The Mechanicus II demo arrived on Steam last week, offering several hours of gameplay to anyone willing to download it. The timing suggests Kasedo Games and Bulwark Studios want to catch some attention before Steam Next Fest, though they’re being coy about the connection.
The demo presents both playable factions from the start. You can step into the rust-stained boots of Magos Dominus Faustinius and his Adeptus Mechanicus forces, or command Vargard Nefershah’s Necron legions as they wake from their tomb world slumber to exterminate the organic trespassers who made the mistake of colonizing above them. Two campaigns, two completely different approaches to tactical combat, and the machinery of war grinding slowly toward an inevitable confrontation that will leave one side broken in the dust.
The turn-based combat expands on what the first game established. Environmental destruction now matters in ways it didn’t before. The Mechanicus forces need cover to survive, ducking behind ruins and debris while they calculate firing solutions. The Necrons just destroy the terrain entirely, clearing sightlines and denying their enemies any protection. The battlefield becomes a shrinking arena of exposed ground and atomized stone, which suits the deathless legions just fine since they’ll simply reconstruct themselves if they fall.
Resource management extends beyond individual battles now. You’re fighting for territorial control across an entire planet, capturing regions and defending them from counterattacks while managing whatever supplies and materials you can scrape together. The Mechanicus campaign frames this as a race against time, trying to push back the awakening Necron dynasty before their full forces come online. The Necron side inverts this pressure, making you defend your tomb complexes while methodically crushing the vermin who disturbed your sleep.
The mechanical differences between factions go deeper than cosmetic choices. The Mechanicus still uses their Cognition system, though it’s been reworked with more ways to generate and spend points during combat. The Necrons operate on Dominion points instead, which function as a momentum mechanic. They start slow and ponderous, matching the weight of their ancient metal bodies and the millennia pressing down on their consciousness. But as they deal damage and assert control over the battlefield, their power compounds. The more destruction they cause, the more devastating their next strike becomes.
The demo missions stay tutorial-simple, which means you’re not getting a real sense of how these systems strain under pressure. The early battles teach you the basics without threatening much failure. You learn the forking path system returns from the first game, understand how the UI improvements make turn order and ability selection clearer, and get a taste of how each faction moves across the map. The Necrons lumber forward with the grinding inevitability of tectonic plates. The Mechanicus scuttle and calculate, all nervous energy and fragile flesh wrapped in whatever augmetic protection they can bolt on.
What matters is whether these mechanical differences create genuinely distinct playstyles when the training wheels come off. The structure suggests they will. Balancing the Necron’s slow start against building enough momentum to activate their more destructive capabilities should create different tactical puzzles than managing Cognition resources and keeping your tech-priests breathing. The Mechanicus need to stay mobile and make every calculation count. The Necrons can afford patience since death is temporary and their metal bodies will eventually grind down anything that stands against them.
The presentation upgrades are immediately obvious. Character models look sharper in both cutscenes and combat. The UI reorganization puts turn order on the right side of the screen where it belongs, and weapon abilities use a cleaner blueprint style that’s easier to parse mid-battle. The soundtrack deserves specific mention because it sets the tone before you even start playing, all ominous organs and grinding industrial noise that sounds like cathedral machinery slowly tearing itself apart.
The demo won’t tell you if Mechanicus II successfully builds on what made the first game work. Tutorial missions never do. But it shows enough to confirm the two factions feel legitimately different to command, the environmental mechanics add another layer to positioning decisions, and the planetary control layer could provide strategic depth between tactical engagements. Whether it all holds together when the difficulty ramps up and you’re managing multiple failing fronts while your resources drain away remains to be seen.
You can grab the demo now on Steam if you want to see for yourself. Just remember that what you’re getting is a polished slice of early-game content designed to teach you the systems, not stress test your tactical decision-making under pressure. The real question is whether those systems create interesting problems when the galaxy starts actively trying to kill you.
