Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion Review Summary

Highly Enjoyable & Improved Sequel: Players find the game to be a significant improvement over its predecessor, offering an enjoyable and addicting gameplay experience. Many highlight the fun combat, extensive customization, and overall quality as reasons for their positive reception, often noting it as a great sequel.

Fulfills Mech Game Desires: The game successfully caters to fans of mech-themed games, often being compared favorably to titles like Anthem and Armored Core. Reviewers appreciate its blend of open-world, hack-and-slash, and mech customization elements, fulfilling a niche many have been seeking.

Deep Mech Customization: The customization system for mechs (Arsenals) is a major highlight, offering extensive options for both aesthetics and gameplay optimization. Players enjoy creating unique builds and appreciate the intricate designs and varied choices available.

Engaging Open World: The open world is praised for being beautiful, addictive, and well-structured. It provides freedom for exploration, looting, and offers various activities like world bosses and mini-games, creating a rewarding progression cycle.

Good Performance & Graphics: Many players report smooth performance on various PC setups, including those with newer graphics cards, often achieving high frame rates at max settings. The game's graphics are considered good, with an improved visual quality compared to its predecessor.

Overpriced and Underperforming: Players widely feel the game is significantly overpriced for its quality, citing numerous issues including poor performance, clunky gameplay, and subpar graphics. Many compare it unfavorably to AAA titles or even its predecessor, suggesting it's not worth the investment.

Excessively Long Loading Times: A major point of frustration is the extremely long loading times, particularly when fast traveling, entering arenas, or playing online. Players report waiting minutes for simple transitions, significantly disrupting gameplay flow and making the experience feel dated.

Poor Controls and Mechanics: The game suffers from bad and confusing controls, especially for vehicles and melee combat. Issues like unchangeable mouse smoothing, bad hitboxes, and a problematic camera/lock-on system contribute to a janky and frustrating gameplay experience.

Subpar Graphics and Visuals: Many players are disappointed with the game's graphics, describing them as dated, lacking vibrancy, and inferior to older titles or even handheld consoles. Cutscenes and enemy animations also receive criticism for needing improvement.

Frustrating Boss Design: Boss battles are frequently criticized for being gimmicky, cheap, and unreasonably difficult. Players mention bullet-sponge enemies, attacks that hit outside visual range, and a need for specific, unhinted gimmicks, leading to high stress and repetitive combat.

Deep Mech Customization: Players can extensively customize their mechs (Arsenals) with hundreds of parts, weapons, and stickers, allowing for unique builds and visual expression. The Immortal Fusion system adds a dynamic element to customization during combat.

Expansive Open World Exploration: The game features a semi-open, post-apocalyptic world that encourages exploration with many secrets and collectibles. It has transitioned from a mission-based structure to a functional open world, offering both solo and co-op gameplay.

Varied Combat Mechanics: Combat is fast-paced, featuring high-speed melee, W-sword attacks, and a weak point system. Players utilize Femto for special techniques like Arts, dashing, and flying, adding strategic depth to engagements.

Loot-Driven Combat System: The game incorporates hack-and-slash and looter-shooter lite elements, where defeating enemies yields various equipment drops. These items have different stats, rarities, and slots, influencing combat effectiveness.

Influences from Other Titles: Players perceive the game as a spiritual successor or a blend of titles like Anthem, Armored Core, and Monster Hunter. While it shares similarities, it's noted to be distinct from Armored Core, offering free exploration rather than corridor-based gameplay.

Online Mode Causes Slow Loading: Many players report significantly longer loading times when the online mode is enabled, often taking 40 seconds or more. Switching to offline mode drastically reduces loading times to just a few seconds, suggesting server-side issues or matching processes are the root cause.

Mixed Performance on Mid-Range/Portable: Performance is inconsistent across various systems. While some users report no issues, others experience frame rate drops in specific areas or during combat. The game runs acceptably on portable devices like the Steam Deck, often requiring lower settings to maintain playable frame rates (around 45-60 FPS).

Good Performance on High-End PCs: Players with high-end systems (e.g., RTX 3080, 3090, 4070, 4090) generally experience excellent performance, achieving stable frame rates of 120-200 FPS at max settings, especially in offline mode. Minor frame drops are noted only in intense situations.

Demo Save File Impacts Loading: Some players found that inheriting a save file from the demo version could lead to extended loading times. A specific workaround, selling all equipment obtained in the demo, reportedly improved loading speeds significantly.

DLSS Improves Performance & Efficiency: The game supports DLSS, which significantly improves performance and reduces GPU power consumption. With DLSS enabled, GPUs run at lower wattages (e.g., 50W) compared to when it's disabled (120-150W).

Performance issues need fixing: Several players reported performance issues, leading some to refund the game or wait for optimization patches. There's a strong desire for quick fixes from developers, with some indicating they would change their review to positive once these issues are resolved.

Mixed reception, try for yourself: Player opinions are divided, with some giving high scores and strong recommendations, while others refunded the game due to various issues. Many suggest ignoring negative reviews and forming your own opinion, especially by playing the demo.

Wait for a sale: A significant number of players advise waiting for a discount before buying the game, suggesting it may not be worth the full price at launch. Some recommend a specific price point or waiting until performance issues are resolved.

Game for mech fans: The game is highly recommended for fans of mecha action, sci-fi shooters, and robot customization. Players who enjoy titles like Daemon X Machina, Monster Hunter, or Armored Core 6 are likely to appreciate it, despite some ambiguity regarding 'heavy' mech feel.

Try the demo first: Many players recommend trying the free demo before purchasing, especially if unsure about the game's style or performance. Progress from the demo carries over to the full game, making it a risk-free trial.

Strong Anthem/Xenoblade X comparisons: Many players compare the game to Anthem and Xenoblade Chronicles X, often seeing it as 'Anthem 2.0' or a spiritual successor to the potential of Anthem, particularly due to similar flying robot combat and gameplay loops. Some also note influences from Monster Hunter and Armored Core.

Online Mode Impacts Loading: Several players report significantly slower loading times when playing in online mode. Disabling online mode in the settings drastically improves performance and reduces loading screens from tens of seconds to just a few, suggesting a potential server reconnection issue.

Mixed Feelings on Story: The story receives mixed feedback, with some finding it unexplained or predictable. Criticisms include a lack of emotional connection to the protagonist, unclear information from enemy characters, and a story that sometimes loses impact compared to the BGM.

Extensive Demo Playtime: Many players invested significant hours into the demo, with some reporting over 10, 30, or even 6 hours of playtime, indicating strong engagement with the preview content.

High-Quality Audio: The game's soundtrack and voice acting are consistently described as top quality, enhancing the overall player experience. Some BGM tracks are also noted to be changeable and discoverable.