Mech shooter Daemon X Machina is next week's free Epic Store game
Physics puzzler Relicta free until then.
PC players with a hankering for some big stompy robot action are in luck; mech shooter Daemon X Machina has been confirmed as next week's free Epic Games Store game.
Daemon X Machina, which originally released as a Switch exclusive back in 2019 before making its way to PC the following year, casts players in the role of mercenaries employed by the Orbital organisation. Crucially, these particular mercenaries have access to huge Arsenal mechs, and each successive missions sees players sliding and zooming across vibrantly hued post-apocalyptic arenas blasting the bolts off enormous robot enemies driven by corrupted AIs.
Mechs are fully customisable with new weapons and upgrades, and players can even delve into the murky world of body modification if they wish, subjecting their avatars to everything from simple cosmetic enhancements to massively invasive surgical procedures that imbue certain perks but can have a major impact on their appearance.
Throw in a range of different modes, including online co-op, multiplayer Exploration Missions, even a 1v1 and 2v2 leaderboard-focused competitive mode, and there's a lot for mech fans to like about Daemon X Machina.
Indeed, Eurogamer's Martin Robinson enjoyed it enough to give it a Recommended badge on Switch, noting that while some rough edges made for "an imperfect revival of a sub-genre that already had enough imperfections of its own [Daemon X Machina] knows what made those old games click, and dwells on the details that made Armored Core sing."
Daemon X Machina will be free to download on the Epic Games Store starting next Thursday, 27th January. Until then, players can add the store's current offering to their libraries: developer Mighty Polygon's first-person physics-based puzzle Relicta.