If it's broke, fix it.
History has given mankind many great inventors. Alexander Graham Bell revolutionized communication when he invented the telephone. The Wright Brothers paved the way for modern travel with the advent of the airplane. You too will become an engineer with Crazy Machines 2, the new 2D physics puzzler from publisher Viva Media. Unfortunately, much like the game itself, your experiments will often leave you with mixed results.
Crazy Machines 2's gameplay is inspired by Rube Goldberg, an inventor who was fascinated with building complex devices that perform simple tasks in indirect ways. The gameplay is nothing new and shares a lot in common with the older Incredible Machine games. Basically, if you've seen the original Back to the Future movie, you might remember the opening scene displaying a wacky and long-winded contraption that, after going through multiple complicated phases, opens up a can of dog food and spills it onto the floor. In Crazy Machines 2, you will be constructing similar devices that will force you to do everything from shooting crossbows at mannequins to frying fish by tuning musical instruments.
Considering Crazy Machines 2 has around 200 items to toy around with, there's a lot to manage. The game doesn't make itself any easier, because much like Goldberg contraptions, some of the puzzles are just too convoluted for their own good. It doesn't help that the puzzle instructions are often poorly worded. The directions manage to say a lot and very little at the same time. Most of the dialogue is worthless back-story that you won't care about, and you'll often be left scratching your head trying to figure out what to do.
Because some of the levels are so confusing, the game gives you the option to use three different kinds of hints. Each level usually gives you two text clues, which generally points you in the right direction. The next cheat allows you to spy on certain sections of the screen, depending on where you click. Finally there's a reveal cheat, otherwise known as the "I give up" button, which allows you to move on to the next stage. You will often be tempted to use these cheats, but using them will lower your laboratory score. However, there are good puzzles in this game, and when you do resist the urge to cheat and beat the level on your own terms, you will feel like a genius.
Even though the gameplay mechanics can get pretty advanced, the presentation is primitive from a design perspective. For whatever reason, the menu takes place in a three dimensionally rendered log cabin; I guess that's where most scientific experiments are conducted? As you boot up the game, you will be introduced to a cartoon inspired Albert Einstein. He will constantly try to have a one-sided conversation with you, but all of his jargon ends up being random and nonsensical. There were some cute ideas with the presentation, but in the end, everything comes off as unpolished and not very cohesive.
The game's graphics are also indicative of good intentions coming up short. Apparently, developer Novitas never heard of the "less is more" approach to design. The game's levels will often feel cluttered and unrefined, which can make things more difficult when you're trying to focus on certain sections. To offset this, the game allows you to zoom in on segments of the levels. However, when you zoom in close, you will notice bad looking textures and horrible aliasing issues. Even with 16x anti-aliasing turned on, the game was extremely
While the game's audio does fair better, it really isn't anything to write about, but since I'm getting paid to write about the game, here it goes: some of the music you hear out of Crazy Machines 2's sounds like something you'd hear out of a theme park. One track sounds a lot like the music featured in Disney's "The Country Bears". There are also cultural tunes for when you "visit" different countries like Russia, China, and Egypt. The way the game uses sound effects are pretty cool. When you zoom in on objects that emit sound, the closer you get to the item, the louder it will become. It's a nice attention to detail that warrants brownie points.
However attention to detail wasn't used when it came to glitches. It's ironic that Crazy Machines 2 is about fixing bugs, because there are some obvious bugs in this game. The retail build would constantly lock up on me. I even tried it on multiple computers. Another problem with Crazy Machines 2 is that it does not allow you to use
While starting the game all over again does add play time, if you like the game, it already has plenty of lasting appeal. Crazy Machines 2's career mode features roughly 150 levels to sink your teeth into and you can also download more maps online. The standard levels will keep you busy because each offers optional challenging side missions. The deal is sweetened with achievements, and a solid foundation for community created content. You can download other people's levels and rate them, or build and share your own. The level builder is surprisingly easy to use. You can create your own experiments in a matter of minutes, but the most fiendish levels will take some time to make.
Closing Comments
If you were one of those weird kids who enjoyed solving geometry or physics puzzles in school then you might dig this game. It's nothing new, but the core gameplay mechanics are solid. However, like the complicated and convoluted contraptions contained in this game, Crazy Machines 2 is at times poorly constructed. Developer Novitas meant well, but there are some odd design choices and flaws that keep me from recommending this game. If you're a player that is patient and likes thinking outside the box, you might be able to look over some of the game's shortcomings, and enjoy it for what it tries to be.
©2008-06-26, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved