Giant Machines 2017 is a heavy machinery simulator developed by Code Horizon. The game puts you in control of some of the world’s largest machinery in order to complete different tasks given to you by your unseen, slightly humorous, mispronouncing, southern-drawl boss. The gaming industry is no stranger to these realistic simulation games and Giant Machines fits the mold in that it does some things right and some things…which could be improved on? Ok, some of the game elements are just plain bad. I’ll divide this review into three sections: The Good, the Not So Good, and Just Plain Bad because, unfortunately, Giant Machines misses the mark in a lot of ways.
The Good:
What Giant Machines does well, that some of the larger simulator games slightly miss on, is the realistic accuracy of the machines. With the word “machine” in the name this is to be expected I grant you, but given how generic the rest of the world is in-game it is a nice surprise. That being said, while this is a “good” feature of the game there may be a reason so many simulators simplify heavy machinery: quality of life. But we’ll save the downsides for the next two sections. Giant Machines details the machinery you work on and operate down to the fuses and hydraulic lines. Another good feature is that while the number of different machines may leave something to be desired, the variety most players want is there: bucket-excavators, behemoth dump trucks, dozers, cranes, and even the crawler-transporter for a space shuttle.
The Not-So-Good:
There are a variety of elements that may bring Giant Machines down a notch in many players’ eyes. That’s not to say everything listed in this section is unforgivable, just from my personal experience playing the game there are a variety of annoyances. For starters, the movement is very clunky. Whether you are walking or driving there seems to be a good bit of drift along with some lag in certain areas. While this is not a deal breaker there are some pretty technical challenges you have to navigate through where precision is crucial. Another point against the game, for me, is the audio. When you are walking all you hear are your own clunky steps (until you have to put the hazmat suit on and be treated to a forbidden CPAP machine noise coming through your TV speakers) and when you are driving all you hear is the current radio station. I have not found a way to disable the radio, other than the audio settings themselves, so while crawling along with a space shuttle that is threatening to fall every…single…second you have the options of listening to Ave Maria, elevator music from the Fifth Element, or “Dr. Gore 2000” on “Angry Radio.” Again, some players may find that music helps them concentrate however this was not the case for me. That being said, it did spice up those super long runs you occasionaly have to make with a machine whose speed tops out at a blistering 4 km/hr.
Just Plain Bad:
The bad points of this game do seem to outweigh its strengths, unfortunately. There is no real tutorial. Most challenges seem to be pretty common sense, however the game does rely on the player to be a bit familiar with machinery in general. There are numerous ways to “fail”: fall off from too high a point and die (I did say it was a realistic simulator), damage the machine, run out of time on certain missions, and/or damage the cargo. You do start back at your checkpoint though so no real damage other than frustration. The machines themselves are, as the title states, giant. A lot of the gameplay is just you traversing the many staircases of these huge machines (hopefully the right staircase) and finding components to interact with such as battery compartments, fuses, etc. They begin to feel akin to 8-bit dungeons in a sense and most of the time, not in a good way. The story is pretty linear: mining ore, transporting ore, clearing snow, loading radioactive materials, and finally launching a space shuttle? Yeah never mind about the plot, the point is you are completing tasks in a linear “sense” with a final goal in mind. However, with the linear comes the monotonous: between each “stage” you are going to be transporting the material, fueling up the truck, and outrunning tornadoes. Yep. Tornadoes. It’s a bit weird at first, but when it happens again it just feels, well, lazy. Also, the quality of life is boiled down to just giving you life. This game would have been greatly improved with some of the simplifications common in many modern simulator games. Just the Farming Simulator element of switching between vehicles/operator positions with a button would have went a long way. However, if many quality-of-life changes were implemented, the already very quick main story would be approximately 50% shorter. Yeah, there’s a lot of “fluff.”
In conclusion, I have to give Giant Machines 2017 a solid five. The concept is great, the machine execution is great, and the music…is terrible (sorry, couldn’t resist another dig at that blasted radio). The game has the bones of a good game, but it falls quite short in polishing and quality-of-life. It really seems like the storyline was halfway through, the mechanics/physics were 75% there, the machine animation was completely finished, and they decided to go ahead and publish. Would I play it again? Probably not. Would I give an updated version or possible sequel a chance? Yes.
