Developer: Housemarque
Publisher: Housemarque
Release Date: June 20, 2017
MSRP: $19,99
ESRB: Teen, PEGI 12
Players: 1-2 (Single-player & Local Offline Co-Op)
Available Platforms: PS4 [Reviewed], PC
Genre: Shoot ’em up, Twin Stick Shooter
Housemarque, the same studio that brought us the Twin Stick Shooters Dead Nation, Resogun, and Alienation are now back at it with Nex Machina.
Much like their previous Twin Stick games, the concept is simple: you push the left stick to move and the right stick to shoot in any direction. Plus you can press L1/L2 to dash and R1/R2 to use a secondary weapon. That’s it, that’s all the controls in the game and they work brilliantly!
Equipped with a futuristic laser rifle you get to shoot hostile robots across 6 different missions. Each one lasts around 10 minutes on the first playthrough (they can be done in half the time with practice). Hey wait, there’s a twist! Rookie difficulty features only 5 missions. Then on experienced (normal) the game continues to a much harder sixth mission. On veteran (hard) you get an additional boss after the sixth mission. And for the real Twin Stick champions there’s Expert and Hero difficulty which are insanely challenging. The fact that the game gets longer on higher difficulties helps to keep things exciting on subsequent playthroughs. Enemy spawns and attack patterns also change on higher difficulties!
In Arcade Mode you get to play all missions in a row. Single World Mode lets you replay individual missions and Arena Mode adds highscore challenges. You can also customize your character with coins earned from the Arena, but the options are somewhat limited.
I like how each world feels so unique. Woods, frozen mountains, burning hot caverns, urban areas and even a space station – it has it all. The robotic enemies change with each map and combat becomes more demanding. There’s also a boss at the end of each mission and when their health drops to certain thresholds the attack patterns change. The game is playing tricks with the mind; you have to concentrate on sticking to the free spaces between bullets but also keep shooting the boss. Sounds easy enough, but when there are 100 bullets and some lasers bouncing in all directions your coordination skills will be put to the test. Luckily, the game is very easy to get into and the wide range of difficulty settings offers something for every player.
Do not expect any story whatsoever. It’s action, action and more action. The gameplay is very fast paced and a ton of fun — you hardly get a moment to blink. Killing enemies drops random weapon power-ups. These are extremely advantageous and make all the difference in boss fights. Similar to Resogun, there are humans that you can save from bad ‘Harvester’ machines. This gives you a score multiplier to work on leaderboard rankings and requires precise time management (if you leave a human alone with a harvester for too long it will be consumed). Attempting to rescue humans completely changes the flow of the game and adds replay value. Your job then becomes to pick up the humans as fast as possible and forces a more aggressive playstyle. There’s also a lot of hidden stuff in each section; ranging from extra lives to beacons, visitors, secret humans and secret exits. The secret exits open up optional areas and contain more humans and enemies. Although these are not hard to find, they provide a certain bit of exploration factor.
My only complaint, and the reason why I enjoyed it a little less than Resogun & Dead Nation, is the lack of online co-op. Housemarque has shown with previous games that they can do it, so I don’t understand why multiplayer was scrapped for this project. The good news is that there are multi-platform leaderboards (meaning PS4 & PC) and you can play local couch co-op with a second controller. If highscores are your thing then this game will provide a lot of replay value and many hours of fun.
Trophies in Nex Machina are mostly skill based. Some are for finding the aforementioned collectibles. Obtaining the platinum is no easy task because you have to beat it on Expert difficulty, complete 100 feats (challenges) and earn x50 multipliers without dying. It’s challenging but if you practice till you know all spawns, extra life locations and attack patterns it can be done in a few days. It’s certainly not a platinum that anyone can obtain and requires real dedication.
| Gameplay *Overall Enjoyment Factor, Fascination with Game World, Level Design, Variety, Playability, User-Friendliness (Ease of Use / Readability / Controls / in-game Tutorials / Menus) |
| 9/10 A ton of fun. Easy to get into but hard to master, provides a fair challenge for players of all skill levels. |
| Story/Multiplayer *Quality of the Singleplayer Story, Cutscenes and/or Multiplayer Modes (whichever is available). If a game has no Story or no Multiplayer it won’t be rated (thus no negative effect on score). |
| – Story: Not applicable (not rated – there is no story, only arcade-style levels. That’s okay though, twinstick shooters don’t have and don’t need a story. They naturally focus more on gameplay). Multiplayer: Not available (not rated) |
| Technical Aspects *Graphics, Texture Quality, Character Details, Lighting, Weather Effects, Animations, Loading Times, Number of Loading Screens, does it run smoothly |
| 7/10 From the twin stick shooter genre it’s one of the more ambitious ones, but not a game you would buy for its graphics. Gotta keep the genre in mind here. It does run really smoothly even with a ton of stuff going on at the same time. |
| Value *Amount of Content, Production Quality, Replay Value, is there enough content to justify a purchase |
| 6/10 + Good replay value, enemy spawns & attacks change on higher difficulties +/- (Neutral) The $20 asking price is just right, they aren’t greedy – Lack of online co-op feels like a step back from previous Housemarque games – 6 missions (~10 minutes each) is not a lot of content (can be beaten in half the time with a little practice) |
| Trophies/Achievements *Rates how much fun the Platinum / 1000 Gamerscore is to achieve: Are trophies fun to do? Do trophies restrict freedom of gameplay? Missable trophies? Multiple playthroughs required? Luck-based trophies? Pointless farming/grinding? Glitched Trophies? Are stats/trophies tracked correctly? |
| 8/10 Keeping in mind what the game is and how it is structured this is a good trophy list. Expert difficulty is really demanding, this plat is certainly not obtainable for everyone and requires real dedication. Going for the platinum adds a ton of replay value, but it gets disheartening on the highest difficulty. |
| Extraordinary Score Increase or Deduction *Reserved for extraordinarily good or bad features that the other categories don’t cover (such as game-breaking bugs). This score is directly added/subtracted from the final score. |
| +0.5 Points: A++ Soundtrack |
VERDICT:
Nex Machina proves that Twin Stick Shooters can be more fun than big budget triple-A-productions and will put your skills to the test! For $20 you can’t go wrong with this one.
FINAL SCORE:
8/10
Played on PS4 Pro using the retail version (bought from USA PS Store).