Deus Ex Machina (ZX Spectrum) - Let's Play 1001 Games - Episode 50
11War crimes are easy
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I'm Gaming Jay: Youtube gamer, let's player, retrogaming fan, and determined optimist... Join me in this series while I try out EVERY game in the book 1001 VIDEO GAMES YOU MUST PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE, before I die. The game review for each game will focus on the question of whether you MUST play this game before you die. But to be honest, the game reviews are just for fun, this series is more about the YouTube gamer journey. Let's try out those classic retro games we grew up with, have fond memories of, or heard of but never got a chance to try! And with that said, the game review for today is...
Deus Ex Machina
Released 1984
Developer(s) Automata UK
Platform(s) ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, MSX
Genre(s) Artistic
Jay's Thoughts
Welcome to... uh... I uh... I have no idea what this game is about. You take on the role of... some kind of machine that is turning a rat turd into a human who gets probed by future police and then goes to a metaphorical war only to uh... grow old and die? Believe it or not, that explanation of this game is more coherent than anything you will see if you watch my playthrough.
OK so Deus Ex Machina is a very, very, very interesting game. This game requires you to sync up your gameplay with a tape that contains the most psychedelic and weirdest music ever. To give you a taste, at one point the tape simply repeats the phrase "war crimes are easy" over and over. What's very unique here is that, because the game must stay synced up with the tape, nothing you do in the game matters. You always pass every level at exactly the right time. The only thing that changes as you play is your score. And so if you're not really playing for the score then... this kind of isn't even a game anymore.
The "gameplay" is also incredibly strange. It tends to involve you moving some kind of colored square around the screen to touch things that are supposed to represent DNA or your person's hopes and fears... I don't even know really OK? This game just utterly befuddled me.
As far as whether you should play this game before you die, absolutely not. I can say emphatically that this game is one you can easily skip. The reason it's in the 1001 book is simply because it's some damned unique. It really is nothing like anything I've ever "played" before. The tapes itself even feature celebrity narrators, so maybe this is one of the first instances of celebrity voice talents in games.
For it's sheer uniqueness this game does deserve to be in the 100 game book. But for it's utter bizarreness and frankly, it's lack of interesting gameplay, it can absolutely be skipped.
➙ Must You Play It?
If you want to see just how insane this game is you can watch my playthrough. Other than that there's really no reason to try this one. It strikes me as a weird trippy experience, but not a great game per se.