Tear robot rivals limb from limb and then use their parts as your own in Gang Beasts-like brawler Mecha Mayhem

If Helldivers 2 hasn’t quite scratched your itch for reducing robots into piles of scrap, upcoming physics-based brawler Mecha Mayhem might. Gang Beasts in a world of Gundam-like bots, the fighting game lets you literally tear your enemies into pieces before repurposing their dismembered parts on your own bot.

Solo developer Duck It Games has been working on Mecha Mayhem for just over half a year, having originally come up with the idea for the mixture of detailed, physics-driven dismemberment combat and a modular customisation system around a decade ago.

The game throws players into battles as M0nty, an initially basic bot whose advantage is being compatible with any mechanical part or weapon they find. Turns out, those parts are typically found attached to a load of robots trying to kill you, so you can feel less guilty about yanking their arms off Chewbacca-style before beating them into decommission with their own limbs.

As M0nty rips and tears, the player can mix and match different parts on their machine body, unlocking more than 3,000 possible combinations of hand-to-hand options and weaponry during fights, as well as being able to make sure of the environment itself - for example, by swinging a hapless bot into a rock.

As well as a sandbox mode letting you try out your latest build - or just dispense cathartic justice on a lot of machines - Mecha Mayhem will have a roguelike story mode where players will be able to side with one of three factions and earn new parts over the course of each run to take into other modes, including online Party multiplayer and co-op. Those other modes will also allow custom maps via a Forge level creator, with Steam Deck and controller support.

Mecha Mayhem is currently available as a closed playtest, with access available via its Steam page, with a future release yet to be dated.