Atex Brawl

Overview

Atex Brawl is a multiplayer-mostly mech arena brawler created by Canadian game company Innuendo Squad Studios. The game features both conventional and unconventional game modes as well as a set of distinct items to customize mechs with. With a sports arena setting, Atex Brawl focuses entirely on the raw combat between players for short duration matches and lobby times. A successful Kickstarter campaign was launched to fund the game's initial server costs, as well as licensing and soundtrack budgeting.

Gameplay

Atex Brawl's gameplay is separated into 3 main portions; Brawling, customizing mech loadouts, and creating maps. Players can host lobbies online or play against the AI to practice their skills in preparation for a PvP match.

The overall theme of Atex Brawl is set in an enclosed sports arena some time in the future where mech brawls are just as common as football matches. The developers behind the game decided there wasn't much need for backstory, as both they and their community would rather just get to fighting.

There are 7 game modes, 28 items, 4 mechs, and 5 obstacles to toy around with and customize.

Building Loadouts

Loadouts in Atex Brawl are configurations of mechs used in the Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch game modes. All other game modes have preset loadouts for players to use rather than using their own. They can be saved, loaded, overwritten, or deleted at any time outside of a match.

When building a loadout, certain "styles" can be achieved with different mechs and item combinations. There are combinations suited for those who prefer close combat, sniper roles, control, bruisers, and so on.

Slot Layout

There are 3 types of slots:

• Arm Slots - Attach to the left and right side of the mech, typically used by pressing left or right mouse buttons. In the loadout screen, they are located on either side of the mech at middle height.
• Back Slots - Attach to the rear of the mech, typically used by pressing buttons 1 through 4. In the loadout screen, they are located at the very top above the mech.
• Secondary Slots - Unique to each chassis, cannot be swapped out, but also cannot be destroyed. Secondary slots are weapons that will always be usable on your mech. In the loadout screen, they are the bottom slots that have padlock icons over them.

Chassis

There are 4 mech chassis in Atex Brawl, one for each archetype or "role" in the arena. To select a chassis in game, use the dropdown menu beside the label that says "chassis".

The 4 chassis are:

• Tonbokiri - A light, agile sniper mech. Has 2 long ranged artillery cannons as secondary weapons and can use 2 back slot items.
• Aegis - A medium sized jack of all trades. Has 2 machine guns as secondary weapons and can use 3 back slot items.
• Martian Mauler - A medium utility mech used for holding down and dealing large burst damage to enemy mechs. Secondary weapons are the Martian Freeze Ray (slows target) and the Boom Blaster (charge-up AoE blast). It can use only 2 back slot items. This mech was created as a Kickstarter backer reward for MartB64, a twitch streamer.
• Kavacha - A heavy bruiser mech. Has 2 scatterguns (shotguns) as secondary weapons and can use 4 back slot items.

Game Modes

There are 7 total game modes in Atex Brawl, starting off typical and slowly falling off the spectrum of "reasonable" for a game with mechs as the main focus.

They are as follows:

Deathmatch

Arguably the main game mode of Atex Brawl. Players first start with a certain amount of points (set by the game host in lobby).

Goal: Last man standing.

Elimination: Reach 0 or less points. Points are lost by by losing parts/chassis during the game. As an example: Player 1 shoots off Player 2's machine gun. Player 2 loses 45 points, and is now at 1455 points. Once player two reaches 0 points or lower, player two is eliminated.

Respawning: Players respawn every time their chassis is destroyed. They have 10 seconds to swap a loadout before spawning after death.

Custom Maps Allowed? Yes

Team Deathmatch

Similar to Deathmatch, but with teams. Players start with a certain amount of points (set by the game host in lobby).

Goal: Last team standing.

Custom Maps Allowed? Yes

Elimination: Team reaches0 or less points. Points are lost by by losing parts/chassis during the game. As an example: Player 1 shoots off Player 2's machine gun. Player 2 loses 45 points, and is now at 1455 points. Once player two's team reaches 0 points or lower, player two's team is eliminated.

Respawning: Players respawn every time their chassis is destroyed. They have 10 seconds to swap a loadout before spawning after death.

Hot Potato

A game of tag with mechs... and potatoes. One player is randomly selected at the start of the match as the "it" player, and must pass the potato to another player as soon as possible. The "it" player loses points over time.

Goal: Last man standing.

Elimination: Reach 0 or less points. Points are lost by by losing parts/chassis during the game. As an example: Player 1 shoots Player 2. Player 2 becomes "it" and now loses points over time. Once Player 2 reaches 0 or less points, they are eliminated.

Premade Loadout: Every player is given an Aegis Chassis with 1 potato launcher and 1 thruster.

Custom Maps Allowed? Yes

Hide and Seek

A good ole game of hide and seek with flamethrowers. Just like childhood. After 10 seconds of players finding a hiding spot, one is selected at random as the "it" player. They must find and kill all other players in the dark.

Goal: Kill all other players if "it" player, survive if not "it" player.

Elimination: For the "it" player, if time runs out, you lose. Otherwise, if you and all other hiders are eliminated, you lose.

Premade Loadout: Every player is given an Aegis Chassis with 2 flamethrowers and 1 thruster.

Custom Maps Allowed? Yes

Wrench Avoid

It's dodgeball with wrenches. Wrenches spawn in the center of the court which can be picked up and thrown. Once they hit something, they are able to be picked up again (similar to dodgeballs).

Goal: Eliminate the other team.

Elimination: All team members lose all lives.

Premade Loadout: Every player is given an Aegis Chassis with 1 steel shield, 1 patcher-upper, 2 thrusters, and 1 invulnerability shield.

Respawning: Revival cubes are placed at the end of both teams' side of the court. If a player from team 1 can get a player from team 2 to shoot the revival cube, a player from team 1 will be revived.

Custom Maps Allowed? No

Dash N Stab

Target spheres spawn at random in a small court. When stabbed with a lance, they give a player +50 points. First player to gain enough points to reach the points cap (set by game host in lobby) wins. After being stabbed, targets respawn and make a "ping" sound to notify people of their position.

Goal: First to reach the points cap wins.

Premade Loadout: Every player is given an Aegis Chassis with 1 martian freeze ray, 1 lance, and 3 thrusters.

Custom Maps Allowed? No

Time Bombers

Every player starts with X amount of seconds on their timer (determined in lobby by game host). Whoever gets their timer to 0 first wins. Players can reset other player's timers by shooting them.

Goal: Get your timer to 0 seconds.

Premade Loadout: Every player is given an Tonbokiri Chassis with 2 Artillery cannons and 2 invulnerability shields

Custom Maps Allowed? No