Town of Machine

I received Town of Machine from a fellow member of developer Blue Eagle Productions' community and after playing it for a bit I'm glad I did. It's a fun and tense top-down action/survival shooter that combines elements of the dev's previous titles such as UNLOVED and Dimension Drifter: swarming, demonic enemies, retro-FPS quality guns and oppressive atmosphere, with Resident-Evil style inventory management, ammunition crafting and finding key items to proceed. In a strange, distant future, on the fringes of civilization, lies the bizarre, dying scrapyard Town of Machine. You are cantankerous, foul-mouthed exorcist Agent Silverman, and you are on the trail of fellow agent Armitage, who disappeared there years before. Your path leads downward, into the ruins of a forgotten civilization, populated by strange and hostile creatures. Are they demons from hell? Indescribable horrors from dimensions unknown? The physical manifestations of restless nightmares? All of the above? Who knows. They are legion, and in your way, and Silverman isn't having any of that. To that end, you can find and use a variety of firearms that would feel right at home in a classic 90s shooter- pistols, shotguns, assault rifle, plasma rifle, rocket launcher and more. Ammunition, at least on the medium difficulty I am playing and the point in the game I have reached, is limited but not altogether prohibitively so. Most of it will come from combining gunpowders a la Resident Evil 2, with different types resulting in different ammo. You can also combine health, armor, and "karma" items for greater effect. Karma is otherwise earned from killing enemies and is used to purchase weapon upgrade kits from a particular NPC. You can have up to four weapons equipped at a time, and given your extremely limited personal inventory space, you're going to be juggling weapons and items around in the finest survival horror tradition. For added packing problems, key items take up these same slots. Keep an eye out for those hip pouches and the precious slots they will add. Certain key items can be used to unlock new abilities for Silverman, such as dash shoes and night vision glasses. Thankfully you can make use of linked item boxes with a much larger, though still limited capacity. You'll also find glowing monoliths that autosave your game when approached. If you die, you restart from the last monolith you touched. As someone who has played a lot of top-down shooters, previous titles by the dev and at least some of the later Resident Evil games, Town of Machine immediately feels familiar and accessible, with responsive inputs, and In particular lacks the jank endemic to the latter series. Moving, shooting, switching weapons and interacting with objects, puzzles and NPCs all feels exactly like you would expect it to, with sensible default bindings. Only a small issue with trying to switch guns while reloading was of any annoyance, and that's already being addressed in a forthcoming update. Lack of good handling will murder a top-down shooter dead and Town of Machine simply doesn't have that problem. Aside from generally smooth gamefeel, Town of Machine has some decent artwork, excellent weapon sounds and amusing dialogue between the relentlessly misanthropic and overworked Silverman and the strange denizens of the town and its sprawling underground, some of whom will join you as AI squadmates, beginning with fellow Agent Mason- the guy with the fro in the cover art. You can have two followers at any one time, and each one that joins you tends to bring with them a meaner gun, at least that I've seen so far. They can quickly get beat down by larger and more dangerous enemies, but they'll revive after a fight if they do go down, free of charge. It seems like its fairly easy to die in ToM, but I've actually only died once so far, through careful application of health and armor items and use of the dash ability. So far I've found more supplies then I've needed, but I'm sure that will change somewhere down the line. Fans of the developer's previous games, top-down shooters and perhaps survival horror veterans as well will want to give Town of Machine a try.

Another great game from this developer. I would highly recommend this game, and everything else this guy makes to be honest. It reminds me of a small mom and pop joint in a suburb: small, easy to overlook, but they make the best damn pie and give a crap about their customers. I hope one day this guy can get a bigger budget and a team behind his ideas, that would make for one hell of a game.

I've always loved shooting games like this. Purchase this game on launch day. Hope it is good and turned out shockingly good. Score: 10/10 (because I laugh a lot at agent Silverman's response)

Новая игра от господина Шнайдера. Мне очень нравятся все его проекты. Особенно Dimension Drifter. Полагаю эта игра сделана чтобы заработать на продолжение разработки Drifter'a. Поэтому я купил её сразу после выхода. Чтобы поддержать разработчика. Теперь об игре конкретно. Коридорный шутер с 2d-графикой и 3d-окружением. Необычная смесь, но в целом играбельно. Господин Шнайдер делал эту игру в одиночку. Поэтому для одного человека весьма годно получилось. Суть тут как и в любом шутере на подобии думов и квейков - собирай ключи, открывай двери, убивай врагов. Также тут есть инвентарь, есть крафт предметов. Весьма простетский конечно, но для такой игры нет смысла делать его слишком запутанный. Но это лишь на мой взгляд. Оружия тут больше, чем во всех предыдущих играх. Я про Unloved и Dimension Drifter. Кстати их вселенные, судя по всему, переплетаются между собой. Потому что очень уже знакомые пентаграммы, герои и сами монстры (демоны). Мне тяжело было переводить сюжет, так как английский мне не родной язык. А немецкий тем более, уж извините господин Шнайдер, не хотел обидеть вас. Но в принципе суть ясна. Экзорцист которым является гг прибывает в город призраков. То есть заброшенный. Сражается с демонами. Попутно решает проблемы местных персонажей и свои собственные. Итог всех поисков - пропавший Агент Эрмитаж. Не буду спойлерить всё остальное, а то будет не интересно. Персонаж растет в статах с прохождением игры. Ну как в статах, вернее жизни и брони становится больше. Увеличивается их максимальный порог. Ещё можно накинуть шмота на себя который даёт те или иные бонусы нашему гг. Игра, судя по всему, линейная. Единственную плюшку которую обещает разраб - сделать новую игру+. Надеюсь добавит потом. Игру однозначно рекомендую и жду обнов к Dimension Drifter. =)

Ta bueno el jueguito para pasar el tiempo. Para sacar todos los logros es un embole, casi tanto como entrar al server del Fluman

평가 적은 게임은 왜 사면 안되는지 알려주는 게임. 겉으로는 때깔 좀 있어 보이지만 플레이를 하다보면 얼마나 안 다듬어진 게임인지 깨닫게 된다.

Alright, now that I've played the game through the first time, let me give my rough opinion: I would recommend this game, but with an asterisk: This game is pretty short, and I would recommend waiting for a sale before buying it. The game is meant to be a side story to Dimension Drifter, a longer term project for the developer. Difficulty curve will start out forgiving, but will quickly ramp up to hard as nails towards the end. I nearly broke my mouse fighting the final boss it was that frustrating. The ending to the story is a weak cliffhanger ending, but that is to be expected with side stories like these. My final thoughts: Its a neat little piece with secrets to find & monsters to fight. But the game will quickly turn merciless as you progress further in. If you want a real challenge, then by all means go for it on harder difficulties.

Town of Machine is a pretty good little game that I do recommend despite the issues I'm going to mention. While it didn't quite stick the landing for me on my first run, it did finally click with me on my new game plus run. But while I enjoyed it a lot more the second time around, there's no ignoring my gripes that was especially prevalent in the first. Don't get me wrong because it's a fun isometric shooter that has a very appealing aesthetic and some excellent level design but the game and its mechanics feel completely at odds with themselves as it tries to be a mix of the Alien Breed reboot, Doom and Resident Evil - on paper that sounds pretty great but it just doesn't gel together as well as I would have hoped. Pros: - Satisfying weapons and gunplay with plenty of oomph and feedback - Very nice and appealing aesthetic with a mix of synthwave, Silent Hill and some adorable character designs - Great level design with areas flowing in and out of each other seamlessly as you unlock more of the map - Likeable if shallow characters - Tons of cool secrets to find which are hidden in devious ways, I still yet to find them all - Excellent new game plus with harder encounters, new items to find and areas to explore Cons: - Isometric view is angled too low, making it easy to get your view block by walls and objects, also less visibility of any direction that isn't north - Far too many small objects constantly getting in the way ruining your movement and causing you to suffer cheap hits - Completely useless melee attack - If an enemy is above or below you in elevation then they can still hit you but you can't shoot up or down to hit them - Companions are simultaneously too strong in damage output and too weak in health points - Enemies, especially gunners, love to shoot you WAY off screen where you can't see them let alone fight back - Inventory management is cool on its own but feels too limiting for this game's hectic combat - Performance is lacking, uses 100% of my GPU even on medium and hitches occasionally - The swamp is long, boring and needlessly insanely tough - Absolutely awful final boss that's ridiculously hard combined with enemy spam and yet a certain secret weapon in NG+ makes it a total joke As a pretty big fan of the developer's previous game UNLOVED, Town of Machine is honestly a pretty big disappointment for me - even more so knowing it takes place in UNLOVED's universe with its stronger focus on story, lore and a more handcrafted campaign experience. There are some great things this game does, especially the new game plus mode and the fully interconnected map design, but I feel it would have been much better if it was a more slower paced survival horror type of game; it has the mechanics and level design to support that style of play. Sadly the focus on high enemy counts and hectic action works against the game in so many ways. With all that said, I do wish more games had new game plus like Town of Machine that adds new gameplay elements, harder encounters and new stuff to explore because I am frankly sick of bare bones NG+ modes that do absolutely nothing to the game which makes you completely overpowered or simply buff enemy stats. After playing Town of Machine's NG+ I decided to try out the Action Commando games where I feel the developer really improved on this game's issues and is a significantly more fun and better designed game thanks to those changes in my opinion. Ultimately I recommend Town of Machine if you're willing to put up with the game's headaches because there is a very fun and satisfying indie shooter here despite all the game's stumblings. And pick up UNLOVED while you're at it, it's great and cheap even at full price.

Stars received: 2.9/10 _ Note: v.5 [0.0 to 1] = personal impressions [0.4] Controls & Training & Help [0.3] Menu & Settings [0.3] Sound & Music [0.3] Graphics [0.5] Game Design [0.3] Game Story [0.4] Game Content [0.2] Completion time (level/game)? [0.2] is it Enjoyable & Fun? [0] Could it hold a spot in Favorites? (& if the Game can be repeatedly played again) [0] BONUS point: Multi-Player related [0] BONUS point: Review for VR [N] - if Registration is required with providing PII Game description key-points: interesting concept Overview: game visuals are sooo bad... dragged it straight to the junkyard a bit of maze walker, got stuck at some point and dropped it indefinitely...

Попросил я Пола как-то в шутку забить на Dimension Drifter и сделать Gungirl 3. Пожалуйста: получите и распишитесь. История о самой бесявой локации Gungirl 2 в далеком будущем. Собираем пушки, отстреливаем зомбей, рушим планы сектантов, все как в старые добрые. И с теми же болячками в виде невнятного левел-дизайна (бескрайнее болото с 3 бутылочками крови меня просто выбесило...), раскиданными за 10 км сохранялками и запрятанными в кустах квестовыми предметами. Еще добавился ограниченный инвентарь, в котором как минимум 8 слотов всегда будут заняты пушками. В общем, готовимся подгорать, но и веселья тоже будет немало. Особенно, если у вас хороший английский.