The Möbius Machine - An expansive sci-fi metroidvania - Cannot be Tamed

hi I'm Pam and I'm here to talk about video [Music] games today I'm talking about a new Metroid Vania that allows you to explore a dangerous alien world it's the Mobius machine the Mobius machine is an upcoming Metroid Vania from madruga works it will be released on March 1st for steam Xbox series and PlayStation 5 I played this on Xbox series X with a code provided by the Developers you play an unnamed astronaut after having a dream where you're devoured by a monstrous creature you wake up in y

our ship receiving a distress call from a nearby Moon you set forth on a Rescue Mission in a strange and alien place not entirely sure what you're looking for but likely to find all sorts of dangers from the jump I really liked the Mobius machine it looks great the astronaut you control is adorable and it gets you into the action quickly there are a few lines of dialogue here and there but this is not a game that's focused on story it's all about exploring facing off against a hostile environmen

t and getting stronger to start with you're given a decent ranged weapon you can aim in any direction and hold that direction while moving movements are smooth and the gravity on this moon seems a little low as you can jump quite high right away I got a good feeling for the environment there are many walls to destroy by blowing up gas tanks and platforms are made up of different Flora I quickly learned based on their appearance which were solid which could be shot and destroyed and which would b

urst after I landed on them you also have an energy meter which can be used to heal yourself you need to be quite deliberate about healing as it's an ability that needs to be channeled then heals you up gradually in fact the game as a whole is very deliberate with the slower Pace than many others in the genre there are a lot of upgrades to find spread spr around the world that give you new options for combat and traversal there are five weapons Each of which functions slightly differently the ma

in assault gun fires rapidly and does moderate damage at moderate range the stronger sniper has a long range and there's a close-up spreadshot plus a couple more you can have two weapons equipped at a time and each weapon can be upgraded abilities are a mix of the expected and things which are a little more novel one of the most surprising things is that Mobius machine has no double jump at first I questioned this decision but I didn't really miss it instead you get thrusters for different types

of terrain the ability to climb rock walls and near the end are able to glide through the air a weapon overdrive ability also adds a fun spin to things as you can use your energy to boost the power of your weapons though that's the same energy that you use to heal all of the upgrades you get need to be installed at the workbench this is is a central location reachable through shortcuts from any Zone as well as through fast travel to get an upgrade you need Blueprints and most require three frag

ments to get the whole thing once you have one complete you use the scrap that drops from any enemy to install it on one hand breaking blueprints into fragments means you're finding things very often on the other having an inventory full of stray fragments and not being able to actually use any of them yet could be a little frustrating the combat in the game is fun and will have you facing a variety of different enemies some are rather passive While others will charge you relentlessly and the on

es with range projectiles of their own tend to be toughest I really like the design of the enemies they're all strange and alien and seem to really belong in the environments you find them in they're interesting combinations of tentacles teeth and mechanical Contraptions I especially enjoyed the ones that revealed themselves to be something else after taking a bit bit of damage bosses aren't a big part of the game there was only one per Zone but I really enjoyed the ones that were there they loo

ked interesting and forced me to really observe their patterns and be careful in order to best them especially the later ones these battles were a lot of fun and I would have liked to experience a few more the focus is really on exploration and the Mobius machine offers you a large world that's full of platforming challenges items to collect and a ton of shortcuts to uncover the whole game has a really cool sci-fi aesthetic and the graphics and animations are impressive it's also technically imp

ressive as the world is seamless there's no loading as you go from room to room things aren't even separated into rooms it's all one continuous map the only time you'll experience loading is when you die use a fast travel point or go to the workshop there are seven different biomes that range from Rocky Martian looking Terrain to underground Lakes mining facilities abandoned factories and areas where you'll spend most of your time soaring through the sky the soundtrack as you go through these ar

eas is perfect for the game it's heavy on the sense and does feel very appropriate to the abandoned Moon setting at times it feels almost dreamy while being undercut by a sense of danger lurking beneath visual elements and terrain are reused a fair bit through a number of areas and there could have been a little more differentiation in that way but gameplay-wise most areas do have a different feel shockingly the underwater zones wound up being some of my favorite places to explore while they sta

rted a little slowly once I got an ability that allowed me to use my thrusters while submerged these areas became amazingly fun in the landbased areas there are a lot of sections that will have you platforming your way high up into the air the platforming is enjoyable but mistiming a jump or getting being hit by an enemy can result in tumbling down to the ground below and having to restart your climb from the beginning this was frustrating when it happened however once you got to the top there w

as usually some kind of shortcut to open to prevent you from having to make that particular climb again in later areas certain flora and fauna will Aid you in traversing these vertical areas allowing you to get a lot of height in very fun ways when you die you do drop some of your stuff that you'll probably want to recover this is a mechanic I've been tired of for years but it does it slightly differently here when you die you drop 50% of your scrap an icon on the map will show where it is what

I liked was that the scrap you drop will stay there until you pick it back up there were times when I had half a dozen skull icons strewn across my map because I decided to explore in a different direction rather than feel pressured to backtrack to the last place I died immediately I could always go back for my scrap later the map does a good job of giving you a lay of the land and making it obvious which areas hadn't been explored yet the player controlled map markers could be a little better t

hough they look like little blue arrows and you only get 25 of them there were a ton of places I found as exploring which had scrap containers I couldn't yet reach or fragments I didn't have the ability to acquire yet and I did run out of markers at one point I did not love that you needed to discover a computer which reveals the map of each area before you could start seeing it and mapping it out for yourself however I did like that while exploring there were often signs pointing you in the dir

ection of this computer or other important things like save points and the workshop shortcut I wouldn't call mobious machine an overly difficult game though I did find myself dying while exploring a lot the environments are quite hostile with a lot of spiky creatures to avoid as you platform poison water to deter you and a abandoned machines that never stopped running again it is quite a deliberate game and caution while exploring is required and I've never been a particularly careful player a c

ouple smaller nitpicks I have about the game I wish there were more fast travel points though I think I could say this about most games there are also a number of temporary shortcuts places where you destroy some plants to get through but they'd regrow behind you this just felt kind of mean and an unne necessary barrier to backtracking it took me around 16 hours to finish the game with 80% map completion on the standard difficulty mode overall I enjoyed my time with the movius machine it gave me

a rather chill Metroid Vania experience though it also killed me a lot if the idea of being able to explore a dangerous alien world appeals to you then definitely check this one out if you want to see more check out my review of Prince of Persia the Lost crown or another of my videos I have a patreon if you want to support the channel thanks for watching and I'll see you next time