the first year of the pandemic provided such an ample amount of time for gaming that I didn't quite know how to process it. especially early on I had very little contact with anyone besides the students I was a TA for and my partner at the time, and with that limited social sphere I found myself with far too many thoughts about the games I was accelerating through and no outlet for them. to pass the time I began writing reviews on my own with uncertainty if they would ever see the light of day; ironically, I put much more effort into establishing historical context in these than I do in my modern reviews. they're still sitting on my hard drive never to see the light of day (outside of my ex, who unenthusiastically (but very thoroughly) edited a 10-page 12pt TNR paper explaining the high level of achievement of sonic adventure while also mourning its sacrifices in game design), and likely never will... ok maybe I gotta publish that sonic adventure review at some point. most of the games I wrote about in this period I finished right as the lockdowns were beginning, and for the most part I've managed to cover them on this site as well. however, one review paralyzed me even back then, and has continued to prove a sore point for me up to now. the often confusing, misguided, yet still lovable daemon x machina continues to defy my attempts to categorize its strengths and weaknesses concisely, and only now with a barren backlog of reviews to write do I find myself tilling this soil again hoping to perhaps spring new insights.

all of this is odd to me, since the game itself is a simple concoction: fuse elements from armored core with bits of monster hunter's loot grind and fluid and snappy combat. missions generally revolve around eliminating enemy forces with occasional wrinkles such as protecting an objective or navigating a maze. rival mech users - termed as "outers", with their mechas called "arsenals" - often are put toe-to-toe with you in frenetically thrilling and equally awkward dogfights that test the player's skill in avoiding motion sickness while rapidly spinning. even with how clunky this combat can sometimes get, the game does a great job scaling your toolkit with the difficulty and variety of the fights, specifically since virtually every unique weapon an enemy arsenal carries can be looted and equipped in your own build. blinking around with a samurai sword slicing up multiple high-powered foes at once does much to paper over the wars of attrition that can happen in longer fights or occasional bouts in cramped geometry where both player and AI will frequently get tangled. strewn throughout are giant immortals, which serve as monhun-esque fights meant to be replayed ad nauseum via the side mission selection. much like freedom wars (which I previously maligned) simply shooting incessantly at giant enemies is a lot less fun than the game it so obviously cribs from, where combat is much more deliberate and risky. some of the immortals are relatively well designed, such as the quadruped you fight in the demo and early on in the main campaign. this fight has a variety of smart ways to take down the foe and a variety of interesting attacks, such as a giant cannon you can rip off and bludgeon the body with, and force fields you must maneuver around. the same cannot be said for all of the rest of the main boss fights, many of which force you to wait while they fly out of bounds or do little except volley off artillery and roll around. considering the mechanics built up around this, such as unique gear crafted from material gained from repeated fights, it's a true shame that the game shies from centering these fights and instead leaves them half-baked within a structure they do not augment in any significant way.

that's functionally the entire game, and your enjoyment of it relies heavily on how much you can immerse yourself in the action. the campaign is not particularly long especially if side missions are skipped, but even in that short period of time it's clear to see that there just isn't enough meat to sustain the dozens of copy-paste objectives. rank upgrades don't feel particularly meaningful, looting quickly becomes a chore, and the endless jaunts through labryinthian identical interior factories really strained my enjoyment. it was those occasional flashes of brilliance in the dogfights, the thrill of teleporting around decapitating foes, and the endless destruction that kept me going, and the stretches between these amazing moments seemed to become less frequent as the campaign drew to a close. it doesn't help that there is an absolute deluge of one-note characters yapping before, after, and during missions with a large web of storylines which rarely matter and often reappear as soon as they've dripped out of your memory. following the story beyond "you are chosen one, big menace in asteroid in center of planet, evil mercenaries vs good mercenaries" is pointless, and the increased reliance on cutscenes towards the end only highlights this. there's also some armored core-esque factions of corporations/nations/post-apocalyptic military orgs that pit you against your allies as the game progresses (complete with the post-mission emails AC fans expect), but I could not explain a single storyline involving them to save my life. even with some great fights in the back quarter, this really strains my ability to enjoy the game.

there's also PvP, which I have not really tried given that I'm sure that most players past the first couple months are much more dedicated to the grind than I am. alongside this are monhun-style co-op quests which is something I'm more familiar with, but the offering is rather slight. there's not a lot of fun to be had in mowing down the basic groups of enemies from the campaign even with a friend, and the immortal fights don't quite satisfy either. I did attempt the online-only boss with a rando online (unsuccessfully unfortunately) and it was relatively fun, but at the end of the day a strategy that boils down to circle strafing in the air and rapid-firing just doesn't feel appropriate for what should be endgame material. once I settled on the fact that the online wasn't going to give the game any longevity for me, I unfortunately had to put it down for good. once the campaign is over and the fleeting moments of sleek mecha joy pass, the undercooked nature of it all looms large over the experience.