Main Assembly Review: A Technical Delight

It’s not every day that you find a game that lets you unleash your curiosity for robotics and automation. Main Assembly does exactly that. Building strongly over the existing foundation laid by the predecessors in the sandbox genre where nothing is off-limits, Main Assembly might just be the most complete and creative sandbox game made. You can take on multiple paths and approaches in building your perfect land vehicle, seafarer or aircraft without any restrictions. Sounds too good to be true, right? Luckily, it’s a reality and our Main Assembly Review shows how!

Main Assembly puts you in the shoes of a floating robot working for Olive with one purpose in life; building more robots. You are given an endless variety of parts, structures and customisation to work with and create the drones and vehicles of your dreams. Not just that, you get to test your creations out in the highly detailed worlds with a multitude of world types. A truly expansive experience indeed!

Main Assembly is available for purchase on Steam.

STORY – A World of Opportunities

Main Assembly has a very simple premise. Build whatever you want, and in the way you want. This might sound vague but it provides one of the most creative outlets out of all the sandbox games we’ve seen. You are entered in an initiation programme dubbed “The Tutorial”. Fancy, I know right? One may choose to skip the tutorial but it is highly recommended to complete the programme. You take on the reins of a gentle metallic bubble who loves flying around grinning on its digital screen. The cutesy spherical drone is tasked by a corporation to create the best possible robots to aid humankind. You can build a multitude of vehicles as per requirement.

The objective of the Main Assembly is simple, as directed by your robot handler.

The tutorial does a great job of getting you to grips with the mechanics of the game. You start small by learning how to drive the vehicles you make. You then progress to learning how to build one and ultimately getting into the finer details of making custom frames. Edging towards the final part of the tutorial, you are introduced to the Programming tab and learn how to direct specific controls to use the features of a particular part of the vehicle. And that is pretty much it! Main Assembly is easy to learn and you are free to explore the entire game after acing the tutorial missions. There are a few game modes to dive into but multiplayer steals the spotlight.

Multiplayer – The Real Deal

Other than the Tutorial section, you have your Challenges mode where you deal with multiple scenarios and completing them awards you stars. You can then unlock various parts and items to spruce up your gameplay experience. If you are not into that slow grind, you can simply head over to Sandbox and have endless fun with almost infinite creative options. You also have a Bot Brawl mode where you can face off against other players and/or vehicles. The real fun is amplified when you enter multiplayer.

You can join an existing game or create your own private/public lobby. Join your friends or invite them to create awesome contraptions together or make something totally disastrous and it will still work (not correctly, duh). The sheer amount of parts, worlds and customisation depth really makes for an enjoyable experience whether you choose to fly solo or engage with your comrades. The game could have benefitted from a storyline of sorts and there is definitely the future scope of adding one. But for now, we can be content with the no-rules-bound approach.

Gameplay – Easy to Learn, Hard to Master

The gameplay in Main Assembly is pretty straightforward. The mechanics are easy to understand and you will easily get the hang of all the controls in a jiffy. There are a lot of controls, mind you, but they are very intuitive. Completing the tutorial essentially teaches you the entire game and you will underestimate the depth of the game’s content (I did and it was a mistake) UNTIL you enter a game mode. The mechanics might be simple but utilising them is a work of art and not everyone is an artist. That being said, Main Assembly can get a fair bit technical at times.

The Programming Tab is the most complex and powerful feature of Main Assembly.

Playing Main Assembly instantly reminds one of Trailmakers the most. The gameplay and objective are pretty much the same but it’s the execution that sets them apart. In Trailmakers, the game is set on a very large scale and feels more refined in terms of graphics and visual appeal. Of course, being the longer developed game has its perks and Main Assembly is just starting. Still, Main Assembly holds its own really well and you are guaranteed to have a better technical and accurate experience over here. I hardly found any gameplay mechanics that felt raw or unpolished and you really feel like an inventor in your personal robotics workshop. One mechanic needs some work though…

Driving – Thou Has Forsaken Me

Don’t get me wrong, driving in Main Assembly isn’t bad. It’s just not good enough. That observation has more to do with the controlling rather than game physics. The steering feels lethargic and your vehicle reacts very sluggishly to any input. Acceleration is responsive but the brakes feel were wooden when applied. This does help you become a better driver in Main Assembly but greatly steepens the learning curve. The mechanism, in general, is rock solid in its foundation but definitely needs tweaking to make driving and controlling the vehicles more enjoyable and fun.

Graphics and Audio – Minimalistic Goodness

If a game focusses on the user experience, chances are the studio may skimp on content and if they dive heavily into content, the accompanying features may suffer. In case of Main Assembly, the devs managed to pull off a Thanos level balance. The game feels, plays, looks and sounds good and the mixture of all of them make this game a wonderful experience. In terms of graphics, the game has a very similar art style to the Portal franchise and we aren’t complaining. It magnifies the indie persona of the game while it still keeping it mass appeal themed. The drone is super cute and has a quirky personality of its own. I’ve often caught it smiling while riding the creations and falling asleep when not moved around!

As for the audio and music, the rule is “Keep It Simple”. The soundtrack isn’t gonna win any Grammy awards but it really does a great job of creating and maintaining a chirpy atmosphere while you go about your invention agenda. The background tunes are nice, light and non-distracting. The sound effects are neat and for most of the part, have a nice cartoony vibe to it. Main Assembly can definitely do with some more music options but this is in no way lacking.

Main Assembly was reviewed on PC via Steam with a key provided by Press Engine.