[quote][b]Note: Dead PvP game[/b]
This game contains no meaningful single player content. There's no viably populated servers/active player population. This game cannot be played as intended.[/quote]
When you take one look at Vox Machinae you'll sit bolt upright... yes, this really is a Western mecha game, but it's not like Hawken (Hawken was just Quake Arena with battlemech skins, not a true mecha game... no wonder it failed). Brilliant! It would take an incredible degree of incompetence at the highest level of game architecture for a Mechwarrior Online ripoff to fail.
The developers, however, managed to display an incredible degree of incompetence at the highest level of game architecture, so this failed.
"Vox Machinae" is a failed PvP game. Why is it dead? It's time for a video game autopsy!
There's something I've noticed with so many bad games played and reviewed... developers almost always fail the "look around you" test. All developers, always, before spending $100 on Steam Direct, must stop. They must look around. They must look at the Steam catalogue of over 140,000 games, and ask: "Are any of these both similar to and much better than the game I am trying to publish?". Game developers NEVER do this, which is why most of the games on Steam are garbage, and Valve derives over 95% of their revenue from about 2% of the games on the platform.
What's that got to do with "Vox MachiNO"? The developers business plan here was to make a ripoff of Mechwarrior: Online, only worse. This is a fascinating business plan. They surely must have known Mechwarrior Online already existed, with a 30+ year gold tier intellectual property backing, dozens of mechs, a (remarkably still active) player base, dozens of maps... and yet knowing this, they pushed a product that was inferior.
I guess in fairness they tried to differentiate by making this a VR focused game... that was a suicidal decision. Let me explain why.
[i]Almost every PvP exclusive game on Steam fails.[/i] Hard truth. Developers often assume just because they published their game, it's going to "go viral". I'm guessing this is a case of the developers making this game in complete isolation without even bothering to look at what other PvP games on Steam already offer.
PvP games face extreme competition, PvP gamers have plenty to choose from and they gravitate to where all the other players are. This game didn't offer anything to peel those PvPers away from the PvP games they're already invested in. It had no upfront cost, but gamers still rejected it.
One of the biggest aspects of competition and getting a "critical mass" of gamers needed for that "viral" push is accessibility. Remember that "look around you" test? If the developers did that, they'd understand less than 2% (and that's generous) of the Steam player base uses VR. So they took a requirement to get as many players as they could, and knifed it in the gut by designing their game for 2% of the potential audience they need... makes you wonder, doesn't it?
Like I said... an incredible degree of incompetence at the highest level of game architecture. They seriously took steps to exclude 98% of their potential player base before the game even launched. Then they wondered why their game got no players?
I'm not here to try trash VR, either, you 2%'ers have fun doing what you do, but the VR centric design of this game means the UI translates terribly if you don't have your headset plugged in... the game sucks to play outside of VR.
On the upside, the game does feature customisable controls and resolution, so at least some of the basic, minimum requirements have been met. Unfortunately there's a number of other technical defects and shortcomings which contribute to the game being difficult to recommend to gamers.
The graphics in this game are really quite good, which at least makes the game look more appealing. And while it's vital for any game to have impressive visuals (gaming is a visual medium, after all), there's more to a game than just the graphics. To be worth a gamers time and money, the game must match top tier visuals with top tier gameplay, and that's not happening here.
This was designed primarily for VR (but it will work without a headset, not that anyone would want to try). The VR focus of the game is a major crutch here, because without VR, this compares poorly to professionally developed games. Developers must learn that while VR is great, if the only thing that makes the game great is the VR, then the game isn't great at all.
These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.
Next is pricing and value. Is this game worth buying from among the 140,000+ games on Steam?
Vox Machinae has the pathetically optimistic price of $30 USD, for which you could easily get any number of older AAA games.
For comparison, the $30 asking price for this game could get you games like "Cyberpunk 2077", "Total War Warhammer III" or "Rimworld". Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this.
The quality problems and defects with this game makes the asking price totally unrealistic. It's impossible to recommend this to gamers here on Steam.
