DAEMON X MACHINA

I came into this one expecting a shooter-adjacent mech action game from people who actually know the genre, and the pedigree checks out. The producer, Kenichiro Tsukuda, worked on the Armored Core series, and that DNA is all over DAEMON X MACHINA's Arsenal system and high-speed aerial combat. What you actually get is a third-person action game built around customizing a mech called an Arsenal, loading it with up to four weapons at a time, and flying into mission zones to obliterate corrupted AI forces and colossal Immortal-class machines. The movement is the hook. Boosting across the ground, skipping into the air, then slamming a back-mounted missile barrage into a city-sized boss while a bombastic rock track hammers your eardrums is the game at its best. On PC, this thing runs properly. The Switch version was capped at 30fps and struggled visibly. Here, on a mid-range rig, you're looking at a consistent 60fps at max settings with headroom to push well beyond that. The game supports up to 240Hz, and while this is not a twitchy competitive shooter, faster framerates genuinely make the aerial maneuvering feel less chaotic and more intentional. Mouse and keyboard controls work, though the layout takes some rebinding to feel natural. A controller is probably the cleaner option for most people, but the input handling is solid either way. The build variety is real. You can swap out heads, cores, arms, legs, shoulder weapons, handheld weapons, and CPUs. A heavyweight artillery loadout feels noticeably sluggier than a lightweight sword build stripped down for speed and dodge recovery. Looting parts from downed enemy Arsenals mid-mission is satisfying, and the loop of returning to the hangar, retooling, and jumping back in holds up for a good chunk of hours. The 1v1 and 2v2 PvP modes let you test your builds against other players, and the four-player co-op missions give you a reason to actually finalize a build rather than constantly tinkering. The multiplayer is the best argument for getting past the early ranks. Here is where I have to be straight with you, though. The story is a mess. There are too many characters with names like "Gun Empress" and "Rouge Cinderella," all delivering incoherent post-apocalyptic monologues between missions. The mission structure is linear with no faction choices, and the narrative never pays off its own setup. The HUD is genuinely overwhelming, somewhere around 20 gauges tracking health across individual mech limbs, ammo, boost levels, and more. Critics consistently flagged the confusing UI and repetitive mission design as the game's main liabilities, and those criticisms hold. The melee weapons, specifically the katana chain attacks, feel imprecise despite the lock-on system doing a lot of heavy lifting. And some of the co-op missions feel tuned for solo AI teammates rather than four live players, making the difficulty evaporate when you bring a full squad. At 72 on Metacritic, this landed in the "decent with caveats" zone and that is exactly the right place for it. If you played Armored Core 4 and still have a soft spot for high-speed mech combat, the PC version is genuinely the best way to experience it, and the sequel Titanic Scion is in development for those interested in where the series goes next. Go in treating the story as background noise, find a build that clicks around rank C or B missions, and the multiplayer does the rest.

Fred · Scout Team

Shooters

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