Nex Machina: Death Machine is a twin stick shootem up in where you blast everything on screen that wants you dead. The game includes power-ups and weapon abilities that give an edge in your scourge against the machine menace. Their really is no story, aside from machines have taken over and you must save humans while destroying everything in your path. Let me now discuss my thoughts on theNex Machina: Death Machine is a twin stick shootem up in where you blast everything on screen that wants you dead. The game includes power-ups and weapon abilities that give an edge in your scourge against the machine menace. Their really is no story, aside from machines have taken over and you must save humans while destroying everything in your path. Let me now discuss my thoughts on the different topics that this game has:
Visuals and Levels: Extremely vibrant and colorful environments that go by a cyberpunk voxel art design. I was impressed but also hampered by the color shifts whenever enemies used their different abilities for me to dodge. The amount of enemies on screen posed an issue whenever I was trying to keep a step ahead of them and sometimes got caught on objects and then killed. The enemy designs themselves are cool but all pose a uniform color model of red that makes it hard at times to tell what even is coming at me. The retro arcade bit style of things being destroyed is a neat little touch. The levels themselves are short in duration but range on size and setting, each having their own challenge to them that feels fresh and yet familiar that doesn't comprise the simplicity of the game. Each area is comprised of about 15+ plus levels and can be cleared usually in about 8-10 minutes (depending on difficulty mode).
Gameplay: High intensity as you would expect from a twin stick bullet hell like game. Enemies by the hordes will zero right in on your ass and you will shoot and destroy every single one of them to clear a level. Along the way you can also save humans, secret humans, destroy certain robots to get more points and obtain secret levels and more. it's too cryptic with how you learn the secrets at all. Considering the game is fast paced and meant to make you move constantly and think on your feet, it feels counterproductive to do this way in this game in my opinion. The power ups include shields, triple dashes (dashing allows you to avoid damage and move through enemies with invulnerable frames), extra lives, increased multipliers, etc and they all have good usage that do not go underutilized. The weapons are mostly good; the sword is the weakest weapon with too small a radius to hit enemies, the laser is great at destroying hordes down narrow areas but at the unfortunate cost of slowness that could spell death if you hold it for too long, the rocket launcher shoots a wider line and has a surprisingly small blast radius, the detonator shoots a bomb that you remotely explode that is great against enemies behind ones you can shoot at the moment and so on. Despite this being a twin stick shooter, it feels like there should be more creativity with the weapons in not just visuals (which they all mostly look great) but have more tactical play that evolves the game's strategy.
Enemies and Bosses: They range from little spider like bots to giant bombs that release shockwaves that forces you to dodge. The variety feels good and as you progress newer units change the priorities a bit and make the game far more interesting. The bosses kick ass, they have great move sets to them that makes them a challenge and joy to engage in. Only the final boss feels lacking and that is where I have to make a statement I feel is justified but might be disliked...
Length and Duration: I was shocked by how short the game is. To make sure I was not crazy, I went through and beat it again on a stepped up difficulty to make sure I was dreaming. It took me about an hour and half to beat the game twice. When I beat the final boss I thought I was I would be about a third of the way done with the game, but when I saw a cutscene and the credits, I was in disbelief. Sure, what was already coming along was good, but it felt like there was such a waste of potential here that it pains me to see it be this way. Even if the game would have 10 to my idea of 15 areas at least it would be far more laden with challenge. The bosses and level designs are very well done, but the shortness of the game is the game's fatal flaw and I can't grasp how this was acceptable by the dev team. I am all for shorter more precise games but a game like this should have more clever designs. Had it had 10 areas instead of 6 I would have been more forgiving, but that is too much for me.
Other things: Co-op can be done couch play style, but not online which is bizarre. The challenges feel retreading with no unique hook or modifier that makes it interesting. The difficulty is too punishing on higher modes and feels artificial than creative. The music is excellent and very well done.
I feel this belongs to a very certain type of genre fan who will enjoy its designs, but I ultimately felt disappointed by the potential it threw away. $20 feels a bit much so I would say wait for a sale for this one. Good overall but feels odd on a console and would be something I would have played in a arcade instead.… Expand
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