Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion

In life we come across many unanswerable questions; what is the answer to life, the universe and everything? How do we create gold from lead? Why did mediocre mech-shooter Daemon X Machina get a sequel? These may be difficult questions to answer (though ask any Douglas Adams fan and they will insist they know the first), but today we may finally have the answer to one of these puzzles.

Daemon X Machina: Titan Scion shares very little substance with its predecessor; the world and concept stay largely the same despite an overhauled approach to the core visuals and gameplay, but it makes for a very clear natural progression from the first. Fans of the original will find plenty of callbacks and references to the first game, but this sequel offers a much-needed upgrade to allow new players to feel welcome in its hostile world.

You are an Outer, a human exposed to the substance femto, which affords you a number of unique abilities – combined with a combat rig and a handful of both melee and ranged weapons, you escape a mass space colony (and life as a mindless soldier drone) before being plunged towards the planet’s surface. The opening sequence of this game is a rough one, beginning with a wall of text to provide a loose amount of exposition before dropping you into tight corridor combat – this doesn’t show Daemon X Machina: Titan Scion in its best light, as all of the joys of aerial combat and the slick movement are caged by the need to race through a linear battlefield.

Thankfully, as soon as your character hits the surface, the game opens up and gives you the freedom to spread your metaphorical and literal wings, introducing various characters that will become important to the plot as well as providing a brief explanation of the different mechanics in play – fans of the original will also be intrigued to see the mission-based structure has been refitted to suit an open world, no longer just taking place on a menu.

The open world itself is the biggest boon to the game by far, giving players an even bigger sense of exploration while also rewarding new approaches – you might not be finding the terrain a major advantage in combat, but it helps to be able to scout an area out before entering the fray, particularly as scenes and settings feel more fleshed out and unique.

Combat feels much more personal in Titan Scion, with enemies no longer taking on the form of distant dots on a UI (which in itself is also significantly less cramped) but instead being in closer range, which suits the variety of options available to you, including swords, shotguns, maces and miniguns, to name but a few. There are four primary means of combat available to you in the field, taking the form of two primary weapons (as well as a secondary set should you wish to switch strategies mid-fight), a mounted shoulder weapon and a piece of equipment – these combined with the various items at your disposal offer flexibility in how you approach encounters.

Despite a slick and versatile range of combat options, movement still remains a major issue, with sprinting on the ground leaving you unable to navigate narrow areas, switching between ground and flight often being unwieldy, and even the flight mechanics themselves being slippery in enclosed spaces. This doesn’t pose too much of an issue in focused combat situations but more often leads to navigation being frustrating through the more winding areas of the map, particularly in caves.

For anybody looking for substance in its story, you will find a mixed bag in Titan Scion. Making strides compared to its precursor, the game delivers its story through dialogue and cutscenes, which is a surprisingly low bar given the propensity for the first game to instead use chat logs – you won’t find any outstanding writing or storytelling save for the smaller moments of endearing, humanising dialogue. Don’t expect depth and complexity in the vein of Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon, but the delivery is superb.

Graphically, Titan Scion has seen a vast visual improvement over the first game – suddenly the rocky crags and valleys feel full of life, replacing the flat deserts of the first to create a flourishing and ever-changing environment that can be searched high and low to find various secrets, missions and items to help you on your journey. This depth of character is an absolute joy to explore, but what it gains in fidelity is also lost in individual charm. Even with its simplistic colour palette, the first Daemon X Machina exuded its own charm, feeling cartoonish and vibrant. The world of Titan Scion is doubtless an improvement, but there is certainly something lost in the transition.

When I first played the original Daemon X Machina, I was underwhelmed – giving it a measly 2.5 stars at the time, I was disappointed that a game with such promise fell short of the mark. I am grateful that the developers had a second chance – even if my score has only increased by a single star, Disney’s Ratatouille taught me that one star can make a huge difference to a small creature piloting a large humanoid, or at least I assume that was the message of the movie; I was too busy playing Ocarina of Time to concentrate.