Nex Machina

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Nex Machina

Post by ratsoalbion »

He's coming for my high scores...
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Nex Machina

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I'm gonna have to get this sooner rather than later if it's Leon's cute high scores that are on the table here! :P
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Re: Nex Machina

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Played through this on Rookie earlier today. First impressions are positive - although I do prefer Resogun's presentation and gameplay focus on positioning instead of precision aiming. Twin sticks shooter aren't really my thing per se, the overreliance on circle-strafing tends to bore me after a while. But I'm happy to make an exception for quality titles such as this one.

I do think they could have improved the visibility, though. There are a lot of important symbols occupying the screen at once, and yet I'm still unsure as to what most of them mean. And no tutorial as far as I can tell. A basic (optional if need be) explanation of the mechanics and HUD would have done wonders.
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Re: Nex Machina

Post by KSubzero1000 »

I recently went back to this game in order to improve my Arcade Rookie score. I did it! Perseverance paid off. I collected everything and never lost the human combo, so this was a borderline perfect run. Number 10 in the world at the time of writing. The only room left for improvement would be to shave even more time off and to avoid losing my shield entirely.

Here's the full (41 minutes long) run, if anyone's interested:

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Michiel K
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Re: Nex Machina

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Wow, that's really impressive. On one hand I want to watch it, on the other I'm the type of player who wants to discover secrets and tactics by himself.
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Re: Nex Machina

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Oh, you're not missing much. The video is not particularly well edited or anything, just taken straight from the PS4's recording software. On the other hand, a lot of the secrets are a bit hard to find, especially on the later stages. So you might want to look them up if you're seriously considering attempting this kind of run. You have to memorize all this stuff anyway, no way around it.

Edit: One thing worth pointing out is that while almost all of the other videos I have seen were from players who relied predominantly on the Smartbomb, I've always been more comfortable using the Laser and my personal strategies are based around it. So it might be interesting in that regard.
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Michiel K
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Re: Nex Machina

Post by Michiel K »

I'll definitely watch then. Yeah, I've seen the dash + smart bomb tactics before. It's certainly a fun way to play the game, dashing into the middle of a cluster of enemies and letting it rip. I'm also partial to the powershot.

EDIT: I love the way you use the laser to wipe away a bunch of enemies off the map at once.
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Re: Nex Machina

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Yeah, the Laser can be an absolutely devastating crowd control tool with the right positioning. The only drawbacks are its comparatively low damage output and lengthy reload time, which makes it less of a boss killer than the Powershot, Sword or Rocket Launcher.

The Smartbomb seems to be the predominant meta-weapon of choice for highscores thanks to its unique properties, but I could never quite get the hang of it...
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Nex Machina

Post by ratsoalbion »

Here's where you can contribute your experiences and opinions of Nex Machina* for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.



*With apologies for the rather unexciting reveal of this particular show, due to us wanting to get some community correspondence in before recording.
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Simonsloth
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Re: Our next podcast recording (5.1.19) - Issue 351: Nex Machina

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*not a contribution but I was going to congratulate you on your high scores Leon until I saw Ksub’s which made me feel woefully inadequate as a human being. I watched the replay videos and I thought what’s the point in even trying.

It’s the equivalent of having a friendly race with Usain Bolt on your first day of sprint training!

Wow.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (5.1.19) - Issue 351: Nex Machina

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Haha, thanks man! :lol:

Nex Machina certainly clicked with me in a great number of ways. But I would argue that the end result you saw had more to do with several weeks' worth of perseverance and raw memorization rather than with actual skill as in: hyper-complex inputs.

I would certainly encourage you and others to try and dig a bit deeper, in any case. The sheer satisfaction of seeing all the pieces fit together so nicely on a flawless run is difficult to put into words, and one that I would love others to experience if possible. Games such as this one really come into their own when score-chasing, I think.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (5.1.19) - Issue 351: Nex Machina

Post by ratsoalbion »

Yeah, some of my scores are ok I guess (thanks!) but the nature of Cane and Rinse and the vast library of games that I keep on rotation means that - even if I had the raw skills - scores like Camille’s are out of the question.

Still, I am also 15+ years older than Mr Rousseau and somewhat past it!
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Re: Our next podcast recording (5.1.19) - Issue 351: Nex Machina

Post by Simonsloth »

Don’t be so modest Leon you’re pretty high up on the scoreboard on a quite a few levels/modes.

I’m going to see how close I can get in the next few days with my efforts so far reserved for the basement division.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (5.1.19) - Issue 351: Nex Machina

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Visually speaking, I think Nex Machina is a very impressive game that perfectly taps into the colourful neon-lit cyberpunk aesthetics of the 80's. I found the colour palette ever so slightly overwhelming at first, but quickly adjusted to it over the course of my later playthroughs. The visibility is excellent, even if not quite on the sky-high level of purity of Resogun, mostly due to the ubiquitous floor textures and the presence of fully three-dimensional objects on and around every stage.

The synthwave-infused soundtrack is also really good, although I would argue that the Let Me Save You theme song is the one clear standout track and that the rest of the tunes are struggling to reach the same heights. A fantastic fit in combination with the visuals overall, but perhaps not an all-time great when listened to individually.

But even the greatest audiovisual presentation cannot save this type of game from mediocre mechanics. And thankfully, it's clear that Housemarque have poured the entirety of their two decades of expertise and love for the genre into this package. The controls are delightfully responsive and the standard enemies offer just the right amount of strategic variety to constantly keep the players on their toes. The different weapons are all fun to use, but I quickly settled on the LASER as my multi-purpose tool of choice due to its fantastic crowd control potential and satisfying DPS. The bosses are surprisingly one of the game's highlights without any clear weak link among them, and I particularly appreciate how the higher difficulty settings force the player to re-evaluate the strategies that might have gotten the job done against them on Rookie. Tying the multiplier mechanic to the human saving is also an inspired choice which grants the player more fine-tuned agency over the moment-to-moment gameplay and helps to avoid the few randomized pitfalls of Resogun.

Special mention must go to the stage design, however. It's remarkable how much thought and effort has been put into giving each individual area its own flow and unique attributes. Encounter design is a bit of a lost art in a lot of modern video games in my opinion, and Nex Machina serves as a wonderful example of the type of enjoyment that can be derived from carefully constructed linearity. I can only imagine how much more magic the developers would have had in store for any additional DLC modes.

One criticism which I think is fair to make is that the upper echelon of the leaderboards will forever remain all but inaccessible to anyone who hasn't taken the time to memorize all of the game's secrets and individual stage encounters. I don't personally have too much of an issue with this in practice due to being the type of player who enjoys pouring dozens of hours into a single game, but it is rather unfortunate that so much of the score-chasing potential will remain unattainable to the vast majority of players in contrast to more permissive and welcoming but similarly challenging games like Tetris Effect.

Overall, Nex Machina stands shoulder-to-shoulder with its voxel-based predecessor of sorts as my favorite western-developed arcade game and as one of the absolute highlights of the twin-stick shooter genre for me. How unfortunate that it also appears to have been its swan song. Housemarque's "ARCADE IS DEAD" farewell letter to their fans broke my heart and instantly made me nostalgic for an era I only had a very brief opportunity to experience.


Three Word Review: Tactile Kaleidoscopic Brilliance
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Re: Our next podcast recording (5.1.19) - Issue 351: Nex Machina

Post by Simonsloth »

I love Nex Machina. I love Housemarque’s games. I am not their target audience.

When I play their games I aim to get from start to finish and just enjoy the experience. I’ve never been one to set the high score boards alight, I’m not going to spend the time mastering the mechanics, learning the secrets or chaining multipliers. The purists would say I am missing the point and an extra layer to the game but to be honest I don’t care. I still love it, I still buy their games and I still play them so does it really matter. My scores are pitiful but when the audiovisual design and core mechanics are so satisfyingly addictive I keep coming back for more. Don’t get me wrong I would love to climb the scoreboards but for me the zen moments of bullet dodging impossibility and getting through a level without being hit are gaming nirvana above and beyond any score.

The soundtrack is phenomenal and I agree that the main theme song “Let me save you” is the highlight. In fact it is my second most listened to song in 2018 on my Spotify account.

The lyrics are especially poignant given Housemarque have stopped making arcade games as mentioned by Ksub in their arcade is dead article. Everybody’s gone away from arcade now and unfortunately not even even Housemarque could save it.

For anyone considering this game as being solely for the arcade purist I would disagree as I have found immense enjoyment from experiencing the package on a more superficial level. A solid recommendation to all. If they sell a few more copies maybe we can save them after all.
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Stanshall
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Re: Our next podcast recording (5.1.19) - Issue 351: Nex Machina

Post by Stanshall »

As with Resogun, I feel like I fundamentally don't get Nex Machina. Despite being a big fan of twin stick shooters, including Housemarque's own Super Stardust Ultra, I find little to enjoy here.

Visually, I find it aggressively busy to a fault. To me, twin stick shooters are about identifying space, blowing a hole through the enemy wave and then occupying that space. It's about moving from one safe zone to the next and manipulating the angle of attack. In Nex Machina, I find that smaller enemies are often obscured by a shower of voxels and so when I attempt to shoot my way through a wave, I often die. While the dash is obviously the expected 'solution' to this, the point remains that the visual effects undermine my own ability to read the game. The indistinct 3D environments must also share some responsibility here. I can't count the number of times when I tried to dash through a block which I thought was the floor or against an invisible wall which was a little gap in the arena. Perhaps it's just finally time to get my eyes tested, but I do find the environments fiddly and confusing.

The dash mechanic highlights my other main issue with Nex Machina. With the score multiplier being linked to saving humans, it feels much less like a shmup than an action puzzle game. In fact, it most reminds me of Mr Shifty or Hotline Miami or Jydge, where you will die and restart repeatedly until you learn the correct order and timing to dash from one point to the next. There's no momentum, it all feels so 'bitty' to me. Now, I'm well aware that this 'puzzle game' criticism is pretty rich coming from a massive fan of Ikaruga but I simply don't find it satisfying here at all. As with Resogun, the time pressure and focus on saving the humans only detract from the enjoyment of wiping out enemies and manipulating space. While the comparison might seem unusual, it reminds me of how Hyrule Warriors gradually moves away from the pure arcade pleasure of annihilating the hordes and controlling the environment, and begins to introduce similar 'plate spinning' elements which only make the game more stressful and less fun. It may well be that I'm simply looking for Nex Machina to do something it never intended to but as a shooting game, it doesn't satisfy me at all.
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Re: Nex Machina

Post by shadowless_kick »

Whenever reading anything about Housemarque, it always confuses me when they’re mentioned as being makers of “arcade” games. “Arcade is not a genre,” I always think. But after being sucked into the vortex of Nex Machina, I kinda understand. While I maintain that “arcade” is in fact NOT a game category, Nex definitely feels like it came straight out of a grubby mall game center. If it were an actual arcade game, it would be a quarter muncher of the highest order.

Nex is my most played game of 2018 and the most addictive in recent memory. Even after all of the hours and runs I’ve sunk into it, I still have yet to unlock the Master difficulty (let alone Hero!). But I keep trying and enjoying every bit of it.

It’s beautiful how the game slowly transformed from a balls-to-the-wall action shooter to an almost methodical, strategic affair that has me poking and prodding, looking for the best ways to boost my score or shave a second off my time. I’ve never been the kind of player who shoots for trophies or achievements, but Nex is bringing that hunger out of me. I don’t see myself putting it down for quite a while, at least not while there are still Feats left to perform.

The only real negative point I can think of is the curious lack of audio feedback when attacking/destroying bosses. It’s quite a strange omission that saps the battles of the impact they should have. Other than that, it’s really a gem of a game that deserves more attention. It’s sad that Housemarque has abandoned this style to throw their hat into the battle royale ring, but what a game to go out on.
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Re: Nex Machina

Post by ratsoalbion »

'Arcade' not being a genre in and of itself is a very fair point, and it did cross my mind while we were discussing the "Death of Arcade" in this podcast. No doubt Darren, Karl and Michiel would also feel the same.

However, while I completely agree, I think for most people it's a quick way of verbally gathering certain elements, mechanics and design philosophies which are often present in games that are inspired by vintage coin-ops.

You also make a good point about audio feedback on the bosses I think, although none of us was moved to comment upon this during the recording.
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Re: Nex Machina

Post by shadowless_kick »

yeah, I get that it's a convenient shorthand to get across an idea efficiently. it still irks me, though, haha. it's like saying vinyl is a genre of music.
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Michiel K
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Re: Nex Machina

Post by Michiel K »

^^^^
Or maybe more apt, that 'Lounge' is a genre of music, since that's also a location based bit of terminology...

...

People do use 'Lounge' to describe at least a collection of musical styles or genres, though. :shock:

Maybe that's what the Housemarque spokespeople also mean when they are speaking about 'Arcade' games: a collection of certain genres.

Huh.
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