Nex Machina can be enjoyed & clocked easily by the casual player, but for the hardcore, it really comes into its own with a highly tuned world design & layered scoring metagame to master. Polished, relentless gunplay, neon-tastic asthethics & eye-popping visuals wrapped in an energy-infused synthetic soundtrack. Fast & intense, it can get a bit too hard for my liking, but remains one I keep coming back for short sessions. Scoring mechanics are hard to understand initially & there is limited content, but endures as an underrated arcade gem.


✔️ Finely tuned level design with intense, non-stop close quarter action & some serious challenging sections.
✔️ Responsive & accurate aiming, with smooth character movement & animations.
✔️ Exceptionally gorgeous implementation of voxel graphics, & volumetric effects that really pop out the screen. Explosions are amazingly detailed!
✔️ Easy to pick-up, but hard to master. Gameplay has strong focus on learning level layouts & most efficient sequence/combo to kill enemies & collect humans.
✔️ Highly replayable with many secrets to uncover, adding further world mastery as you learn new paths & scoring strategies.
✔️ Arena mode add some needed variety as does the harder achievements.
✔️ The zooming/jumping transitions between levels flow nicely to tie each tier together into a cohesive experience, while also mixing it up with the occasional changing the camera angle.
✔️ Turn it up! Electro-infused Synthwave Soundtrack gets me pumped to play every time. One of my favs!

❌ Dash on occasions does not register the shoulder button press / micro-lag? Not super frequent, but frustrates me to no end.
❌ Needs a good tutorial. Scoring & general game mechanics are not explained nor easily deciphered. (This guide helped me!)
❌ Although firmly designed for replayablity, the arcade campaign is fairly short & will become repetitive if you do not engage in the scoring metagame.
❌ Git Gud? Difficulty level spikes from Experienced to Veteran. Balanced a bit too much towards the hardcore player overall.
❌ NO options to disable HDR Mode! On my screen it makes the game incredibly dull/dark at points & hinders identifying enemies.
❌ Need good thumb endurance required for the best arcade highscores. There is no resume/save game functionality.
❌ No available Soundtrack DLC :(


If you enjoyed reading this review, please follow True Blue Reviews for more recommendations!

[h1]81 / 100[/h1] [i]Nex Machina can be enjoyed & clocked easily by the casual player, but for the hardcore, it really comes into its own with a highly tuned world design & layered scoring metagame to master. Polished, relentless gunplay, neon-tastic asthethics & eye-popping visuals wrapped in an energy-infused synthetic soundtrack. Fast & intense, it can get a bit too hard for my liking, but remains one I keep coming back for short sessions. Scoring mechanics are hard to understand initially & there is limited content, but endures as an underrated arcade gem. [/i] ✔️ Finely tuned level design with intense, non-stop close quarter action & some serious challenging sections. ✔️ Responsive & accurate aiming, with smooth character movement & animations. ✔️ Exceptionally gorgeous implementation of voxel graphics, & volumetric effects that really pop out the screen. Explosions are amazingly detailed! ✔️ Easy to pick-up, but hard to master. Gameplay has strong focus on learning level layouts & most efficient sequence/combo to kill enemies & collect humans. ✔️ Highly replayable with many secrets to uncover, adding further world mastery as you learn new paths & scoring strategies. ✔️ Arena mode add some needed variety as does the harder achievements. ✔️ The zooming/jumping transitions between levels flow nicely to tie each tier together into a cohesive experience, while also mixing it up with the occasional changing the camera angle. ✔️ Turn it up! Electro-infused Synthwave Soundtrack gets me pumped to play every time. One of my favs! ❌ Dash on occasions does not register the shoulder button press / micro-lag[i]?[/i] Not super frequent, but frustrates me to no end. ❌ Needs a good tutorial. Scoring & general game mechanics are not explained nor easily deciphered. [i]([url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=961788489]This[/url] guide helped me!)[/i] ❌ Although firmly designed for replayablity, the arcade campaign is fairly short & will become repetitive if you do not engage in the scoring metagame. ❌ Git Gud? Difficulty level spikes from Experienced to Veteran. Balanced a bit too much towards the hardcore player overall. ❌ NO options to disable HDR Mode! On my screen it makes the game incredibly dull/dark at points & hinders identifying enemies. ❌ Need good thumb endurance required for the best arcade highscores. There is no resume/save game functionality. ❌ No available Soundtrack DLC :( [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/6857016/]If you enjoyed reading this review, please follow [u]True Blue Reviews[/u] for more recommendations![/url]