Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion Review (PS5)

Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion makes a rough first impression. After creating your custom protagonist, you're thrust straight into a chaotic action sequence with next to no explanation of controls or mechanics.

You haplessly slash and blast your way through a series of samey sci-fi corridors as characters waffle over comms, and the whole thing's just an overwhelming mess. The barrage of janky cutscenes that follow certainly don't help, either.

But then the actual game begins and you gradually start to realise what this sequel to 2019's (Switch console exclusive) Daemon X Machina really is: a mission-based, open world grind-a-thon with an especially wonky story tying it all together.

We use the word 'wonky' because the plot really does lurch from one sci-fi trope to another. It's not a bad narrative — there are some fairly interesting concepts and almost post-apocalyptic themes to chew on — but between shoddy cinematics and a cast of underdeveloped characters, it's hard to get truly invested.

Upon fleeing from a research facility up in space, your character — an experienced mech suit pilot — crash lands on a rusty old planet where they befriend a ragtag group of opportunists. The goal is to get back to that orbital colony, but you'll have to acquire some serious firepower in order to stand up to the planet's tyrannical overlords.

And so begins an endless checklist of objectives that'll have you scouring mostly barren environments for resources and better parts for your mech. At its core, Titanic Scion is basically a loot-based RPG, in which you're making constant adjustments to your Arsenal — a fully customisable, Iron Man-esque mech suit.

The sheer amount of ways that you can rework your Arsenal is impressive. There are hundreds of different parts to discover, all with their own stats and passive perks; body parts determine things like protective armour values and movement speed, while weapons define your style of play — and you can have four equipped at any one time.

It's the kind of game where experimentation is key, and you probably won't settle on a favourite approach until you've sunk hours upon hours into the release.

Having said that, the non-stop loot drops do bog the experience down in time. When you have eventually settled on a specific style of play, or something close to it, the act of sorting through all of your loot just to find minimal stat boosts becomes a chore.

What's more, selling or scrapping your unwanted parts is a bit of a nightmare thanks to chunky menus and convoluted sorting systems.

Outside of these dreaded menus, however, Titanic Scion is a surprisingly freeform experience. As alluded, the open world locales encourage exploration — but unless you're just passing through as part of a quest, there's not much to see off the beaten path.

It helps that your Arsenal is capable of flight, bringing some welcome verticality to the formula, but the overall problem with trekking out into the wilderness is that sections of the map just feel lifelessly vast, to the point where you're traversing a whole lot of nothing for the sake of a single treasure chest or enemy that's defeated in the space of several seconds.

Speaking of battle, combat in Titanic Scion is a pretty straightforward affair, combining simple melee combos, basic gunplay, and timed dodges. In fact, it's so basic that the early hours can struggle to hold your attention; it's not until you start unlocking more advanced weaponry and abilities that fights really start to take shape.

In particular, the boss fights are, more often than not, fantastic fun. The game's snappy targeting and movement controls lend themselves especially well to one-on-one duels with other Arsenals, leading to some intense, Armored Core-like bouts.

And again, because there are so many ways to alter your Arsenal's build, it feels like there's a sort of hidden depth to combat. There's no question that more hardcore players will relish the opportunity to tinker with different weapon combinations, uncovering attack patterns that maximise damage or keep opponents completely locked down.

But ultimately, this is where Titanic Scion struggles. In order to reach its more interesting innards, you need to spend a good chunk of the game fiddling around with annoying little aspects of its design, like repetitive mission structures, a never-ending supply of largely pointless loot, and environments that are too barren to be considered engaging.