Can the game "Restriction Breaker Machine" with 310,000 online players carry the banner for domestic mecha games? | Game Product Observation
Text | Xue Dexing
Editor | Liu Shiwu
At the beginning of 2025, new domestic games emerged in a spurt, including the mecha combat game "Unleashed Machine".
On February 23rd, the new mecha combat game "Unleashed Machine" by Xishanju launched a new round of Demo testing on Steam. The peak online number reached 310,000 on that day, and the viewing time on Twitch reached 270,000 hours on the first day. It made it onto the category recommendation list and was highly popular among players.
As of February 27th, the total number of players of "Unleashed Machine" on major game platforms had exceeded 2.26 million.
Ranked fourth on the popular game list
In fact, "Unleashed Machine" is not making its first appearance in the players' field of vision.
During the ChinaJoy exhibition last summer, 36Kr Games tried out the game on - site. Subsequently, "Unleashed Machine" conducted its first round of online testing.
Before the recent second test, "Unleashed Machine" also made appearances at the Gamescom in Germany and the Tokyo Game Show. It also released a real - machine trailer at the TGA in 2024, already attracting a lot of attention. Currently, the number of global pre - orders on the official website has exceeded 3 million.
According to the official announcement, this test is a wipeout test. The open content includes not only the core 6v6 edge battlefield (tasks include pushing the cart, capturing points, transporting, etc.), but also a new PvPvE mode called "Marshmallow" and a 3v3 entertainment combat mode called "Ace Sequence".
After the actual experience of 36Kr Games in recent days, what is the potential of "Unleashed Machine"? As a new entrant in the mecha game track, how far has Xishanju's Demo gone?
Significant advantages under technical accumulation and category gaps
From the actual experience, the technical foundation of "Unleashed Machine" is very good. Rendered by Xishanju's eight - year self - developed Virtual Geometry technology, the industrial texture and dynamic performance of the mechas are excellent. Coupled with the delicate art design, it is bound to fascinate mecha enthusiasts. Moreover, the optimization for mid - and low - end devices is quite good in the mecha game track. A graphics card like RTX3050 can run the game smoothly in standard image quality.
Mecha appearance
The game's visual performance (such as scene destruction effects and mecha action details) and operation feel (such as the sense of jerk during flight) are also recognized. Although there are some players who think the operation feel is a bit strange (such as the jerk during melee slashes), the overall combat performance is commendable, giving a strong sense of presence.
Combat scene
The highly detailed and extremely "authentic" mecha designs and custom paint jobs can indeed attract the attention of mecha enthusiasts: we can find various paint job tutorials on video websites, including those for Z Gundam, EVA, and even Cosmic Star Gods.
Gundam combinations released by foreign netizens
Globally, competitive games with mecha themes are still scarce. "Titanfall 2" and "Armored Core 6" focus more on the single - player and story - driven experiences, and the mecha styles of both are more American. The typical representative of Japanese mechas, the "Gundam VS" series, mainly relies on IP sentiment and has not had any major innovations or breakthroughs for many years.
In contrast, "Unleashed Machine" combines the 6V6 mode of "high - mobility combat + team strategic cooperation" with a long TTK (time to kill) and a variety of tactical actions. Coupled with the high - precision models in Japanese style and remarkable visual tension, it is sufficient to create a differentiated experience and attract mecha enthusiasts and general action game players.
Slightly worn materials in the customization
More importantly, the mecha combat game track is not very crowded, and the cost of purchasing a good mecha game is not low. As a free service - based game, "Unleashed Machine" is likely to become the first mecha game for many Chinese players.
Thoughts on balance, mechanism depth, and payment model after the official launch
Judging from the current performance of the Demo, "Unleashed Machine" still has room for improvement in several aspects. If this game wants to succeed, the development team needs to make more optimizations and improvements. Therefore, the evaluation of this game on Steam currently remains at "mostly negative".
Of course, the main reason for this result is that during the test, the Chinese server crashed half an hour after it went live, causing a large number of players to be unable to log in. Coupled with the inappropriate arrangement of the server opening time, it triggered dissatisfaction among a large number of domestic players, and the negative reviews soared for a while.
Official of "Unleashed Machine"
Putting aside some possible controversies in the operation that may be related to the testing stage (such as supply crates can only be opened one by one, tasks cannot be changed until completed, and maps and task types cannot be selected in the edge battlefield), we can still feel that there are some deficiencies in the game itself.
First is the balance issue of mecha design. As a mecha game with a competitive label, the balance between mechas is undoubtedly an old - fashioned but unavoidable topic.
The core of "Unleashed Machine" in the competitive aspect is similar to hero - shooting games like "Overwatch". It has multiple mecha types such as sniper, defense, attack, support, and melee types. It is not difficult to see that the production team obviously hopes that there are some counter - relationships between the classes and emphasizes the importance of teamwork to players.
However, this is not the case in the game content. The benefits of the super - heavy mechas, which are said to have "sacrificed some mobility", are too obvious, and there are basically no natural enemies to counter them (the originally planned strongly countering mecha requires two to three weeks of full - time play to obtain). On the other hand, the light mechas that require more operation skills often do not have the ability to influence the outcome of the battle - especially in the mid - and low - level segments, light mechas are often "busy but don't know what they are busy with".
Player comments
Secondly, there is still room for improvement in the action and skill design of mecha battles. When first starting to play, "Unleashed Machine" can indeed bring some sense of combat satisfaction to players. However, this sense of satisfaction tends to weaken after a few rounds. At this time, some players will feel that the mechas do not have skill combos, the normal walking speed without using the energy bar is too slow, and the energy bar is exhausted due to melee target - locking.
Lack of other skill combinations for melee slashes
It has to be admitted that the operation threshold of "Unleashed Machine" is not low, but its operation ceiling is not very high. So much so that during the interview, some players asked the question: "Why don't the mechas in this game have ultimate skills?"
The exciting and diverse battles are undoubtedly a prominent feature of "Unleashed Machine". However, some mechas actually lack the depth of skills and mechanisms, which makes players lose interest in playing continuously. This will undoubtedly dampen the enthusiasm of many players who are willing to practice hard to reach the operation ceiling.
Finally, it is the design of the game's paid content. At present, the modification parts that affect the performance of mechas in "Unleashed Machine" are also content that can attract paying users. However, the practice of selling modification parts is very likely to fall into the huge controversy of "pay - to - win", which is exactly the "deadly trap" that orthodox team - based competitive games need to avoid.
However, "Unleashed Machine" does have a solution. The official has promised to launch a point - based mode where modification parts have no impact.
The above three points may be the key challenges for "Unleashed Machine" to break through the "becoming a hit during the test" stage and achieve long - term and healthy operation. As for some other player controversies (such as the lack of substantial content in the newbie guide, the binding of improvement parts in the PVP mode to PvPvE, and the overpowered beam cannon in the general firearms), they will not be mentioned one by one here. These issues may cause temporary controversies, but since "Unleashed Machine" is still in the testing stage, it is believed that Xishanju will complete the optimization and improvement in subsequent versions.
Long - term layout for e - sports and globalization
In addition to the game itself, "Unleashed Machine" has also started to lay out in e - sports events and the global market.
Previously, although Xishanju had many years of successful experience in the MMO game track, it had never launched an action - shooting competitive game that emphasizes team cooperation. However, it had the idea of entering the e - sports field during the era of "JX3". It had nine years of experience in building the competitive ecosystem and was one of the earliest MMO PC games in China to try e - sports. However, due to the uncertainties brought by the class balance and numerical changes in PVP, "JX3" did not focus on e - sports in the long run.
This time, Xishanju has early on laid out an e - sports system in the "Unleashed Machine" ecosystem, constructing a three - level event system with city tournaments, college tournaments, and intercontinental invitation tournaments. Even before the game is officially released, there has been a preview of "entertainment events", which shows the development team's long - term expectations for e - sports operation.
From the official website
In terms of globalization, the publicity and promotion of "Unleashed Machine" in the overseas market have also received good responses.
The waiting time for the experience at the Japan TGS exhibition exceeded three hours. 80% of overseas players gave positive reviews during the Steam test. Many foreign game media, including PCgamer, Gamerant, and The Gamer, also expressed positive views on "Unleashed Machine".
Reviews from foreign game media
It is worth noting that according to an interview by Windows Central, "Unleashed Machine" has currently reached a cooperation intention with Microsoft. With Microsoft's assistance, it will develop a console version for Xbox Series X|S and be launched as an exclusive game.
Guo Weiwei, the CEO of Xishanju, said that the cooperation with Microsoft is mutually beneficial because the mecha game market in Japan is already saturated. Therefore, it is less risky to exclusively promote a mecha game to more overseas markets through Xbox. In addition, as a new entrant in the mecha game track, the quality of the game is unexpectedly good, and there is an opportunity to break the situation where the American and Japanese game industries have long occupied a large proportion of the market share in the mecha theme.
If the operation can be optimized well and more players' trust can be gained in subsequent versions, the popularity of "Unleashed Machine" will not be low in the short term - the peak online number of 317,000 during the Steam test is sufficient to prove its market potential.
To be honest, if the balance is properly adjusted, with the technical strength and the universality of the mecha theme demonstrated by "Unleashed Machine" at present, it is expected to become a representative of domestic science - fiction games going global and even a benchmark work for global AAA - level mecha games.