Watch + Play - Dark Shadows / Guise of the Wolf / Deus Ex Machina 2

[@ConvincingPeople]

Some context on Deus Ex Machina 2: Mel Croucher was actually a very early PC game developer, as in during the '70s and '80s, with the original DEM having been released for the ZX Spectrum back in 1984. It was like nothing else at the time, essentially an interactive album-length music video, with music composed by Croucher himself and performances by a number of notable actors and singers of the time, including one-hit wonder Ian Dury (of Ian Dury and the Blockheads fame), who reappears here in what is, essentially, a visually updated post-thirtieth-anniversary remake. Basically, it's less of game than, as someone else said, a goofy psychedelic rock opera with minigames, which just so happened to be written and put together by an OG game designer. The closest other things I can compare it to on Watch+Play are Oikospiel and Bad Day on the Midway, and it definitely has a similar vibe to those to me.

[@ArcMedicalResearch]

This is an amazingly insightful comment to show up five years after the video was published, and as someone who has come back to rewatch it countless times over the years, thank you

[@lmgallina]

00:02:23 Dark Shadows 01:04:18 Guise of the Wolf 01:48:44 Deus Ex Machina 2

[@thebaitandswitch4623]

Dark Shadows: I love how the left shoulder is anchored on the bottom of the screen and the right shoulder on the top

[@SosaStarlight]

I wish Cam had been there for more of that last game. He would've had AMAZING reactions

[@applejinx7172]

Deus Ex Machina is blowing my mind because I would SWEAR the whole soundtrack is by Gong. I recognize the music style and the voices of Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth. They were total acidhead hippie freak-prog-rock classics, and passed away in 2015 and 2016 aged 77 and 83 respectively. If this is them, most likely they influenced the game style completely, and it is 100% sincere and just what it seems to be. Mind you, they absolutely knew how to joke too, so it's kinda on two levels: they mean it, but they also see the humor at the same time :)

[@applejinx7172]

Guess it was neither, but if you like the wackiness of this definitely check out early seventies Gong :)

[@ladsworld]

Helps to have a map.

[@WhichDoctor1]

+ladsworld So THIS is where Jim Stirling got that from.

[@ajhare7735]

ah, Deus Ex Machina 2. a game so far up it's own ass that it came out it's own mouth.

[@Krais101]

Did... Did that guard just suggest you ROB his employer!

[@gharper92]

dark shadows looks really good for being on an update version of the engine that prayer warriors used.

[@Biggestofoofs]

Jon Pertwee was there cause he was the narrator for the original game. Which I watched/listened to and I recall it being a enjoyable, if not a different experience. This one, not so much. (the songs and (Especially;) Lee, was a upside.)

[@elfinfluff]

Ye gods, that last game. It's like they watched the Nihilists from Big Lebowski, and were like, "Pfff. We can out Eurotrash that." Alex's face during the Dance is -amazing-. So much confusion and pain rolled into one.

[@niallsb]

I Googled the Immortan Joe Body Pillow joke. I found an Immortan Joe body pillow for sale on E-bay. Dammit internet!

[@awesomeperson871]

I was not ready for that

[@Zara-Bari]

+raymond smith Nobody's body is ready!

[@thomaskirkness-little5809]

I blame DEM2 for making Sir Christopher Lee depart our realm.

[@capthavic]

Dark Shadows is the kind of game that makes me wonder if the creator(s) ever played a videogame before.

[@TimesChu]

See you space cowboy. 2:46:10

[@Nuthouse01]

Holy bloody shit. I dont even know. I am just straight-up floored by the weirdness, to call it an acid trip doesnt even do it justice

Willkommen bei zuschauen und schpielen.

[@TJForceIX]

So, next week on Talking Simulator: Deus Ex Eachina 2? (:

[@Pugiron]

Deus Ex Machina 2 was "City of Lost Children" weird.

[@Alyssa_Swift]

I need an adult now.

[@Mechsrule1]

So the guard of the castle is telling you to steal from the castle.... because why not.

[@Sugarman96]

1:27:23 I want that to be the playable character in every game

[@Firestar4041]

. . . what the ever loving absolute fuck even was Deus Ex Machina?????? It was someones goddamn fever dream, while high, off all the fucking drugs known to man, is what it was. Jebus.

[@wurmsrus2]

Got to wonder if this or the upcoming art film where does the voices of a talking stuffed dog (I mean like a teddy bear but a dog) called "Mr. President" and God was the last thing he worked on .( and of course I'm not making that up kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y4uVq6KGeJ10hLs)

[@sheilaghoul7019]

Where is Alex's hat?!

[@EmilyGridlock]

what... the... fuck...

[@TPRJones]

1:56:11 That's not how this works. That's not how ANY of this works!

[@ISoldTheWorld97]

coming here to report in December 2022, they got a few things wrong in the January 2022 level

[@Willbow132]

So I kinda just jumped in 2:17:12. I think I'm missing some context.

[@RatOrchestra]

Yeah, what that other guy said, what the fuck

[@Myrdin90]

Should i cry or laugh!?

[@ajhare7735]

yes

[@TehAmelie]

Wow, Deus Ex Machina, what a mess. I think like they were trying to create a symbolic, universal "human experience" - which the browser game Alter Ego does much much better by leading you down a variety of different paths of life by the way - and they tried to create a player character that could include every human. Probably should have gone for an abstract human-shaped figure instead of the highly specific character with the peach skin and the detailed model and the old man face and the ripped body and the breasts and the penis and the lack of clothes. And maybe a timeless kind of plot instead of the very specifically baby boom generation-centered narrative.

[@bronterrefreelove3965]

Wait you can play it in Welsh? Why.....

[@Inorisso]

That last game... Was just horrible... To me, it feels like the music was made first, as some kind of project... Then the thought of making a game out of it came, they managed to get ahold of Christopher Lee, and then, well... The music and Christopher's voice was what mattered, so getting someone to make an actual game just wasn't prioritized...

[@leeshajoi]

I found a playthrough of the original Deus Ex Machina on KZbin after this stream happened. It's... interesting. Less of a game than a scifi rock opera with a series of minigames attached.

[@pinballwitch5256]

This video might need a trigger warning...

[@WPN300]

I hate to admit it but I kind of dig the music from deus ex game... and for that I feel like the worst person...