What are the best robot games on PC? Strapping into an overpowered robot filled to the brim with rockets and lasers is an old but popular power fantasy. Classic shows from the ‘80s and ‘90s – like Mobile Suit Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion – popularised the mecha anime genre.
Robot games have a robust history rich in various genres, sometimes featuring in the best PC games, ensuring an experience for every kind of mech fan. Fancy yourself a gearhead with a penchant for the micromanagement of mech parts and deliberate, laboured robot combat? Perhaps you just want a fast-paced, anime-inspired Voltron-style action where everything explodes? Good news: there’s a game for you.
Here are the best robot games on PC:
War Robots
Most robot games tend to have more button inputs than is entirely necessary, so if you just want to get in there and blast away enemies in 6v6 multiplayer battles to the death, there may be something for you in War Robots, a free-to-play mech PvP experience.
Pick from one of 50+ robots and arm them with your pick of an entire arsenal of explosives and guns across 14 maps. It’s up to you to find the best destructive mech, so you can go for a chunky mech armed to the teeth with rocket launchers or sit on the sidelines and pick off your foes with a nimble sniper.
Iron Order 1919
This is another one where, technically speaking, these are mech suits or mech vehicles rather than robots… but they’re all kind of the same, right? Metal things that walk around and resemble living beings in certain regards. In Iron Order 1919, they’re a new technology born out of a version of the First World War that kept going after 1918.
Fascinating concept aside, this is a game that it’s easy to get hooked on. It’s a grand strategy game that sees you taking control of one of the countries involved in this elongated conflict. You’ll be carefully studying maps, determining how best to deploy your military forces, looking out for territories with the most strategic value, and deciding how you want to allocate your budget for development. With games lasting several IRL weeks and being played by up to 101 players, it’s quite an experience.
Play Iron Order 1919 for free.
Armored Core 6 Fires of Rubicon
From Software has gone back to its classic robot game roots, taking all of its experience over the past decade crafting excellent games and applying that to the Armored Core series. Fires of Rubicon builds on the long-running series by giving players access to hundreds of Armored Core 6 parts to build the perfect mech. Fly around huge battlefields as you eliminate waves of enemies in style using machine guns and rockets.
There are 59 AC6 missions to get through, providing plenty of opportunities to create AC6 builds to take the right mech into each battle. We highly recommend checking out our Armored Core 6 review to see what makes From Software’s robot game so special.
Tower of Fantasy
Similar to Genshin Impact in some respects, Tower of Fantasy is a free-to-play open-world action RPG that sees you playing as characters on the planet Aida in the distant future. Set in a shared world, it’s a great game to play if you want to go on an adventure with your friends… but how do robots factor into it?
With a sci-fi setting, Tower of Fantasy has robots popping up in various capacities. First, there’s your robotic sidekick, Mia, who follows you for the whole adventure. Then there’s Monocross, the robotic unicorn that you can unlock as a mount, and also Mechbird (a, er, mech bird), which appears as another mount. And, gosh, really, if we were to list every robot in the game, we’d be here for quite some time.
BattleTech
Released in 2017, BattleTech is a turn-based tactical war game in a distant galaxy amid political upheaval. The noble class employs companies of mech-piloting mercenaries known as MechWarriors to wage war to wrest power from one another. As the leader of one of these companies, it falls to you to command a squad, or ‘lance’, of mechs, in a series of intense tactical battles.
This explosive robot game offers many customization options for your lance, from different chassis models to armor and weaponry. A well-rounded lance will have mechs suitable for all kinds of combat and terrain. By giving you this level of control over your mechs, developer Harebrained Schemes ensures commanders experience a strong sense of personalization and ownership over their lance.
Into the Breach
Another tactical, turn-based strategy game from 2017, Into the Breach manages to represent the full scale of robot-on-monstrous-insect conflict in a small and time-efficient package. The game borrows elements from the roguelike genre and makes each attempt to beat the story its disparate run. You can earn mech upgrades between battles and also get to choose one pilot to keep with you between runs, which adds a bit of permanence to the experience.
The battles in this game take place on a small 8×8 grid and play out more like a puzzle than a tactics game. Each mech has different attacks that can move enemies around the map in specific ways, so planning your sequence of moves is almost more important than damaging the enemies outright. The presence of civilian buildings that you must protect complicates matters, making Into the Breach a tense and satisfying brain burner of an indie game.
Titanfall 2
Developed by a team of Call of Duty veterans at Respawn Entertainment, the Titanfall games fuse swift, arcadey shooter action with heavy-fisted robot combat. In what is perhaps one of the biggest surprises in recent years, Titanfall 2’s stellar single-player campaign tells the far-future story of a soldier and his mech that’s equal parts The Iron Giant and Singularity. Explosive set-pieces, thrilling platforming sections, and a touching finale all combine into one of the best mech-themed stories ever. For real, this game has no business being as good as it is.
The smooth controls and satisfying gunplay translate perfectly to multiplayer mode, as well. With mechs and pilots duking it out all across the map, each match feels epic. There were rumors of Titanfall 3 swirling for a while, but as it turns out, Respawn was working on Apex Legends, a battle royale game in the Titanfall universe but without the mechs – although there is a robot among the various Apex Legends characters. Boo. Still, Titanfall 2 is one of the best mech experiences out there, so we can’t complain.
Supreme Commander 2
Yes, Supreme Commander 2 is over a decade old now, but the bar for mech-based real-time strategy games continues to rest squarely in its metal hands. Everything about this robot game screams epic, from the enormous battles to the various units and structures at your disposal.
Supreme Commander 2 is not only a sequel to 2007’s Supreme Commander, it’s also a spiritual successor to Total Annihilation from 1997. Given its lengthy legacy, it would have been easy for Supreme Commander 2 to rest on the laurels of its forebears. Luckily, all these tweaks hone it into a tight and polished experience that continues to be the high point for the mech-based RTS game.
MechWarrior Online
In the seventeen-year gap between the release of MechWarrior 4 in 2002 and 2019’s MechWarrior 5, mech fans flocked to MechWarrior Online, a free-to-play game that takes the tactical challenge of brawling in big machines to the PvP realm.
It’s not an easy-to-approach game, and being free-to-play comes with its slew of expectations to overcome, but there’s no denying the faithfulness to the tried and true MechWarrior gameplay. There’s a lot to keep track of, like your system’s heat levels and how far you can turn your mech’s torso – standard MechWarrior fare. For purists, playing exclusively online may not be the ideal MechWarrior experience. Still, since MechWarrior 5 is primarily single-player, MechWarrior Online is the best way to fight your friends in the universe of BattleTech.
Portal 2
Single-player may have us complete tests and explore the deserted depths of Aperture Science labs as a human, but between Glados, Wheatley, and the little turret drones, you sure do encounter many robots. They’re a constant presence, with Stephen Merchant’s sarcastic wit being a particular highlight throughout the campaign.
If these aren’t enough robots for you, find a friend and have them play the unique co-op story as two robot friends: the stout Atlas and the lanky P-Body. Together, you must use your portal guns to create many holes to mess with the laws of reality, hopping through them to fling yourself across massive chambers or pass through objects instantly. It may cause short-term ‘disagreements’, but it’s one of the best co-op games with fantastic gameplay that neither of you will forget.
Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair
We may be stretching what qualifies as a mech game with this one, but it’s hard to resist the appeal of Walking Fortress Balam – a towering robot that stands taller than any skyscraper. Most of the game features quick on-foot shooter action against waves of insect-like enemies, but more firepower is necessary every once in a while. Enter the Air Raider and their ability to summon Balam. Primarily used to engage in battle against an enormous Godzilla-inspired monster named Erginus, piloting the Walking Fortress truly is a power trip like none other.
Released in 2016, Earth Defence Force 4.1 is a remaster of 2014’s Earth Defence Force 2025. Developer Sandlot made some improvements for the remaster and even included a brand new expansion that added lots of new content to the base game, which is saying a lot considering it already included over 700 weapons. The Earth Defence Force series has gained something of a cult following in recent years, and the over-the-top Jaeger action of Walking Fortress Balam is a big reason why.
Brigador
How do you fancy leveling an ‘80s cyberpunk-inspired city? In Brigador, you pilot a tank or a mech in twin-stick shooter style and mow down waves of enemies and any buildings that get caught up in the crossfire. However, it’s not all mindless destruction, as you need to be careful of civilians and prioritize targets lest they sound the alarm for reinforcements. The visuals in this cyberpunk game are grainy and deliberately lo-fi, which perfectly emulates the neon-noir of the Blade Runners and Total Recalls of the world, and the synth-heavy soundtrack sets the mood just right.
There are some tactical elements at play as well. For instance, ammo is not infinite, and certain terrain will slow your vehicle, meaning you need to pay special attention to your surroundings. Brigador also pedals in variety, with a host of weapon and vehicle combos that keep the game fresh, level after neon level.
Front Mission Evolved
Released in 2010, Front Mission Evolved took the tactical turn-based formula of previous games in the series and turned it into an action-heavy third-person shooter. Aside from a port of the 2005 PlayStation 2 game Front Mission Online, it’s also the only entry in the series to appear on PC, so that’s got to be worth something.
At first glance, comparisons to MechWarrior might seem appropriate, but Front Mission Evolved is a much faster experience. Piloting a Wanzer, you dash, hover, and gun your way to victory in a series of missions, each filled with shooting galleries populated by enemy mechs. The story of Evolved served as a reboot for the series, meaning you don’t need to be familiar with the lore – which dates back to 1995 – to enjoy all the characters and plot twists.
Fallout 4
Hear us out on this one. There are many robots across the Appalachian Wasteland, and you can even have a few of them join you as companions on your adventure. It also has plenty of components you can gather to make your turrets to defend your home base against invaders. If you count piloting mechanized suits as a robot, then the Power Armor fits that brief, turning you into a juggernaut capable of making mincemeat out of a Deathclaw.
In addition to all the stuff in the base game, there are plenty of other Fallout 4 mods out there that can give you even more ways to turn this vast RPG game into a robot-filled extravaganza. Want robots to defend your base? You can build your fleet to repel those pesky trespassers. Need some assistance? How about calling in a Brotherhood of Steel Fire Team to help you? The possibilities are endless.
Super Robot Wars 30
If you’ve never heard of Super Robot Wars, that’s probably because until now, the tactical RPG was only available in Japan – but 30 years after the series debut, Super Robot Wars 30 can finally showcase its all-star roster internationally.
As the leader of a robot army on a mission to save the planet, there’s an extensive roster of famous mechs and robots to recruit straight out of the best mecha anime, like Mobile Suit Gundam, Mazinkaiser, and Code Geass. Outside of the game’s turn-based tactical battles, you’ll upgrade your roster to assemble the ultimate mecha team.
Horizon Zero Dawn
More and more former PlayStation exclusives have made their way to PC in recent years, and the arrival of Horizon Zero Dawn means some of the best-animated robots in gaming are finally on PC. You roam a massive open world, hunting and taming wild machines in a quest to figure out how humanity fell into ruin and Earth came to be dominated by towering robotic animals.
While protagonist Aloy is a worthy star, it’s the wild machines of Horizon Zero Dawn that consistently steal the show. There are over 20 different beasts to overcome out in the wilds of future Earth, each with its distinct attack patterns, behaviors, and weak points. However, the best moments happen before the fight as you quietly stalk your prey, trying not to let their scale and mechanical majesty intimidate you as you ready your bow. Check out our Horizon Zero Dawn review for the full verdict.
There you go, the best robot games to cause maximum destruction. However, if you need relief from all that action and fancy a quieter approach, the best stealth games on PC will calm the insidious tinnitus. And, of course, there are also some free PC games vying for your attention. But, if you’ll excuse us, we have some battle suits to polish.
Additional entries by Jordan Forward and Sam Desatoff
