DEUS EX MACHINA 2

Wow, this is an interesting piece of history. The original Deus Ex Machina, released in the 80s, was one of the first games synchronised to music. (Edit: just to be clear, this is nothing to do with the Eidos/Square Enix series "Deus Ex". Deus Ex Machina 1 was way before that.) Back then, the only way to actually achieve this was to have you load the game, then tell you to put a cassette in your cassette player and hit the PLAY button at the right moment. After that, a sequence of mini-games would play, roughly timed to line up with the events on the cassette. It was quite an intriuging experience at the time, so what could the creator do given modern technology? So, in this game you listen to a continuous piece of music in sections representing the stages of life, while playing a series of timed minigames. The music is synchronised with the changes in the games, but for some reason they've kept several of the old limitations. First of all, you have a health bar/score called "degree of ideal entity" which goes down when you take damage. Unlike the old game, some actions heal it; but like the old game, going down to zero doesn't end the game or have any effect at all. You just carry on with a zero score. Originally this was because the cassette player wasn't controlled by the computer so it couldn't change anything or shut off the tape; why on earth this limitation was retained I have no idea because it seriously harms the replay value - you will complete the entire game on your first run, guaranteed. Even throwing in Steam Achievements for finishing with certain % scores would have helped, but that's not implemented, although it could be added later on. The other odd thing is that the sync with the music isn't that strong - several of the minigames have actions that synchronise with the words or shifts in the music, but most of them just look like they are planning to play forever and at the end of the music they just fade out with the continuation of the level still visible in the background. Again, there seems to be no reason for this on a modern system where the computer can track every part of the music as it plays. Regarding the music, it varies from kind of dull up to fantastic, depending on the style of music you like. It's almost a shame they didn't provide a soundtrack, but since the main point of the game is the music, it's understandable they wouldn't. The minigames are all third-person 3D endless runners (again, not clear why since in the original they varied). Unfortunately, they vary from "not that great" to "what were they thinking?". Part of the problem is the controls - in the early levels it's clear that the controls move the camera, but you won't clearly see how your character is moving, and it varies between levels. The graphics also aren't great - in some sections, like Danger Warning and Old Age, their simplicity works well, but often they just look like unnaturally cornered indoor environments of the type you expected from 3D games in the 90s. And there are blatant design flaws, and they get worse as the game goes on. School has you touching matched pairs of objects, but there's no feedback when you've gotten it right or wrong other than your % meter changing. Adolescence has you collecting pubic hair. Um. In Love and Betrayal, you're supposed to move a cursor to collect or avoid certain objects but at least sometimes you'll inevitably fail because you couldn't see the object behind the spinning body of your character. The Soldier has you running towards the screen hopelessly trying to dodge mines and bombs that appear too quickly to be reacted to (and it seems they haven't adjusted the game engine properly to be running in the other direction because the bottom of the screen flickers and tears). War Crimes Are Easy involves.. slowly and tediously walking through a bunch of images in a courtroom which don't do anything. Another has you slowly walking through doors pressing the up and down arrors to do.. well, nothing apparently. Pain has you flying through a hospital building trying to collect medicines and avoid harmful drugs, but your character is so large you'll have pretty much no choice about what you pick up sometimes. And the final "old age" section contains a playback of some of the previous games.. but rather than using the game engine they run them in low-resolution FMV. Huh? The plot is a simple walk through of stages of life, with no real clear connection between them. The text suggests a cyberpunk setting, and there's some suggestion that your character was born of "a machine", but nothing really comes of it. Oddly, some of the plot-related material has been removed from the game compared to the original. The ending is quite satisfying, although it lacks some of the charm of the original ending, in part because of the new actors. So, I can't really recommend this at this stage but there is a base of an intriuging game there if the design flaws should be sorted out and a bit more replay motivation added in. At the low price it's sold at, it might be worth a flutter if you understand that what you're getting is roughly an hour-long music album with some interactive backing, but judged as a game it doesn't stand up in its current state. Edit: turns out that the soundtrack is on Spotify. Double Edit: there are a lot of comments about how this game is meant to be a piece of art, and don't get me wrong - I really love the "games as art" idea, and there is some excellent artistry here, but it's all in the music. The lyric at the end of Old Age, "I really miss my Mamma / but I don't know who she was" and the following Lee speech can still make me tear up. But. But. That's artistic music, and as I said, if you're happy to be paying for an hour-long soundtrack then go ahead and buy. The _game_ just doesn't reflect this art at all, and it ignores the fact that games-as-art have evolved since back then to involve the game much more. If you want to say that war is scary in an art-game, look at Spec Ops The Line or This War Of Mine. Doing it by having a naked guy running through a landscape while a voice shouts "TERROR TERROR TERROR" is the artistic equivalent of a mallet to the head. And I'm not sure what the overall artistic statement is supposed to be - it just sort of describes life in a rather cynical way and that's it. Even listening through all the lyrics, it's more or less just a description of a life, not anything special about it.

看了山山的视频来的 不得不说真的是很有理想的游戏 虽然我感觉让我彻头彻尾玩一次的话 我大概率还是说NO hhh

不推荐购买。 看了山山的视频：www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Lv411r7JY/ 特意来买一份，纯粹为了致敬游戏思想的先驱探索者。 愿你走出半生，归来仍是少年。 May you return with a young heart after years of fighting.

愿你归来时，仍是少年。 May you return with a young heart after years of fighting.

是否推荐购买：不推荐。 原因：缺少游戏性。 个人评价：训者，训貌以道。 原作是一款1984年，至今36年的游戏。并且彼时所使用的载体是磁带📼。往今的游戏设计理念之间存在着极大的差距，以现在的观点看来，建模，材质，程序，美术上都存在着巨大的缺陷。但是，它却并不是一款普通的喜加一游戏。这是一场10便士的革命，只是最后消失在了历史的长河中而已。 很难说它是否真正的改变了游戏，但是没有它，至少游戏不会和现在一模一样。虽然在这一点上，许多其他的制作人和游戏也起到了相似的历史作用。但这并不能否定Deus ex machina的历史意义，至少DEM一直在这，也会一直在这。

I can't believe I sat through the whole thing. I guess I was just waiting to see if there was actually a game hidden somewhere in this thing. You can actually sit back, do nothing and just listen to the music. It's really more like an awful music video than a game.

我也是看了某人的视频，所以才过来购买了这款游戏。 当然，我是肯定不会去玩的。 只是想说，世界上存在很多付出不求回报的人，如果没有这些人 当今的世界还不知道会是怎样。 购买游戏，仅仅只是后知后觉的我能做的唯一一件事情。

Trying to give a constructive input on this release on steam: Well, first of all - it's not a real game per se as you can complete it WITHOUT any action at all. So there is no challenge whatsoever which makes the label "game" obsolete. What is it then? Well, it is a cinematic experience which follows the course of life from the very beginning until your death - without exploration as "life" (the game) just goes on without your doing. It is like a play, a musical at some times with a psychedelic theme and setting and a philosophical background to it. Christopher Lee gives the introduction and explains the stage and its actors. Well, much pathos but little content that gets delivered here. The music is a key point here, as the graphics aren't outstanding at all, they do their purpose at best but nothing more. Well, the music (+ lyrics) are linked the stage of life you're currently witnessing but there is no coherence. It varies from musical scores to pop songs etc. All in all, I have mixed feelings about this. As a game it only delivers some minigames that don't matter at all, as a visual experience it doesn't quite hit the spot in my opinion. It seems like wrong choices have been made. Deus Ex Machina 2 would have had the chance to work better as a short movie than an interactive video game. Sorry.

More art piece than game, Deus Ex Machina 2 guides through the stages of life set to a soundtrack that dominates the game. Conception and birth through adolescence into adulthood, old age and death are all represented in the form of "games" that are essentially music videos in which you play a minor role in collecting or avoiding things. Perhaps you are seeking out positive messages as a child or dodging craters and bombs as a soldier or collecting kisses -- but essentially each level is the same thing. Throughout, you have a rating for "Degree of Real Identity" which is affected by how well you play level (or sometimes just seems to tick down regardless) but it's misleading to keep using the terms "game" and "play". These are games in name only. The controls are sparse and sluggish and the effects seem frustratingly random at times. Of course all roads lead to the grave regardless -- I had enough Identity to carry me through to the ending scenes but I don't know if it's possible to actually lose the game. Deus Ex Machina 2 starts out strong in that the music helps pull you in and the overall complete weirdness of the experience makes you go along for the ride. By the end though, it has largely worn out its welcome. Perhaps that's a metaphor for life or perhaps it's just poor game design but either way it's hard to recommend it. If you ever found yourself with a free copy, it's worth it to play the first half which has more manic weirdness than the increasingly plodding second half. But I couldn't, in good faith, tell anyone to spend money on the experience.

是否推荐购买：不推荐。 购买原因：从山山视频过来，为致敬这位伟大的游戏制作人。 你是游戏界的凡尔纳，为梦想和尊严而献身的游戏制作人。 您就是机械降神。