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In the case of Homo Machina I have mixed feelings, as I’ll give it credit for its novelty. As the name implies the game revolves around you controlling a person at a mechanical level. Each major system in the body is represented by machinery that you’ll need to work out as a puzzle to manipulate in order to get the person up and moving. This is very much a game intended to be played vertically in handheld mode like a tablet. In docked mode it being horizontal leaves bars on either side but the bigger issue is that it then uses pointer controls, which in general are universally awful since the calibration needs to constantly be re-centered. Using the touchscreen as obviously intended lets you play much more easily, but from location to location in the body play inconsistent. In some cases the puzzles are intuitive and even clever but in other cases it honestly just felt like trial and error hunting and pecking without necessarily making a whole lot of sense. Overall, I’ll give credit for the idea and presentation being unique. Some of the dialogue between the workers within the body is mildly amusing, but the emphasis here is on the gameplay and working with the body machinery first and foremost. If you’re looking for a different sort of puzzler to play and don’t mind playing with the Switch as a tablet it’s not a bad find, just understand that its strongest suit is its novelty.
Justin Nation, Score:Fair [6.0]