Gather round, varmints and cutthroats, as Bartlow’s Machine of Wonder has been unearthed from the dawn of the Electric Age. Untether your coin bag and drop a dime inside! Bartlow’s Dread Machine is rootin’ and tootin’ onto Xbox One and PC via Steam today.
When Bartlow’s Dread Machine arrived on our doorstep, we sat up and took notice. If we’re being honest, we hadn’t heard much about this mystical machine, but when we booted up a trailer, we were smitten.
This is, at its roots, a twin-stick shooter, but it’s the casing that’s got us all hot and bothered. It’s set in something akin to the Victorian-era horse-racing machines you might find at the end of an old pier. Your character and the various baddies slide and crank through slots in the machine, and you’re given the freedom to pop a shot at them with your various side-arms and flintlocks.
As reviewers, we get through countless shooters, but this feels simultaneously new and anachronistic, and it just makes you want to reach in and grab the mechanical beasties and metal components.
It looks like there’s substance to go with the style. You get multiple characters to play, from Bass Reeves to Annie Oakley to Zombie Custer (nice), and there are six levels to crank through, with bosses at the end of each. Beep Games get the fundamentals right too, as you can buy hats, while it looks like guns can be bought and upgrades.
Features include:
- Twin-stick arcade action
- Single player and 2-player couch co-op modes
- Six game worlds from the streets of New York to the jungles of Panama
- Unlockable weapons, heroes and outfits
Beep Games really have got a tip-top looking game here, and we have a review ready to roll too. Head over to see what we think shortly.
Bartlow’s Dread Machine cranks into action today on Xbox One for £12.49. It also launches on PC via Steam.
Game Description:
An artifact from the past returns in Bartlow’s Dread Machine, a long-forgotten game from the dawn of the Electric Age. Dread Machine is a dual stick arcade shooter with single player and couch co-op modes, six scintillating game worlds and a cast of improbable monsters and historical characters. Teddy Roosevelt has been kidnapped! Your mission: Pursue his abductors from New York, across the Great Plains to San Francisco, the high seas and beyond using trains, ships and even a newfangled automobile. Master an arsenal of futuristic Edwardian weapons as you fight otherworldly creatures to free the Commander in Chief.
