Daemon x Machina: Titanic Scion takes place in a futuristic world tainted by the dangerous power of a substance called Femto. In long-ago wars, humanity began to evolve into a race called Outers due to exposure to Femto. These Outers, however, faced persecution by humanity, and multiple wars ended up with the Outers moving to floating gardens that orbit over the ravaged planet while they ruled as dictators. Meanwhile, beasts called Immortals roamed the world below and preyed on humanity. Players take control of one of these Outers. After almost being killed as part of a cruel experiment by your fellow allies, you're forced to retreat to Earth and join a human resistance group that's struggling against the Outers. You must put your skills to work fighting your own people.

Perhaps the biggest overall change to Daemon x Machina is that you no longer pilot a giant robot. Instead, you pilot a significantly smaller Exosuit. Think of it like Iron Man's armor instead of a Gundam. This means that your suits all trend toward the more overtly humanoid, since your character must fit inside, but you're still capable of flight and high mobility movement. This isn't merely an aesthetic difference. Your suit's small size changes how you interact with the world, since you're now at a level where things can be much bigger than you.

In particular, another major new factor of the game is that it's an open-world game. You have a home base, but once you leave it, you're thrown into a semi-open world that you can explore at will. The world is divided into zones, some of which you can enter immediately and others that require you to advance the plot to unlock. Within each zone, you can find a variety of collectibles, bases to destroy and loot, minibosses to fight, and rare equipment. More dangerous areas have better loot, and you can run into potentially dangerous weather conditions (e.g., rain, sandstorms) that impact how your suit functions.

A slight oddity to this new open world is that you have alternate methods of transportation. While you're able to fly around freely, you can also hop on a customized transforming motorcycle to zoom around the environment faster. You can find horses (well, mutant hybrid creatures they call horses) in the environment that you can sneak up on and mount, Breath of the Wild style. The advantage to this ground-based movement seems to be that you can venture deeper into enemy territory without wasting your precious Femto energy that fuels flight and special attacks.

Combat is similar but has been reworked. Your character is able to carry up to four hand-mounted weapons, a shoulder weapon, and an "auxiliary" item like a booster or extra ammo storage. Weapons come in both melee and ranged types. Melee weapons are all close-range combat tools such as swords, spears or maces. They're powerful, have infinite uses, and are great for tearing through enemies. Compared to the previous games, the melee weapons have been made a lot smoother to use. They have faster combos, better tracking, improved damage, and generally feel like a far better build option than before. The game has slightly revamped Critical Range, making it much easier to tell when you're in the "sweet spot" for getting maximum damage out of your attacks.

In comparison, ranged weapons are everything from machine guns to pistols to new and oddly more primitive weapons, like a bow. These excel at long-distance combat but come with severe limitations. Most ranged weapons have limited ammo that can't be easily refilled in missions, and some (like the bow or sniper rifle) require manual aiming to get the most out of their damage. They make up for this by being far safter than melee weapons, and this gives them more of a solid balance than the previous games, where ranged weapons tended to shine more. The mouse and keyboard may shine a bit more with some of these weapons, as precise accuracy is needed to make something like the bow really shine.

Weapons come in both physical and "laser" variations, with both types being necessary for regular play. Physical weapons deal bonus damage to flesh, while laser weapons deal bonus damage to armor. Physical weapons generally tend to be more reliable, while laser weapons have high damage output but also drain your Femto energy source, so careless firing can leave you drained of the precious material for special moves and could even limit your ability to fly.

Femto is also important for special attacks. By fighting the Immortals, you can gather their genetic code, which you can apply to your character to unlock special abilities and attacks. Special attacks range from spinning gun attacks to powerful combos to shooting lasers from your eyes, as well as a range of passive skills and boosts. You can even get the ability to cloak or automatically dodge attacks. However, most of these also cost Femto. While Femto was plentiful in the preview build, it's easy to imagine that you'll run out later in the game and be unable to use higher-power weapons or skills. There's also a consequence in that your character gradually gains mutations, so you have to balance gaining power with getting glowing eyes or chitinous skin.

In the preview build, Immortals also represent the game's biggest and most dangerous threats. These hulking beasts are usually a mix of armored body parts and flesh and have a variety of incredibly dangerous attacks. You'll need to weaken their body parts, so you can grab them and rip them off with your mechanical hands to expose vulnerable points and reduce the danger of their attacks. These fights, which can be done solo or with help from AI or other human players, are clearly aiming for more of a Monster Hunter feel, which is an interesting twist for the franchise.

Overall, what we played of Daemon x Machina: Titanic Scion was interesting. It's a clear twist from the first game, seemingly a partial attempt to separate it from FromSoft's Armored Core franchise after that game came out of retirement. The result is something that seems like a mix of Armored Core, Monster Hunter and oddly enough, a touch of the ill-fated Anthem. What we played seems genuinely fun and compelling, and I'm really interested to see what twists and turns await in the full game. Thankfully, we won't have to wait long, as Titanic Scion hits for all current-generation consoles and the PC on Sept. 5, 2025.