HomeNewsArmored Shell Nightjar
You’re a better pilot than I if you can get this Mechwarrior meets HighFleet indie’s mech to do literally anythingStairs, the mech’s natural foe
Stairs, the mech’s natural foe
Image credit:Warkus/Modus Interactive
Image credit:Warkus/Modus Interactive
We do love a good diegetic interface here at the treehouse, whether that’s the analogue radar twisties ofHighFleet, or the myriad hefty flickables ofPVKK(Planetenverteidigungskanonenkommandant. Duh.) Thefifth mech jamis currently happening over at Itch.io, and the clear standout for me thus far isArmored Shell Nightjar. It’s a first person pilot-em-up that puts you in the cockpit of a grasshoppery rust-bucket carrying out a critical mission on an industrial desert planet. The more the intro text stresses the importance of this mission, the more guiltily useless I feel, because I cannot get this beautifully run-down mech to do anything of note, unless you count violently hopping into walls to be notable.
Image credit:Warkus/Modus Interactive
Peek the interface above. The pull-a-magig in the top right lets you hover for a few seconds. The big shiny button makes you hop, and as far as I can tell, the dial on the far right tunes the speed and height of these hops, but also makes you reverse sometimes? The screen on the far left lets you tune your hover, but maybe also your jump? The second-to-far left widget that looks like a coffee grinder moves your horizontal view, and the arrows to the right of the screen tweaks your vertical. Unless my useless brain deceives me, there aren’t any shortcut keys, so you’re doing all this twisting and clicking manually.
I am left both utterly smitten and deeply unsure of how to make any progress up the winding set of steps that appear to be my only means of progress. Oh, clunky boy. Please, reveal to me your inner workings.
Or perhaps the mech actually houses an extremely advanced autopilot that makes all the interface wrangling unnecessary, and it’s having a grand old time trolling me. Either way, I’m a fan. This is one sided relationship, sure, but I’ll endure it.
