Mecha Knights: Nightmare is a 2021 Mecha game produced by Damian Kubiak. It was released on August 3rd, 2021.
Stepping into the shoes of Captain Ethan of Echo Team, the player finds themselves leading NATO forces as they prepare for World War III with the Russian-lead Coalition... only for an unknown army of monsters to show up before the war can even be declared, with said creatures promptly deciding to eat everyone. Now, Ethan and his allies must fight to survive against the new enemies while trying to figure out their origins and how to defeat them.
The game can be purchased on Steam here
. A DLC expansion, Operation Ascalon, is in development, focusing on a daring campaign at the Suez Canal.
- Beam Spam: The Reds have specialized creatures that can do this even with only one of them on the field. These attacks inflict lots of damage, and are fired so fast that unless you are strafting them, they'll kill you in seconds.
- Citywide Evacuation: Several missions see you covering allies as they evacuate from cities that are overrun by the Reds, with one mission in particular focusing on the evacuation of the capital of Armenia, Yerevan.
- Design-It-Yourself Equipment: Every aspect of your mech can be customized, from its weapons, to secondary systems, and even its body parts.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Ethan and Mia both get plastered with brandy after the Fleet Defense mission (and then have Sex for Solace) due to the stress of the previous few days finally catching up to them.
- Enemy Mine: The literal existential threat that the Reds pose is enough for NATO and the Coalition (who were literally minutes away from commencing with World War III in the prologue) to immediately ally together.
- Energy Weapons: Your mech can be equipped with laser or plasma weapons, which have unlimited ammo but use your mech's energy to recharge. The Reds have gigantic creatures that can fire lasers that obliterate aircraft and will shred you to pieces in seconds.
- Fatal Family Photo: Verbal example - Jake is killed off at the end of Fire Typhoon, where he finally opened up to his squadmates about having a family.
- Flower Mouth: The Laser firing Reds have four mouth parts that open up prior to attacking.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: It's never explained where the Reds actually originate from in-game.
Word of God indicates it's being saved for a potential sequel. - Godzilla Threshold:
- The initial Red outbreak sees the Coalition resort to nuking their own cities to contain them. It fails.
- Once the Reds go public, NATO and the Coalition immediately put aside their differences and ally to face these monsters.
- Hold the Line: Many missions (almost half, actually) involve holding off an absolutely massive horde of Reds, usually with the aid of either bombing runs or artillery strikes.
- Hopeless War: It is very clear that the Reds outclass humanity and that if everyone does not unite, they will kill all mankind. And even if they do unite, the chances of survival are still slim.
- Hope Spot: Operation Fire Typhoon sees NATO and the Coalition mass up for a unified attack on the Reds, where both groups will lure the enemy swarms into kill zones and bomb them into oblivion. It seems to work, only for the Reds to reveal they have Energy Weapons and wipe out 80% of the airforce sent against them.
- Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: Downplayed - Mechs can equip both kinetic and energy weapons, with each having their own strengths, namely that energy weapons have functionally unlimited ammo since they recharge using your mech's energy, while kinetic weapons have a variety of different effects. That being said, kinetic weapons are far more versatile than energy weapons, and NATO's heavy artillery is composed of railguns - after all, lasers can't be used for indirect fire.
- Mecha: throughout the game your piloting a customisable Mech.
- Nuke 'em: According to Jake's Diary entries, Russia and China resort to very liberal usage of nukes to stop the Reds, even though Western scientists warn that this will have massive issues in the future.
- Outside-Context Problem: The Reds are a group of gigantic (Mini-Mecha sized at the smallest) creatures that show up with no warning and start eating everyone they can find.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Ethan's squadmate and best friend Jake is killed off during Fire Typhoon when a NATO aircraft crashes on him after being shot out of the sky.
- Sex for Solace: Ethan and Mia have this according to Ethan's diary entry prior to the "Underground Base" mission, due to a combination of stress from the previous few missions and both being in morning for Jake.
- World War III: The prologue occurs just as the Third World War (with the US and NATO in one corner and Russia and the Coalition in another) would have begun, only for the Reds to show up and start attacking everyone.
