When I was growing up, there were few🐠er platforms to pick between, and we weren’t spoiled for choice with fresh new games. It’s always better to have more o🔯ptions, but there was one benefit to it—it pushed me to try new releases that I might not have played otherwise.
I can’t do that these days. There are so many big-name, shiny games launching all the time that I can’t keep up with them. For the most part, if I’m not playing a game for work, I don’t have time for it. Then there are the recommendations from friends and colleagues that I try to squeeze in desperately for the GOTY rush, taking up any free time I have. Ultimately, the chance ♛of stumbling upon a hiddꦅen gem I just picked up on a whim is slim to none.
Though they might not be the most critically acclaimed, some smaller titles can offer an experience you’ll enjoy and remember for years. We shouldn’t underestimate the underdogs of the industry. As I played 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Crymachina at Gamescom, I realised this would be the exact kind of game I would gra🙈b from a store shelf if my life wasn&r🐠squo;t already living, breathing, sleeping games, games, and more games all the time.
Crymachina is a spiritual successor to 2018’s Crystar, which is, funnily enough, another underdog RPG I eyed up and thought, ‘I should play that🐬 at some point’, but never got around to. There are similarities b💯etween the two, especially in the anime style, but you don’t need to have played Crystar to appreciate Crymachina.
The style of the game is one of its most striking features. Both visuals and soundtrack ooze anime vibes, with a ba🐓nging soundtrack and beautiful characters with big, bright eyes in a futu🔴ristic setting. Visually, it reminded me a little of Soul Hackers, especially when you see the characters in their more cyberpunk and far cooler neon-lit synthetic frame forms.
Crymachina follows Leben as she awakens to find herself revived in a mechanical body as part of a program to bring back the souls of the deceased to restore humanity. You quickly learn that 🌠humanity became extinct after Isolated Soul Syndrome wiped out 20 percent of the population, which led to a world war triggered by resource scarcity. As it stand💦s, humanity is dust, and all that’s left are self-evolving artificial life forms known as Deus Ex Machina aboard the Eden spaceship.
The Deus Ex Machina AI that kept the others in order has gone missing, resulting in some going rogue. Leben and two others have been brought back to life to figure things out,♍ with the aim of earning enough EXP to be recognised as human by Eden so the AI will listen to them. While the plot is stereotypical, that didn’t dampen my enthusiasm as it embraced sci-fi tropes by paying homage to both The Matrix and The 6th Day.
The gameplay appears to be split into two camps. First, you have your fast and fluid action combat as you explore Eden, taking down Deus Ex Machina in your slick synthetic frame body. You can only venture out as one character at a time, though there are three different playable characters in total. There are many combat options t🦩o get to grips with, and I didn’t excel in my first few attempts at taking down bosses. Despite my failures, it was surprisingly fun.
Then you return to the Imitation Garden, a safe space where the characters look just how they did when they were alive, and you can⛄ take part in tea parties with other characters to learn more about them and move the story along and skill up.
The tea parties maintain that anime vibe that Crymachina follows, with familiar tropes and jokes. In one conversation, a more air-headed character declares she’s in a relationship with one of the other girls, to the shock of Leben. Only for that other person to then clarify they’re not a couple. The girls just all consider themselves to be a family♛. It’s that sort of silly, all-a-misunderstanding humour that you’d expect to see in your favourite anime series, and you’ll notice a lot of moments like that.
Crymachina has reminded me that I need to make sure I’m not just playing the big, trending games all the time, as some💙 of the smaller titles that might go under the radar are just as capable of capturing my attention. It launches on October 24 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.
All screenshots shared are from development builds and do not necessarily reflect the final product.