Symphony of the Machine Review – Under the Weather

<p>If you&&num;8217&semi;ve ever wanted to be able to control the weather from atop your ivory tower&comma; <em>Symphony of the Machine <&sol;em>is here to make your fantasy come true&period; With no text whatsoever&comma; <em>Symphony of the Machine <&sol;em>is a game that puts players in a desolate landscape&comma; with nothing but a tower above where players can control the atmosphere&period; While simple in premise&comma; the game quickly becomes more complex as mechanics are introduced and requires intricate maneuvering from the player in order to achieve results&period; While the idea is for everything to work together in symphony&comma; what ultimately ends up happening is the limitations of virtual reality and some of the machinery in the game&comma; end up pushing against a smooth&comma; puzzling experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The simplicity of <em>Symphony of the Machine <&sol;em>makes it an engaging experience right out of the gate&period; Utilizing either a PlayStation Move or DualShock 4 controller&comma; players are tasked with positioning laser beams so that they are pointed at the desired weather effect&period; The end goal&quest; Making flowers in a region where there is nothing&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll control the elements of wind&comma; cloud&comma; rain&comma; and sun to induce the blooming and successful growth of several different types of plants&period; Of course&comma; there are plenty of additional mechanics like refracting and reflecting of the laser&comma; and increasing intensity to take into account&period; Not to mention some of the obstacles you&&num;8217&semi;ll face trying to position the laser&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;124534" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-124534" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-124534" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;04&sol;21183407&sol;SotMBago3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Symphony of the Machine&comma; Stirfire Studios&rpar;" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-124534" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Symphony of the Machine&comma; Stirfire Studios&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>If I were to pinpoint one limitation with this game&comma; it would be its platform of choice&period; I reviewed the game for PSVR&comma; though it is also available on HTC Vive &lpar;which I feel like its room-scale technology would help make this a better experience&rpar;&comma; and I kept cursing under my breath at the game constantly losing where I was&period; You do a lot of grabbing items and bringing them to places&comma; sometimes on the other side of the tower&period; What ended up happening for me was that I would have to take small leaps forward&comma; constantly dropping the item&comma; moving to its new location&comma; picking it up and dropping it further towards the destination&comma; and rinse and repeat&period; The tower isn&&num;8217&semi;t too big&comma; but that gives&comma; even more&comma; reason for the game to have allowed for some more options&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For example&comma; the ability to simply roam around freely is understandably foregone for most games because they either use two Move controllers or for motion sickness reasons&period; However&comma; because virtually all of <em>Symphony of the Machine <&sol;em>is comprised of you walking around the top of a small tower&comma; I don&&num;8217&semi;t see the gameplay justification&period; It also only uses one Move controller&comma; which makes sense but only because the game can&&num;8217&semi;t seem to track much on the right or left of the player&period; It only notices when the controller is in front of you&comma; with minor exceptions&period; This is a huge problem for a game that requires finessing and tweaking of reflective surfaces in order to perfectly get that angle you wanted&period; Sometimes it felt like I was thinking further outside the box than the game&comma; which is a real shame&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I say all this with love because the core concept is neat&comma; and I could see it being applied to other puzzle games&period; The spatial awareness required for the game is something only available with VR&period; It also requires a presence that only VR offers&period; Being able to just reach out and grab a surface to tweak it is what makes this a great use of VR and motion sensing technology&period; When physical obstacles come in the way and players have to tackle a puzzle differently&comma; that&&num;8217&semi;s when the game shines&period; I&&num;8217&semi;d stop and move a couple things&comma; just attempting to get something close enough to what I want and then think from there&period; That stuff is all really satisfying&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s just those minor inconveniences that pile up into a frustrating experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;124533" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-124533" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-124533" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;04&sol;21183400&sol;SotMBago2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Symphony of the Machine&comma; Stirfire Studios&rpar;" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-124533" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Symphony of the Machine&comma; Stirfire Studios&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The other neat feature is the simplistic visual design&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s a laser&comma; four targets &lpar;with symbols on them representing which element they are&rpar;&comma; some objects to use&comma; and a handy robot to bring you items and tell you what you need to make the flower grow&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s no text&comma; and no one talks to you&period; You are alone with a weather machine&comma; and a robot who nudges you along and provides more pieces to the puzzle as required&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s kind of beautiful&comma; but at the same time&comma; I ran into something which would be a recurring problem as I progressed through the game&period; The robot simply would not leave me alone&period; It would hover around me&comma; and the issues arose when I was close to the focal point of the laser and tweaking many of its refracting beams near the center&period; The robot would block the original laser&comma; effectively stopping the entire puzzle&period; It only happened a few times&comma; but once again&comma; compounded with everything else&comma; I just kept getting more and angrier&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Symphony of the Machine <&sol;em>is a compelling concept&comma; that excels at its visual flourishes&comma; simple mechanics&comma; and minimal storytelling&period; Watching weather change as I was changing it was a satisfying experience that only VR could provide&period; How great it would be if the game utilized at least a second Move controller that was dedicated to moving around the tower while holding items&comma; but with the way the game is right now&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s a lot of stops and starts&period; I feel like a god with the power to change the weather&comma; but <em>Symphony of the Machine <&sol;em>provides too many limitations to feel like I can use the power effectively&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A Playstation 4&sol;Playstation VR Review Key for Symphony of the Machine was provided by Stirfire Studios for the Purpose of this Review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;