Review for Nex Machina. Game for PlayStation Network, PC and PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 20/06/2017
Nex Machina it is certainly not the first arcade video game born on home console (and PC) but it is certainly one of the purest, most effective and most successful. Like it or not, it must be admitted: the dear, old amusement arcades loved in the 80s, enriched by thousands of pounds of savings and pocket money and salaries, are now a distant memory. Time passes, society changes and platforms evolve, adapt, die out; the ancient cabinets are now relics for true, pure enthusiasts, such as misprinted banknotes and dinosaur poop.
This, however, does not mean that the arcade genre is dead, on the contrary: in recent years, despite the tendency to simplify the gamer's experience more and more to make the medium usable to the widest possible slice of the public, it has developed a contrary current, that of fans of hardcore titles, a current within which purely arcade games such as Nex Machina fit perfectly.
Spiritual heir of Resogun, Nex Machina is a creature of Housemarque, a Finnish company in the gaming sector for over 20 years. Although it is an indie title, Nex Machina had the honor of seeing among the ranks of creative collaborators Eugene Jarvis, a sacred monster of the shoot 'em up arcade genre since the 80s. Not surprisingly, Nex Machina manages to transmit thatthat's right, nostalgic feeling from the title for a cabinet, for better or for worse.
Game since cyberpunk setting (or, as defined by the developers themselves, "cablepunk“) Nex Machina has dark and futuristic settings, not fully appreciated due to the extreme dynamism of the title, but which if observed carefully highlight a great care and variety in the realization, even of small details practically invisible during the gameplay.
This is certainly due to the frenzy of the title, as well as a use, almost abuse of particles and voxel style during clashes; an eye accustomed to video games is able to adapt to much worse stresses, but the first hours of play can be distracting and unnerving, especially for the less accustomed to the genre.
The latter will find themselves facing another, perhaps more difficult challenge for their patience: the difficulty of Nex Machina is clearly above the videogame average since Beginner mode, to the point that to date only 20% of game owners have managed to finish the 5 short but intense worlds of Arcade mode at that difficulty. This involves a consecutive challenge, level after level, of hordes upon hordes of aliens and hostile machines to be killed and humans to be rescued.
Each world is divided into levels, at the end of which it waits for the very classic end stage boss: despite convincing graphics, the creature design is basic and not too inspired, although offset by an excellent variety of terrains and challenges to overcome in full trial and error style.
Patience will be the best weapon, but fortunately not the only one: in addition to the classic discharge of bullets to be aimed at opponents, the silent protagonist has at his disposal secondary weapons, protective shields (very rare) and extra lives (even rarer) to be recovered inside the same arenas. The drop is random and varies according to the time of collection, although in the advanced levels the use of secondary offensive weapons is not recommended to avoid breaking the rhythm of movements and direction of the blows.
There are 5 worlds linked to story events, but there are also optional battles and extremely more difficult, to unlock by saving the "secret humans", well hidden inside the maps. In addition to the aforementioned and very classic mode Arcade, Nex Machina offers the possibility to practice the modality Single World, to test themselves with the seasonal challenges ofSand, or to share the title in the company of a friend thanks to Local co-op. Global rankings allow you to observe and learn from the best, thanks to presence of a replay of the gameplay of each classified within each level.
Overcoming the challenges and the Arena makes the player's profile acquire in-game currency, useful for customizing both the avatar, the appearance of the protagonist and the color of his bullets: all purely cosmetic elements, which do not alter in any way the gaming experience and that, in the era of DLC, it is a pleasure to have to earn with the sweat of the forehead and fingertips.
The average duration of the Arcade mode hardly exceeds 3 hours at the basic difficulty; on paper, therefore, Nex Machina has a rather limited content. However, this cannot be considered a defect in the strict sense, but an element that can certainly be improved in the future (perhaps even with the much demonized DLCs) since, by its very nature, Nex Machina requires dozens and dozens of attempts and memorization of every single wave of enemies to be completed at advanced difficulty levels; just switching from Beginner to Expert mode will make those few game worlds painfully interminable.
Techno music, super saturated colors, voxels, thousands of bullets and particles and granite 60fps on each platform are the basic ingredients of the excellent Nex Machina: an old-school arcade, capable of stealing the heart of any player who has passed the -enta and fascinate young people who are ready to test their skills with a ruthless but honest game.
► Nex Machina is a shooter type game developed and published by Housemarque for PlayStation Network, PC and PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 20/06/2017
