A scrapheap challenge.
QUEST LOG #28: MACHINE MIND (DEMO)
What-ho. it’s Steam Next Fest time again… feel like it always is. Anyway, I don’t know how many of these I’ll manage to squeeze in over the next week or so, but hopefully we’ll unearth some goodies.
Mad max, a bit of Borderlands, a little Robot Wars, some Scrapheap Challenge, and a touch of Wall-E. That’s that comes to mind when playing the slightly odd survival real-time strategy game Machine Mind - developed by Chudo-Yudo Games, and published by Targem Games. As with all demos, there are considerations with content, features, bugs, and all manner of things that can change at the drop of a hat (or a patch), and before release, some things are likely to receive alterations. I think we can assume that the core of the game won’t be changing.
Loading in, we find that we have crashed on a barren world, and that our consciousness has been transferred to a Mind module, and that we must transport ourselves (using a bot vehicle) to a nearby dilapidated base, to get power back online, to gather resources, build other bots, to automate them, and to establish our base, all while exploring the map and either destroying raiders and their bases, or defending against waves of their attack forces. Gameplay wise, it evokes the likes of They Are Billions or Diplomacy is Not and Option, with bits an pieces evocative of standard RTS fare, but the stand out feature is the bot customisation, which allows for much fun and creativity, but more on that in a moment.
What first struck me was the aesthetics and themes of Machine Mind, and they’re quite refreshing, and the world, although hostile, feels fun to explore and exist in, the game seemingly no having taken itself too seriously. This comes mostly from the oafish on foot raiders, the rather chaotic driving skills of your enemies, and the bonkers design choices you can make with your bots (where, as I say, much of the fun and creativity derives). During the course of the demo, you can unlock a variety of weapons, such as machine guns, rocket launchers, etcetera, and tools, such as storage tanks for fuel, digging tools for sifting through scrapheaps, and plasma cutters for recycling abandoned vehicles. These can be laid out and utilised in unison, and depending on the amount of power you have, and how much you’ve expanded your bot itself, you can create some very powerful weapons platforms.
Going overly silly with these can result in trouble however, and that’s where my frustrations with the game surfaced. Building placement is absolutely key to not screwing yourself over, and if you make your base too compact, and design your bots stupidly wide, or long, you’ll soon hem yourself in, making managing your base almost impossible. Building structures too close also creates problems with accessing their menus, as the game seems to randomly decide which building’s menu to prioritise when approaching. This might be a quirk with the demo, but overall I feel as though the user interface could be improved. I played with a keyboard and mouse, and I found the controls often lacking, making movement or management of my base frustrating. The aforementioned problems with the layout of the base (and the stupidity of my bot designs) became less with subsequent tries however, and after learning more about the game, I found that it worked much better (mind blowing insight, I know).
Getting past the issue with building and laying out (likely more my fault than the game’s), I found myself really enjoying what was on offer in the demo. The map is quite small, but offers a good look at what the full game might be like. The customisation of the bots is said to be far more extensive in the full release, and with a more competent enemy and a bigger make, this could be really promising. The raiders in the demo (after I had finally built a proper base, and designed my bots more efficiently) felt very easy to deal with, but it’s likely that the difficulty would ramp up in a full scenario, if the game’s similarities to They Are Billions and Diplomacy is Not and Option are anything to go by.
Overall, Machine Mind is refreshing, and its good to see that RTS games are still being made. Restarting for the third time I learned my lesson of optimal placement, and in doing so, the third playthrough of the demo was the most fun. Machine Mind has much potential, and judging by the demo, it’s well on its way to being a great, slightly lighter, and fun strategy game. If you haven’t tried it, and the demo is still available, I fully recommend giving it a try, and if you’re reading this after its release, let me know what you think!
And as always, thank you for reading. If you’d like to support the blog, you can do so by subscribing and sharing!