This is a bit of a weird but fun one. You control a drone that operates a tank that goes on missions to do battle with other tanks and bosses. Along the way you upgrade your tank by salvaging the tanks you have destroyed.

This is one of those games you just have to accept you are going to get killed and get killed often early on. That while it’s a short game with only a couple of missions. It’s meant to be played over and over again.

The good news is certain types of progression survive even if you get defeated. You get to keep any experience you gained towards ranks and any chips or chip upgrades you have unlocked along the way.

The game starts you off by going through some of the basics of adding things like tires and motors onto a tank. These items including other things like armor can become damaged in combat and either need to be repaired or replaced.

You then get sent on your first mission. Each mission has some main objectives that tend to be to collect two persona materials and then kill the boss to end the mission. Along with two side missions of taking out additional targets from creature nests to specific tanks on the field.

This first mission was a bit brutal in the first couple of attempts. I ended up using this as a location to farm a bunch of chips so I could make tank upgrades for increased damage and health.

I also felt this was the best way to try and learn what weapon and tank loaded works best for my playstyle. I ended up discovering I prefer the laser weapon and heavy armor for everything. While the laser cannon takes a moment to charge up if you can land a hit, it can be quite devastating on a larger target.

This kind of setup all has some rather weak spots. In one of the missions the level had quite a lot of spider adds. They were quick and kept showing up in large numbers. They ended up being able to counter my setup quite well. Almost makes me want to change my setup to deal with them.

The first mission was also quite loaded with resources. I felt like I had plenty of things to scrap for repair materials or to improve my tank. There was no shortage of getting ammo. Such things in later missions would not feel so true.

To be able to loot parts off other tanks or that you find in sites. You who are a drone need to separate from the tank you are controlling. This ends up creating a risky situation for you. As the robot you control lacks health it leaves your tank open to get ambushed.

I also found it to be worthwhile to take parts of takes that I took out that have higher health than my own if it’s the type I want. The amount of scrap tends to make swapping out parts the better option. This however takes time and slows you down a bit.

This is not one of those games where you can just take your sweet time doing things. Sure, you could slowly clear the entire map and get all the loot you can find. That was how I played the first map.

The game gives you a nice map with not only your objectives, side objectives. It even shows other locations of interest. Some of these other sites I've found can be quite lucrative in looting for finding tank upgrades or even chips.

There is just one tiny issue with that. If you are not rushing the main objectives, you are running out of time. The game just decides you know what would be great? Having adds spawned on top of you.

You get a pop-up that an enemy signature is detected. Then balls of lighting appear in the sky and a bunch of adds drop down to engage in combat with you. If you are really lucky you end up shooting the main enemy's tank before it even lands on the ground destroying it.

I don’t know how many times I'll be engaged in a rather nasty warfare, just finished combat, or just fully healed up my tank. Then bam I get the warning that I'm getting some incoming.

I’ve also lost count of how many times going for a spot and getting a bunch of resources ended up being the bad decision. It was not that I could not survive the original encounter and come out ahead from it.

I’ve even had times where I barely survived an encounter. Was in the middle of salvaging the tanks I defeated. Had adds show up. Barely survived those adds. Then right after I finished salvaging and repairing for the second time another set of adds showed up.

This game sure likes to keep the pressure on you. This is a bit of a shame if all you want to do is take your time and fully explore the map. You can still fully explore the map it’s just going to get interrupted a lot with what feels like an endless wave of adds quite often.

Thankfully you can also acquire tank repair kits as another way to repair damage. You can increase how many repair kits you start with by spending chips. There is also a shop in the middle of each map where you can buy certain types of items like a repair kit as well.

Finding chips and getting to survive to the next playthrough was the main thing that allowed me to advance and want to keep playing. You can see I've spent a few on core mods like further repair kits or refits (lives), and on adaptive like increase damage delt.

Once your tank blows up and you are out of life that run is over. You respawn back in your base in a starter tank. Needing to go out and get better gear and advance through the game yet again.

At least one nice this is. Once you have defeated a map boss that map is now available even on your next start as well. I just would not recommend charging head-first into the two or three later maps until you have run the first one and have something better than just the standard tank loadout.

As far as the bosses go they each provide their own unique experience. Some are massive while others look not that frightening but turn into total horror shows once you realize the capabilities they have.

I thought the Cryptowalker was not going to be that bad of a fight. Just look at how tiny he is! His attacks cause radiation ground damage around where he hits land. He also splits once you take him out the first time.

Creating quite the situation of trying to kite two of them, while avoiding getting stuck on objects in the arena. While also having to turn your weapons behind you and get some damage in. It was at least an interesting and challenging fight. Giving me that nice jab in the face when I thought I defeated the Cryptowalker just to find out that was just the first phase of the boss fight.

Going on missions controlling the tank is not the only thing going on either. In between those missions, you find yourself getting transferred into another robot elsewhere far away from your base I'd assume.

I won’t spoil the storyline in that aspect further than I already have. It is however quite a strange one. It was also a bit funny the situations you would find yourself in.

Final Thoughts

I do wish there were more missions to run in the game and the timers between getting more adds dropped on you was a bit longer. I would have loved to have explored all the locations on each map. Spent more time thinking about upgrades. Instead, I always felt like I was in a rush to quickly repair and get to the next objective or a point of interest before I'd get nailed yet again with even more adds.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about TankHead avaliable on Epic Games.

Disclosure. A review copy of the game was received for free.