A tactical Improvement,
There is something to be said about the Warhammer 40K licence. The way it can adapt to almost any medium is quite astonishing. While the table top will always be rooted in its origins, the wealth of videogames that have followed various factions, stories, and characters, has certainly proved to be its future.
Going into Mechanicus II, especially with it being a tactical turn-based affair, I was interested to see how this would differ from the likes of Rogue Trader, which I really enjoyed and feel it set the standard going forward. I’ve played some of the original Mechanicus leading up to this release, so a great deal of it was fresh in my head as I would then experience this long awaited follow-up.
The original Mechanicus hit PC around 8 years ago, with the console versions arriving 2 years later in 2020. The studio would then go on to develop Ixion, which we reviewed here. So, did the break away from Mechanicus aid or hinder this sequel? Or did Bulwark Studios knock one out of the park and deliver a much improved follow-up? Well, let’s pledge allegiance to the Machine God and find out.
Mechanicus II offers a lot of differences between the two games due to streamlining certain aspects, while refining others. However, Mechanicus II does feel largely safe when it comes to the whole package as there are no big swings to really shake things up, and that will either work for those who simply wanted more, or frustrate fans who wanted something drastically bigger and better after all these years.
It's also worth pointing out that if you found the first game too easy, then you may be disappointed as Mechanicus II is largely a walk in the park, unless you play on its hardest difficulty setting and max out the Vigilance system to flood the map with enemies.
Here, almost everything across the board is improved. Visuals, level design, infantry units, and the UI has been greatly enhanced, but given the original game is almost a decade old, that isn’t a high bar to really clear. While the improvements are noticeable, from its visuals to the feel of the game, it doesn't do much to match its contemporaries, and feels more inline with a sequel that would have been released just a few years after, not the eight years it has been.
I will say that I really miss the animated character icons of the first game as it gave the characters more personality and detail; they felt alive. They would have subtle animations and glowing aspects to their framed profile, not to mention the absolutely gorgeous artwork. Here, their profiles are just close-up shots of their character model, and are nowhere near as impressive. They feel lifeless, static, and boring. For every step forward in presentation, the game stumbles a few steps back.
Still, Mechanicus II does look better than its predecessor, but a far cry from other tactical games set in the universe, with Rogue Trader clearly outmatching it in scale and overall detail. That said, while both games offer turn-based tactical combat, they are wildly different in their systems, narrative approach, and game feel. While Mechanicus II is a solid game that is very easy to pick up and play, I still find Rogue Trader to be the better game of the two, especially if you can only afford one. That isn’t to say that Mechanicus II isn’t worth it, because it is, it is just that I don’t feel it matches the depth of Rogue Trader in its mechanical scope and narrative.
Outside of Dawn of War, the Necron have never been a playable race in any previous Warhammer game, which makes Mechanicus II a must-play for fans of the entire lore of the Warhammer 40K universe. Mechanicus only had you play as the Adeptus Mechanicus, hence the name, but this sequel offers up two campaigns that see you playing as both factions. Each story dives into the war between them, and a surprise or two lay in store as you get deeper into the narrative. This dual series of campaigns should run you are 30-35 hours, especially if you really go the path of doing everything.
The Adeptus Mechanicus, who return from the original game, are centered around stopping the Necron growth upon the planet, Hekateus IV. Their intent is to stop Sankhotep from taking back the planet, and converting it into a Forge World, whereas the Necron story is about repelling these intruders while also elevating the Sankhotep Dynasty back to its glory days, albeit with a few twists and turns as the infighting between the Necron is one of its most interesting developments.
What is really interesting about playing as the Necron is you start to see the human factions far weaker than we normally get to see them. They are also a species that can reanimate after a few turns, should their body not be destroyed. The Necrons were a force to be reckoned with in the original game, and their tactics are now your tactics here, and that adds a layer of depth this sequel excels with putting on display.
My only issue with the Necron campaign is that many of the leaders fall into some predictable camps regarding Sankhotep. While this leader is awoken by his loyal servant, who is your protagonist here, the bulk of the story is about this servant, and their allegiance to their king. Thankfully, much of that predictability happens early, but it then causes a good chunk of the story to not really go anywhere for a while as you simply move from one leader to the next, obeying their commands, satisfying their desires, while secretly achieving your own goals.
As you begin the game, you’ll take on a brief tutorial that provides a glimpse at each campaign before you’ll make a choice on which faction you’ll want to stick with. However, you can set up a second save file, skip the tutorial, and dive into the other at any time, seeing the story play out from their perspective. I will say that out of the two stories, I did find the Adeptus Mechanicus narrative to be more enjoyable due to the variety between leaders being not too two-dimensional. That, and seeing the old gang back together was really fun.
In the previous game, you would explore a zone, make choices on how to proceed, and then navigate the tunnels in a long lost tomb. You would manually navigate them from room to room, but in Mechanicus II, that pathing is automatic, and the game is significantly better for it. You’ll still make choices that affect your upcoming skirmish, but the way you progress through each mission just flows far better and doesn't waste your time.
Each leader of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Necron possess various abilities, and the sequel moves away from the deeper customization of the first game. While you can apply powerful abilities to your leader of choice, you are not changing their classes or weapons as each are locked into their respective kits. To add, each Adeptus Mechanicus leader then collects Cognition Points differently, which was a static mechanic in the first game that limited movement and attacks. Here, Cognition Points are far easier to earn as some leaders generate them by having their units attack, take damage, or even just earning them at the end of each turn. Previously, you would have found locations on the map to earn them, but thankfully, this particular scenario has been scrapped in favor of how the leaders manage said resource.
Movement is significantly better and easier to navigate each environment. Leaving the “action point” system used in the previous title behind, you now can move around each zone and use each of your basic attacks freely, with only certain skills being locked to resources you’ll earn as you continue your fight. In Mechanicus, you were often left with no combative option if you didn’t have the cognition points to even use your gun.
What is more noticeable about this new entry is the focus on positioning and using cover, especially as the Adeptus Mechanicus. Knowing where and when to attack, placing ranged units in areas to take advantage of the space, as well as melee attacks using opportunities to counter-attack, can make or break the skirmish. I also find the new camera to be significantly better, giving you a more slanted view of the battlefield instead of the stiff top-down camera of the original. It’s a game-changer.
The Necron are an aggressive force that can re-enter the battle provided they haven’t been attacked while downed. There are also some units that can regenerate new units, or leaders who can speed up the healing of those downed units. And, unlike the Adeptus Mechanicus, they utilize the Dominion mechanic, which increases through attacks and powers the more advanced moves and abilities for the whole Necron force.
It's also worth pointing out that the Adeptus Mechanicus can choose from more unit types to bring into battle whereas the Necron leaders have their “Courts” of unit types that are limited to each leader. While you are placing down the same amount, the Adeptus Mechanicus have more flexibility in their choices.
Where Mechanicus II really excels over its predecessor is that you are not just confined to the tombs and now have a whole planet to explore. This really helps out with variety as you are constantly exploring new locations, even if a few tend to repeat a bit too often. Still, this is a marked improvement that is certainly welcomed.
As you explore the planet, you’ll have main missions to tackle, highlighted in gold, and side missions that are highlighted in green. You’ll send out leaders to tackle the latter while you tackle the former. And when all objectives are completed, you’ll move the story forward. You'll also explore the planet to take back territory, or build or destroy Forge Cities, depending on what faction you are. As the Adeptus Mechanicus, Forge Cities become a useful tool to build up resources. I also like that the timer in the first game is gone and you are able to just tackle missions how you see fit.
Each main mission has you prepping for the battle ahead. You’ll pick your leader to accompany you, as well as an active Stratagem. These grant you bonuses but increase the difficulty though the Vigilance system, which increases the number of forces you’ll run into. Missions have various objectives, but ultimately it comes down to killing all enemies, taking out a specific target, reaching a marked location in the map, or surviving a few rounds. While you may want to stick with a certain leader due to their abilities, you are prevented from doing so as after a mission, that leader will take a breather, meaning you will want to ensure you have a backup leader you like.
Now, where these missions types suffer is do to every mission being a protect your leader scenario. Boss battles, for example, follow that same principle, but the AI likes to charge their leader into battle, and if you focus solely on them, you can clear that mission in less than two turns. If your leader is killed, the mission is over, so you generally are playing each mission like a game of keep-away. It sort of gets old, and prevents you from really cutting loose with your leader, in fear they get swamped and killed in a few hits. I also found bosses to have far less health than they should have, despite being able to attack multiple times in a single turn.
What is different from the first game is being able to swap unit turns when you are next to attack. This allows you to find units closer to the next attacker and keep the chain going. There were some rounds where I could attack three or four times in a row due to killing the next attacker. Their death doesn't replace their turn with the next unit, it just allows you to keep attacking until your opponent gets their turn.
Combat feels more crunchy than before, with animations and attacks feeling considerably more brutal, especially playing as the Necron forces. Still, firing off a lighting shot as a Tech Priest and seeing it bounce from foe to foe is thrilling. I also love the variety of the Necron forces, even if I don’t always like the Leader’s skills that come with certain groups of enemies. Still, fleshing out the skill trees and upgrading your units do make them far more effective, but a lot of that comes to a stand still until you unlock the later tiers of advancement.
Throughout my entire playthrough, I had a bit of a weird glitch. During battles, I didn’t have any music. None. While there is a DLC pack to inject the original game’s music, I never once had music during any battle. Sure, it is there during the menus and everywhere else, but not a single note playing during any combat encounter. While the ambience is still immersive, having no music was very odd. While there is apparently a fix on PC, I see no such resolution for console players.
What I really like about Mechanicus II is that the Adeptus Mechanicus are now fully voiced. You can swap back to the scrambled beeps and boops of the original, but I just prefer everyone speaking so I'm not needing to read everything that goes by. And given the more narrative focus here than before, it's a lot of voice acting that is actually quite good, even if the Necron forces are a bit flat and generic.
I will say that the presentation here doesn't quite hit the home run I was hoping for. Some cinematics are good, some are incredibly janky and feel pulled from a animated comic book, and the inconsistency here is really noticeable. To make the character feel more lively, they pulse lighting around them, but it just didn't do it for me. I found the presentation in the previous games to be far better given the time it released. It's a shame more budget wasn't given here to amp up the cutscenes and make them better than what is here.
Despite the jump in visuals, Mechanicus II is not a game built for high fidelity, even with its fairly impressive art direction. I do wish units and some backgrounds were more detailed, but what is here is still anywhere from good to great. Still, I had a lot of slowdown during battles with the game chugging for 3-5 seconds during the movement of some characters. I would say every 2-3 missions would see this occur, always at random, but always when I would move characters around, not when they were attacking.
Despite my criticisms, Mechanicus II is a solid game, but a very safe and uneventful sequel that provides a bit more than the bare minimum that a sequel should provide. It's presentation is wildly inconsistent, but the action, and tactical nature of the game is a huge step up over the original. I still prefer Rogue Trader, but for those who want more to explore in this universe, Mechanicus II does get the job done.
Developer - Bulwark Studios.
Publisher - Kasedo Games.
Released - May 20th, 2026.
Available On - Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC.
Rated - (T) - Blood, Violence.
Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X.
Review Access - A review code for Warhammer 40K: Mechanicus II was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.