Experience dual-stick deja vu with Men vs. Machines

If you played Gun Bros, but thought it would be more interesting in a steam punk style with clockwork robot enemies, then Men vs. Machines is the game for you. It’s a dual-stick shooter with decent graphics and smooth gameplay, though lacking technologically.

If you did play Gun Bros, then know this is the exact same game made by the exact same company, only re-skinned. Everything looks a little different, but the menus, gameplay, leveling and upgrade systems, AI partner, and even the ridiculous acronym organization names are practically identical. It also follows the same freemium style of in-app purchasing and apps-for-credits download system.

It is cool if you love dual-stick shooters and steam punk style games like this, but this is not tantamount to buying a car in either red or black. There are some differences under the hood that make this game inferior. The characters move more slowly than they should. A lot of the weapons just don’t feel right, and are all too similar. The load times are too long, with a lot of lag, and the game and menus are simply slow and not as responsive as they should be. It’s also crashing on a lot of people, though it hasn’t for me.

In the end, this is a solid game because its predecessor is a solid game. The gameplay and graphics are up to par, and the steam punk overhaul is pretty cool, but there’s no humor or personality to it. It was clearly created just to cash in, like Gun Bros has, and it’s lacking originality. Free is free, so go ahead and check it out for yourself, but make sure to check out Gun Bros while you’re at it.

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