The Marvellous Machine Reviews

It's Okay. Personally I found the environment ugly and very much disliked the fly screening effect produced by darker elements, this breaks immersion quickly. Some of the narrators suggestions imply dissociation, which is in fact the opposite of what is required to be 'in the moment' and fully sensing, as opposed to being internally focussed and thinking.

Very pretty and well optimised but I just didn't get much out of it personally. I was aware it's a short experience and I read the "how to the the most out of The Marvellous Machine" guide in advance, but it's not something I'd feel the need to experience a second time.

An absolutely lovely experience that illustrates why VR is a boundless medium full of potential. Simple, graphically rich, phenomenal message, inspirational, bite-sized and well worth the journey.

WOW! Just finished it, and can't say in words how I feel. I cried a lot, but it wasn't sad, is was more an emotional catharsis. The meaning of TMM resonates deep within my soul, and throughout my very being. I believe this needs to be experienced by everyone at least once. For me, I'm going to need a lot more immersion (more than one "play"through) to get the whole meaning, and the best good I can from it. I think also that it's a good thing that might help when I'm in an "odd" sort of mood. I rarely rate things at their highest level, because there's always something that could make it better, but right now, I'm going to give this a 10/10. Could it be improved? Maybe, but the rating also reflects the emotions/raw feelings that I'm having. Man, what a thought provoking title. Thanks Devs for giving the world this diamond in the rough. Whew, I need to calm down now, and just let it sink in.

right now I would only recommend this if it was free. interesting concept and experience, reminded me of a guided meditation. But I think it is too short, just as I calmed my thoughts and became immersed in the experience, it was over. This would be great if it was a longer maybe in the 45-60 minute mark. The current 15 minutes do a great job of preparing you for an experience that doesn't happen For the devs: It would be interesting to see this a guided meditation in this style, but the experiences(and narrators subjects) would have to vary(maybe 8-10 meditations/experiences about an hour each). I think then this could be something you come back to, sit down switch off and relax your mind and thoughts for an hour while observing some interesting visuals

This was a beautiful experience. The graphics, lighting, scenery are amazing. It’s a slow moving roller coaster without any motion sickness side effects. It’s a short meditative experience that I may try from time to time if I’m in the mood after slaying zombies in other games. Good experience to show people who may not be into high tech or are scared of VR.

A beautifully detailed and thought provoking 15 minute experience (sitting in a carriage of sorts), where you listen about perspectives and experiences. Obviously I've enjoyed this quite a bit over the years and love to share it as a nice intro to VR for my friends and family. I really appreciate being able to change the resolution during the ride. I wouldn't call it a roller coaster as there is some time where you sit in a industrial, steampunk room while the narrator talks.

Thought provoking, profound and beautiful. Not only a wonderful ride through sumptuous visuals, but if you approach what is said with an open mind and listen then it's a stunning experience.

Unfortunately the devs make it impossible to enjoy this experience by combining some strange decisions, thereby missing the mark by a few inches. Well done: - Hinting at important facts. Very polished graphics and animations. Theoretically(*) super good VR immersion. Bafflingly strange: - (*)80% of the environment's lighting is fading into blackness/dark mist - ergo: fly-screen optic effect in VR headsets present all the time. Strange anti-Immersion tactics. (In VR it's looking darker than here on the screenshots.) - The only nicely lit scene (representing the 'busy thought machinery' - using warm yellow-orange tones) preventing the fly-screen effect in VR is quickly changed into dark+black again! I was ready to enjoy this sight during its first state, but what was I hoping?! The devs had planned otherwise. Which leads to the next point: - Color and lighting symbolism has been twisted around weirdly. During the narration you're ought to realize, that you can perceive the world around you more clearly without the dimming nebula of your own thoughts. This should/could be reflected by a peaceful, more clear and relaxing scenery. But nah, they decided to do the opposite. As described in the point before: 'Being hindered by your own thoughts' is being represented by a warmly, yellow-orange lit machinery - but then the 'freedom of thinking', aka 'coming to your senses' aka 'seeing everything clearly' is rather symbolized .. how? The warm lights are being switched off and now you're staring into almost darkness. Voilà. Also at this point the narration goes on for (felt) 100 minutes, talking about 'seeing clearly, seeing unhinged, free' etc - while you're forced to look at an almost spooky, dark environment. This comes over as mind blowingly strange. - The fundamental message is good ("You're not your mind!", "Only the present moment really exists.") - but then it is narrated at an unnecessary speedy pace, almost without pauses. You can't dwell on any of it. You can't let revelations sink in. It's being hammered into your ears, nothing soothing about it. Constantly new lines with new revelations, new twists, blahblahblahblahblahblah etc. forever. It's super counter-productive: the well meant insights ('letting go of your thoughts is important' etc.) are here ought to be understood by having to comprehend and carefully listen to 108957 lines of text during a very small window of time. Flabbergasting. - The music sounds well made and not cheap - but it is 98% counter-intentionally emotionally loaded and fast paced - everything else but calming the mind. In combination with the non-stop narration this becomes rather a burden to those looking for relaxation. A constant rather high pressure on the eardrums. ... The conveyed message is generally good and important for those who'll hear it for the first time in their lifes. But the way it's implemented seems to be (ironically) not thought through very well. An option to go on the ride after the first time - now without the narration and music is also a sadly left out opportunity.

15 minute experience (can sit down for all of it) You ride a cart really slowly through an underground tunnel full of steam punk graphics while the narrator talks about your thoughts, your reality, your past and future. Its like psychology 101 Not for everyone but if you want to expand your thinking a bit give it a try