Mother Machine Preview: Spelunky with an Oddworld twist

Despite the fact that cave exploration and the idea of actually spelunking is one of the few things in life that genuinely terrifies me, Mossmouth's platformer managed to make this very concept highly enjoyable and not at all frightening. In the near future, Curious Expedition's developer Maschinen-Mensch will be taking a crack at the Spelunky formula, except with the added flavour of imbuing it with a bit of an Oddworld twist. The end product is a promising cooperative roguelike called Mother Machine, a game where you have to explore dangerous and sprawling cave systems as a chaos gremlin. Yep, quite a unique premise, right.

Mother Machine plays entirely from a side perspective making it a 2D experience, albeit with 3D backdrops and such. The aim is to work as a unit, using the playable chaos gremlins abilities and natural skills to leap, climb, and fight any threats that stand in their way, all as part of an effort to reach the end point of the dungeon cave and to complete the mission at hand. It may seem easy, and mechanically speaking it does seem to be that way, but in practice there are a lot of obstacles and problems that will make your life that much more challenging.

Each level is designed in such a way that verticality seems to be a massive factor. This means you will need to clamber up and swing from vines, leap on branches and other organic matter, and figure out alternative solutions such as holding onto levitating and rising balloons to reach otherwise inaccessible locations. Add to this having to avoid hazardous and toxic pools, enormous drops that will put a quick stop to your adventuring, and enemies that will quickly ruin your day if you decide to battle them alone, and you can see how Mother Machine is quite a brutal game that is best to tackle with the company of friends.

Thankfully, you can bring a few allies along for the ride with the drop-in and drop-out cooperative system. You can then also use this group effort to develop a team presence that works in tandem with one another, for example by having one ally select a goo-like ability that enables anyone to easily climb up otherwise unclimbable surfaces and leave behind a temporary trail for allies to follow too. Another friend could then select the healing fart to help rectify any battle scars, while another person grabs the belly belch to knock back oncoming threats or perhaps catapult an ally across a big gap. The teamwork really does seem to be one of Mother Machine's strongest elements.

But I don't think it is its strongest feature. Rather I think this goes to the procedurally-generated levels that mean no two levels are the same. So, even if you think you've discovered all of the secrets in one level, determined the best way to conquer its platforming challenges, using throwable Light Fruits to light your path along the way, the next time you revisit this level it could pose entirely new challenges.

With a procedural design like this however, I think it may come at the cost of meaningful narrative, as there doesn't seem to be a whole lot on this front to harp on about. Essentially, the idea of Mother Machine is that after an artificial intelligence is left on an isolated planet, to break up the mundanity it creates its own take on life - the chaos gremlins - which as they grow more and more intelligent they venture further into the planet's darkness to unravel its secrets and the true motivations of the AI mother. There's definitely mystery and potential here, but the question is whether it will be meaningfully conveyed while using procedurally-generated levels.

What Mother Machine does have going for it within its levels is a collection mechanic that asks players to find and gather crystals around each level to open locked doors and access further areas. It gives the game that extra flair and additional depth that might otherwise be missed in the more rudimentary platforming required to simply reach the end of a level.

While I only got to see a snippet of Mother Machine in action, it's clear that there's potential with this game to be a cooperative gem. There's a unique premise matched up with enjoyable and simple mechanics, and set in a world with mysteries waiting to be solved. Whether this will be enough to keep players enthralled after a few hours and coming back for more, we'll find out in early 2025 when the game arrives on PC and consoles.