so there’s likely an option for this or will be closer to release. Simutronics could have a gem on their hands if this game is marketed right, as hero shooters still have plenty of room to flourish!