The Machines
Battle your friends in AR.
Ratings
Age
13+
Category
Action
Languages
English
Thu Jan 14 2021
• Fixed a crash when trying to add new friends on iOS 14
The Machines is a pioneering AR strategy game that turns any flat surface into a high-octane warzone. Utilizing over 1.2 million polygons and 4K assets, it offers some of the most advanced visuals in mobile AR. Players command powerful mechs and units in competitive multiplayer battles, where their physical movement around the battlefield is a core mechanic—allowing them to aim abilities and scout enemy positions by moving their device in real space.
Dinsun Expert Review
Our Expert Score
The Machines is a technical marvel that serves as one of the best showcases for AR technology on mobile. Transforming your dining room table into a high-fidelity, post-apocalyptic warzone is an experience that still feels like magic. The level of detail—using 4K textures and over a million polygons—is staggering, putting it on par with some console titles. It’s not just a tech demo, though; the gameplay is a legitimate strategy experience that requires spatial awareness and quick thinking.
Moving your body to get a better angle on the battlefield is a core mechanic that adds a physical layer to the strategy. You can’t just sit back; you need to scout enemy towers and line up skill shots by physically moving your phone. While the player base for multiplayer can be small at times, the polish and innovation present here make it a must-try for any strategy enthusiast with a capable AR device. It remains one of the most immersive uses of augmented reality to date.
Features
Console-quality AR graphics with 4K assets
3D Spatial Audio reactive to player position
Competitive online multiplayer
Movement-based tactical gameplay
Physics-based rendering for immersive environments
Tips & Walkthrough
Find a well-lit flat surface. Scan the area to project the industrial warzone. Move your phone closer to the 'table' to zoom in on units, or walk around it to get a flank view of the enemy's base.
Gameplays
Select your Machines and deploy them to capture towers. Use your physical perspective to line up skill shots and super abilities, taking advantage of the 3D spatial audio to hear where the action is happening.
Screenshot
Q&A
No, The Machines features online multiplayer allowing you to battle players across the world in AR.
Ratings & Reviews
Awesome game but hard at the start
Wed Sep 20 2017 Blue1954I love the concept and the graphics as well as the sound effects. It really makes for a wonderfully immersive experience. Only main issue is how well the game explains things to you. For example, what are the exact requirements so I win a match or when do I unlock the other heroes? Also, I don’t know if it’s just me but I can never manage to get much damage at all on the opponents base with the excessive amounts of troops and defensive towers. I find myself usually defending the entire game without being able to actually attack. So maybe lessen that a bit? Another minor issue is that I think the trainer is too hard. Usually it’s an easy victory in most games but in this case, it’s HARD. I’m sure once I get a hang of things it will be much more enjoyable. However, these things make the start pretty annoying. However, overall, this game functions very well while looking awesome.
(Updated) Multiplayer is working now...
Fri Dec 01 2017 ccgrayOriginal Review: Purchased this game to play locally with friends and family during the holiday’s. After going through all the tutorials and getting all devices set up to play, the multiplayer map will launch just fine. However, the bases and “hero’s” do not load and map just sits there. I tried waiting for it, but nothing ever loads. Very disappointed in a $5 game that Apple praised as “revolutionary”, and doesn’t work as advertised. ***Updated: After swapping to another WiFi connection the multiplayer began working very well. I have been able to play against family over the past few days, and enjoy the capabilities of the game. The developer did contact me and worked to resolve the issue which is appreciated. However, the first couple of WiFi connections and the cellular signal were not adequate to handle this game over the air. The game is very engaging and entertaining, and the local multiplayer really makes it a great game!
Very exciting! wanting more!
Sun Sep 24 2017 Sup_kwhitThe game I didn’t know I needed! Love the game, love how when I get closer to the actual areas of fighting those sounds get louder, I love the mechanics, I love the visuals, but I want more! On your website it doesn’t tell us anything yet, but I want to know... can we currently unlock the other heroes? (If so I don’t know how) Will there be more maps? Will there be 2v2? And I wish I could choose to play a friend even on local WiFi or something, there’s also no way to communicate with anyone else on the game, not even a forum, so hard to connect to the community. Seems a shame, but the game is sooooo fun, I just want a little more content, especially with my money’s, potentially would love to pay for (or get for free wink wink ;))more skins/win effects (like both robots high five) and maps. Since it’s a paid app of course not so many iap but please use our money and give us more content cause Id love to play my friends and destroy in this fun game.
It’s a cool game with a flaw.
Sun May 06 2018 A person who playes this game.I love this game! This game is really fun because it allowed people to play a fun game while being able to see reality that it’s in. The only problem is that the board moves around a lot and then I have to keep moving which getters really annoying after a while. I would really like this game to stabilize its game board so you can move around it and get a new perspective. A good example of this is stack AR, you can move around it all you want and it stays in place. I hope the developers see this message and fix this so I can have a better time playing this awesome game
Almost there guys...
Tue Sep 26 2017 Shade22I really hope you actually take time to read this. I have 3 stars for the reasons as follows. 1. Please, please, I beg of the developers to add an option to toggle a zoom feature, because I feel a good amount of the player base has trouble handling the phone or would at least appreciate a zoom feature without using physical motion forward and backwards. I knot that this is possible for the simple fact that the standard camera has a zoom function. Just utilize it. 2.I do enjoy the characters and the graphics are great. But the ai system 🤔 not so good. A player who is well educated in mobas would appreciate a decent ai system in a single player setting. Give meaning to the game with some action wanton story with certain scenario is maybe. Idk. Maybe a little much but I know it’s there. I also know that this system could bring the MOBA genre into the light. So much of our new generation plays on mobile now. It’s the perfect market to get new ppl in the community. In conclusion, I do appreciate you takin the time to actually read out a wanting to be loyal fan of your remarkable make of a game. I truly can’t wait to hear back and hope to eventually give this piece of art what it deserves.
Needs a better tutorial
Sun Oct 01 2017 Brian D.After seeing this game at Apples keynote, I was really excited to try it. Unfortunately, that excitement quickly faded as I began to try and play it. At first, you’re greeted with a tutorial that attempts to explain the game controls. However, the tutorial is incredibly short and barely scratches the surface of what you should do in an actual game. Once in a game I became quickly confused as to the fact that it looks like you control two sets of troops. Also, each set has some moves, but you can only guess their purpose based on the icons. Nothing within the game tells you what they actually do or are called. There is also what I’m guessing to be a specialty move that (from what I can tell) randomly pops up on the right side of the screen. Some games might not need to explain all of this if their interface was more intuitive. But, as it stands right now, the developer needs to do a much better job at conveying the game controls. I’m hoping that this game gets updated and gets much better. It has a lot of potential, just needs a clearer vision.
Fun Game, great Dev response
Thu Sep 28 2017 ZapskiUPDATED REVIEW Yesterday I happened to download the game during a server-side problem that made me think there was a problem with the game. There wasn’t. The developer responded very quickly and since then I’ve been enjoying tinkering with the game. It’s pretty nice to play, though there is a learning curve. If you want other people to see what you’re doing, mirroring your display to an Apple TV works well. It even works on my cluttered unused dining room table which has stacks of junk mail and other miscellaneous stuff. I’m running on an iPhone 8 Plus, and while it does get a little warm, it’s not beyond what I would expect. I played other AR games on my iPhone 6s, which did get very warm, so if you’re concerned about that, it’s time for an upgrade :-) The Dev response below is to my original review, which I have deleted.
F****NG AWESOME!
Sat Sep 23 2017 HustleHard323Ok I NEVER leave game reviews I’m just like most of you....ONLY IF I HATE SOMETHING! 🤷🏽♂️ BUT THIS GAME! Wow mind blowing! At first I was like ah man looked complicating and it’s not doing what was promised or not responsive. ONCE I figured out how to control and use the characters it all came natural it was fun it’s innovative and worth the $5 you pay given how much time and effort was put into creating this(I can only imagine) definitely recommend it especially when your wasted FYI that’s for the 21 and over kids! Keep it up! Boys!