Mother Machine: Cute, Clever, and Surprisingly Dull

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Created by German independent studio Maschinen-Mensch, the game titled “Mother Machine” was advertised as a refreshing breeze in the cooperative multiplayer genre. Just by watching its trailer, you’ll grasp its user-friendly design, community-focused approach, and witty humor that make it irresistibly appealing. However, while I won’t call it a deceptive title—it generally delivers on its promises—I found myself feeling quite let down after playing it.

The “Mother Machine” is a fusion of various influences. It shows obvious traces of “BOTW” and “Mario” in its straightforward platforming, stamina regulation, and food-based enhancement mechanisms. Additionally, it exhibits a hint of roguelike traits by employing procedural generation and randomized upgrades. Moreover, it subtly embodies the dark comedy style reminiscent of Edmund McMillan, particularly at the onset of the game, as the title character, Mother Machine, humorously reveals her ability to indefinitely clone her “children.

When the Mother Machine is running at its best, a blend of elements combines to create a lively and distinct gaming experience, ensuring it never appears as a mere copy. Regrettably, it seldom operates optimally, and you’re likely to see all it has to offer within a few hours. Despite being crafted for extended play, Mother Machine seems intended to be enjoyed beyond this timeframe, yet its main campaign persists even after the core gameplay mechanics start feeling tiresome. It appears that Maschinen-Mensch aims to make this an endlessly replayable cooperative adventure, but for now, Mother Machine lacks the longevity to warrant more than an hour or two of playtime.

Mother Machine Is Cute, Clever, and Ultimately Dull

In my opinion, a straightforward concept is often the key to success, especially in multiplayer games. Mother Machine, for instance, centers around this fundamental principle, offering players a quick orientation to its game environment – an alien planet dominated by rogue machines. Once introduced, players are unleashed on a variety of missions. They can choose to undertake these tasks individually or as part of a team of up to four members. The core gameplay of Mother Machine primarily unfolds during these missions, where players must accomplish challenges, gather upgrade materials, and ultimately activate satellites, thereby pushing the main story forward.

The initial stages of these tasks can be quite enjoyable. The game boasts fantastic movement mechanics, and like any good platformer, there’s a solid feeling of weight and momentum with each jump or roll. There’s also combat involved, although it feels less rewarding, essentially requiring you to spam a single attack button while occasionally dodging to avoid damage.

Unlike traditional games that follow a linear progression model, Mother Machine lets you unlock various mutations, such as a double-jump powered by flatulence or a group heal, but only one can be active at a time. This system is similar to the badges in Super Mario Galaxy, promising to provide fresh takes on existing playstyles and cater to replayability and self-expression.

I was eagerly anticipating the unique experiences that Mother Machine promised once I got a hang of its gameplay mechanics, but unfortunately, it didn’t live up to my expectations as much as I had hoped.

It Doesn’t Take Long for Mother Machine to Feel Long in the Tooth

The main problem with the game and what causes the most disappointment is its severe lack of diversity. It’s hard to tell that the levels are procedurally generated due to only minor differences between them. Additionally, the mentioned mission types seem incomplete. For the most part, they all feel very similar, with significant differences usually being limited to the temporary task you need to accomplish to open an airlock or remove an obstacle. These are variations that should exist within established mission types, not variations that would create entirely new mission types on their own.

In contrast to most missions where players typically tackle individual tasks to overcome specific challenges, the Battery Delivery mission stands out uniquely. Here, players collaborate to safeguard a drone carrying the battery, instead of simply working alone to bypass an obstacle.

During my eleven hours of gameplay, I only came across two different types of bosses, one being the final boss. Interestingly, these battles didn’t have any unique variations or unexpected twists – it was essentially the same fight repeated twice, appearing exactly as scheduled with no changes that would add excitement or novelty. Unfortunately, The Misty Grove DLC doesn’t bring any fresh content to the table: it neither introduces new mission types nor provides distinct level designs. Essentially, Misty Grove feels like a re-skin of the original game.

The minimalistic advancement system in the game called “Mother Machine” seems purposeful, but it fails to alleviate the existing blandness. With only one special ability accessible at a time, this might work in games with diverse levels, but given that each level and game mode already feels similar, this mechanical simplicity just intensifies the sensation of repetition. It doesn’t aid the situation that most mutations are either redundant, such as the player character’s glowing feature, or unenjoyable, like the ability to summon a projectile fruit that is abundantly found in the game environment. After gathering all these mutations, which can occur even before you reach halfway through the campaign, the only incentives for resource collection come from a limited selection of cosmetic items.

In simpler terms, once you finish the main storyline of this game, there’s not much incentive to keep playing due to lackluster content. Unfortunately, even if the main campaign were impressive enough to justify its cost, it falls short. The main campaign consists of five short story missions, interspersed with tedious tasks that require collecting satellite requirements, essentially repeating the same gameplay. Each mission is brief, lasting roughly as long as a typical mission, which is disappointing. However, the main issue lies in the fact that these missions are mechanically identical to the regular ones. Players must traverse different airlocks and overcome similar challenges, which can be found throughout other missions as well.

In simpler terms, the main difference between regular missions and story missions is that the latter often include information about the plot given through Mother Machine’s dialogue and text logs. However, the storyline isn’t engaging or imaginative enough to make up for the lackluster gameplay provided by Mother Machine. Indie studio Maschinen-Mensch can be forgiven for other flaws since they are small, but the reliance on text for the narrative seems to have fallen short. It doesn’t require a big budget to create an interesting story, and while most players wouldn’t expect high drama from this type of game, a compelling tale could have made up for the underwhelming gameplay experience.

It’s worth mentioning that the game “Mother Machine” doesn’t run optimally on PCs. When I played it on a system equipped with an RTX 4060 graphics card, I found it challenging to sustain a consistent 60 frames per second above medium settings. On high settings, particularly in the DLC zones, the frame rate often dipped into the 20s. I also tried the game on a Steam Deck OLED and a laptop with an RX 7600S, where the performance was noticeably poorer.

As a movie buff, I must say that the “Mother Machine” holds a lot of potential with its vibrant character and intriguing concepts. However, the execution leaves much to be desired. With additional time and resources, I’m certain Maschinen-Mensch could create something truly remarkable. For now, “Mother Machine” feels more like a sneak peek or prototype rather than a fully-fledged game.

The “Mother Machine” game can be played right now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, as well as personal computers (PC). For the purpose of this review, we were given a Steam code by Game Rant.

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2025-03-26 20:41