It's not over the top - it's purpose built. That last one is clearly Fire Support (AKA stay in back and hit the things the other guys spot). The middle one is a skirmisher (AKA get in close, take damage, deal damage to the face). Then you've also got scouts, brawlers...
the thing is the "over the top mech" is not really over the top its just practicality/ why waste weight and armor by essentially building a giant human. honestly while the mech looked goofy chromehounds had the best approach to mech design. no arms why do you need hands on a giant war machine
Definitely the 'mobile artillery' kinda player. Almost always went for the tank tread/hover options and anything with area affect or lock on functionality.
Heck, I even used the minelayer/shotgun in Titanfall
Battletech a.k.a.
-get an assault mech with as many ballistic/missile hardpoints as possible
-remove all armor
-shove the strongest possible weapons, only later adding some armor if there's still excess weight
-profit
Ya joke, but that second mech is a legit build in Battletech. You put as many long range missiles as will fit on the mech (including hardpoints which are sometimes located on the head as shown here) and rain missiles from the other side of a mountain until the enemy mech stops moving.
@Mrlczer Same here, I loved armored core but the quad legs just hovering or acting as treads felt like a big missed opportunity.
You may love Front Mission 4, btw!
I loved Armored Core for that explicit reason when I was young... Ah the days dinking around with my quad legged mech, except I was always kind of disappointed the damn thing didn't actually walk on the legs instead of laying down on them and driving around.
Case and point: the Direstar build in Mechwarrior Online back in 2015-2016 (no longer doable)... Direwolf with 11 C-ER PPCs, basically no armor. Does enough damage with an alpha strike to kill anything in one hit, but you would only get 3 shots before you killed yourself with overheat damage.
Never could master maneuverability on Armored Core 3 through Last Raven, so instead I just went thick tank tread bot with the biggest howitzer I could find strapped to its shoulders.
Reminds me of the time I used to play a certain in-browser mech battle game... it would have fit in with all the other gacha mobile games these days, and I can't remember its name.
The most fun I've ever had in a mech game is in Mechwarrior 2, when I put as many I could of the most powerful lasers. I would completely obliterate anything I hit, but if I were to shoot more than once I would just blow up myself from overheating
