Review Detail of VicL in The Mech Touch

In this novel, there's a lot I like and a lot I don't. I like the Mech design and the MC's progress in it. I feel like there's a lot of potential in that area that's been wasted for the sake of stuffing gods and cultivation aspects down our throats. The MC is somewhat on the darker side. While intriguing at first, it's gotten sickening after a couple thousand chapters. Still within tolerance, but at the point I'm at, already unlikeable. Many times I get worried about the manic obsessiveness and short-sighted greed of the MC. His great vision and direction all seems unnecessarily forced, overly selfish, and mainly an excuse for the author to force plots. The way he treats people and close ones is also disturbing to say the least. I'm hoping we'll see some redemption phase or somehow see things get better, but so far, it's a downward spiral that's lasting hundreds of chapters. That brings me to what I dislike the most about this novel; it's slow. The updates are good and regular, but the story itself plods along like a tortoise. Just recently, the MC and company took no less than Six Chapters Just To Launch Their Ships and start their next journey. Twenty chapter battles, chapters that mainly consist of MC's speculation... the writing is very long-winded, and the chapters are short, to boot. There are things we've been waiting for that's still 'coming' since well over a thousand chapters ago. Writing quality is as good as it gets on webnovel, and the updates are thick and fast, so both get 5. Story development would be higher, but due to the slow pacing, only gets a 3. Also, the author seems to like forcing the MC into trouble-farms on purpose. His aims, his needs, his people... so many of his close ones turn out to be endless sources of trouble. Maybe this is supposed to excuse his twisted personality? Just courting his main LI alone is enough to pitch him into the wrong side of an interstellar war. Plus, I really dislike that girl and all her people. It's a rare situation when I find myself hoping that the side the MC is on would lose the war, if not completely, then at least enough to learn some humility and respect for others. While there's some effort on the author's part to give some depth and personality to the characters, generally speaking, I don't like them. There were a few I could have liked early on, but at this point, there's almost no character in the story I like any more. I'd give Character Design 2 stars, but that's it. As for the World Background... I gotta say, I like it. Not entirely, because just having three classes of ranking feels too simplistic, but the spread of humanity across the galaxy and there being many nations and cultures across the void... it has vast potential, though the author seems to be trying to rush past most of it and focus only on the brave lots making an expedition into a new frontier just like the MC. I wavered a bit between giving this four or five stars before settling on 4 because while we know the vast world is out there, a fat lot of it mean very little except for the current places the MC is involved in. I'm still reading it due to my interest in Mechs, and though there's a lot in it that I dislike, there's enough going for it that I'm still reading. I mean, I've gotten this far with it already, I may as keep going and see how it goes. Overall score: 3.8