Russian developer Argus Games revealed that Techwars Deathmatch, an MMO PvP game themed around isometric battles using customizable mechs, has officially launched on Steam for $2.99. During the first week of being on sale you can actually get the game for 25% off for only $2.24. The discount will last up until April 24th.

The game is set across various Eastern European and West Asian regions, including Kazakhstan, Sochi, Siberia, and even a trip to Alaska in North America.

The game is themed around PvP deathmatch, where mechs will duke it out in large scale battles where you’ll be able to fully deconstruct your opponent’s mechanized vehicle. You can blow off limbs, tear through armor, and rip through the cockpits like that angry old bear ripped through Timothy Treadwell.

The story for the game is paper thin, taking place in 2050 where the KATO corporation goes head-to-
head against the Russian Dominion corp. The two decide to battle it out for control and dominance.

You can see what the gameplay is like with the launch trailer below.

The actual gameplay is a lot more polished than what you might have been expecting from an indie game coming out of a Russian development studio.

There are about six different mechs for each side that you can select from before going into battle. The actual gameplay is real-time, much like Mechwarrior. The gameplay is 60 frames per second, and a lot smoother than I thought it would be. However, there are some quality of life issues, such as not being able to change the camera while using the controller. You can see what the actual gameplay is like via a near 20 minute video from KevGuuey, which you can view below.

As a $2.99 game it’s pretty basic, giving you some solid mechanics and workable gameplay. What’s odd to me is that there’s a sound foundation for a decent game here, but it appears Argus Games didn’t want to focus on building out a story mode or a campaign around the features they have present in Techwars Deathamtch.

Then again, maybe they were banking on a lot of gamers wanting to play PvP deathmatch as opposed to engaging in the story mode. You can learn more about Techwars Deathmatch by visiting the Steam store page. The game supposedly works with Techwars Online 2, but they don’t really say what the difference is between the two games other than that Techwars Online 2 has a capture the flag mode.