Giant Machines 2017 is a simulation game that doesn’t have much in the way of simulation as one would expect with its story being about as bland as calling it a situation game.
So the story of the game is that you’re a construction worker and you perform mundane tasks in an effort to work towards and then ultimately build a space shuttle and launch it to space. That’s the story line if you will. It really isn’t much of one outside of an unknown person giving you orders over a radio and you come to find out over the course of the game that this is your end goal.
To be quite honest, the end goal of launching a space ship into space seems really neat…if the game was a space simulation game. The game is a construction game or at least one would come to believe that given the missions you have and the key art of the game.
So the story is very bland and weak, but how is the game itself?
Giant Machines 2017 has you operating rather giant machines as the game title indicates. The game has you mining rock from a mountain face, hauling rock to a construction site, operating a crane to move containers, clearing logs from an overpass among other tasks that span across the fourteen missions. Now these missions are rather fun, but what isn’t fun is the drive in-between missions and sometimes before a mission.
For example, the first mission has you repairing a cable. You have to drive out to the machine, find out it’s broken, get the cable, repair it at a table and then bring it back to the machine. While I appreciate the realism in that regard and I enjoy the climb on the ladder getting up to the cabling to actually make the repair, the drive to the site, then to the repair table, then back to the machine again is kinda monotonous. While cool at first, it really starts to wear on you after about the second mission. The constant driving kinda takes the fun out of operating the large machines.
Now when you actually are operating the big machines, it really is kind of fun, once you get beyond the confusing controls. Well, with the exception of that being the crane operating.
A lot of the machines have quite a few controls and button combinations that make the operation of them rather confusing at first and at times really frustrating. It’s really hard to explain other than the fact that the game feels more like it would be at home on a PC as opposed to being played on a console like the Xbox Series X.
I just mentioned the game is kind of fun when it comes to actually operating the machines, well that exception is the crane. The crane has confusing controls and as a result is extremely frustrating to use. It’s hard to line up the crane hook and once you do finally get it connected, it’s really hard to maneuver the suspended object to its destination. While I am all for the realism when it comes to this game, the controls really kinda suck all the fun out of it after a while.
Graphically, Giant Machines 2017 really looks good. I mean you have beautiful sprawling landscapes that you can look at from atop the machines you’re operating which are really nice to look at. The machines themselves have a lot of detail to them.
I mean the developers really went all out to make sure these machines were as authentic as they can be. Every machine is very detailed and looks spectacular when you walk up to it. I mean it not only looks good, but the game does a tremendous job of making you feel pretty small. When you drive out to your first big machine, it just starts to tower over you the closer you get to it and gives a great sense of just how big it really is.
I feel like the game did a great job to capture the real world scale of these machines which honestly impressed me a lot. Given their detail and size, it really blew awe away.
The game isn’t all about the big machines and details, the game does have environmental effects. There is snow, rain, dust that gets kicked up, and even tornadoes that have to be dealt with on one particular mission. So the environmental aspects of the game are rather impressive as well, though again, the negative aspects I mentioned above really kill the games fun factor and detracts from how good the game looks and how truly impressive it is.
When it comes to performance, the game performs well. There is only the occasional dip in performance and this usually happens while driving. But that’s really it when it comes to performance. I mean playing the game on the Xbox Series X, you would expect the game to perform without issue, and for the most part it does just that.
Giant Machines 2017 does a great job at not only making you feel small in the world of construction machines that tower over you, but has some great sound too. The hum of a moving turbine or the sound of the earth under your truck as you’re driving around really sounds amazing. The sounds that the machines make as they’re being operated even down to the crackle of your radio all sound real; and make the world come alive and feel real. I mean when you stop and just listen, it sounds (pun very much intended) like real world construction and machine operation.
Now, the only complaint I have with this game when it comes to sound is the radio that you have in your vehicle. As you’re driving from point A to point B, you have a radio in your vehicle which can’t be turned off. Yeah, that’s right, you can’t turn off your radio.
Why would you want to turn it off you might ask…well the music is not good. The music on the radio appears to be nothing but royalty free music. Either that, or the royalties paid for the music is next to nothing. I say this because there aren’t any songs with the exception of a few classical ones that are recognizable. Now it may be that they got some bar bands to do some of the music which is ok I suppose. But it would be nice to have at least one or two songs on the radio that you can actually recognize and enjoy listening to. Couldn’t we get maybe a Ozzy song, Weird Al, or even a Bob Rivers song? I would even have been ok with some holiday music…yes, even that one song. Really any recognizable song would have been nice to listen to on the rather long drives between mission areas.
I would be more than happy to forgive the rather horrendous choice in music across all of the four or five stations if we could just turn off the radio. The only way to actually turn it off is to go into the settings of the game and mute the radio. Just bring the slider all the way down to mute the radio. Now you get to drive in silence to your destination with the radio silently displaying each song as it comes on. Yeah, it sounds great doesn’t it?
Giant Machines 2017 has a few issues. Confusing controls, horrible music selection on the radio without a means to actually turn it off. Mundane tasks between missions; so is it really worth playing?
Well despite the issues mentioned above, the game is kinda fun to play in short bursts. I mean this is a game that I found myself coming back to and playing for about a half hour or so at a time and enjoying my time with it.
If you want a game that gives you a good sense of realism and scale that makes you feel small, then Giant Machines 2017 is a game that you should really check out. It’s a rather good game once you give it a shot.
In addition to writing articles, Ryan Byers also creates content for his YouTube channel called "Obscure Games and Consoles", collects video games, and dabbles in video game development.