One person is a 13-year-old girl, another is a ghost. That’s a hell of a premise.
The Music Machine is not a jump scare factory, and you won’t spend your time running from monsters. At least, it hasn’t done that in the 20 minutes or so I’ve spent with it. No, The Music Machine is much more subtle and mysterious, despite its alarming setup.
It’d be easy to imagine The Music Machine was little more than a murder simulator, one where you’re given an opportunity to subject a poor girl to harm over and over, but it’s nothing like that.
In the game, you’re Quintin and Haley — they’re both inhabiting Haley’s body. It’s not clear why Quintin’s taken up residence in Haley’s body, but it appears that’s been the awkward situation for months now. Haley’s mind remains present, but Quintin is in complete control of what Haley does. At one point, when Haley protests about a decision, Quintin uses his omnipotent to smack her.
The story opens with our bizarre pairing arriving on an island where a series of murders have occurred. As with most everything else in The Music Machine, the reasons behind this are fuzzy. The opening moments are spent watching the two establish not only their dynamic but the stakes:
Haley: You don’t actually want to kill me.
Quintin: Yes, I do.
Haley: You haven’t thrown me in front of a bus. You haven’t had me stab myself. Or shoot myself. You haven’t had me jump off a cliff. Or anything like that. You’ve just been dragging me around. To places like this. I mean, what are you hoping to find?
Quintin: I’m hoping to find whoever poked those people full of holes and left them in a pile.
We also learn about how this metaphysical kidnapping takes its toll on each person. For example, Haley was a smoker. She constantly a cigarette, as she’s going through withdrawal. But Quintin isn’t a smoker, and despite Haley’s repeated requests to have a cigarette, he denies her.
Haley: I am -dying- for a cigarette, Quintin.
Quintin: I would have thought after three months you’d be over that.
Haley: Well, I’m not. Just go away, let me smoke, and in thirty or forty years I’ll die of lung cancer. You get your revenge and I don’t have someone else controlling my body for the rest of my life.
Quintin: Girls your age shouldn’t smoke, Haley.
Haley: Well, girls my age shouldn’t be puppeted by vengeful ghosts, either.
Touché.
By interacting with the world around you, more dialogue is prompted between the two. We learn about how they handle watching TV, talking to other people, and gain insights into their feelings on subjects like life and religion. I didn’t make much “progress” in the time I spent with The Music Machine — then again, it was hard to measure what exactly that would even mean — but I’d learned a a lot about how fascinating, if inconvenient, their relationship is.
I don’t have much interest in what Quintin is after on this island, but I sure as hell want to know why he’s so determined to kill Haley. There’s a brief mention of “revenge” in the conversation above, which makes me wonder if Haley is somehow responsible for Quintin’s lack-of-life predicament. It’s hard to imagine what a 13-year-old girl could have done to deserve death, though.
Only one way to find out!
If you’d like to watch me play a few minutes of The Music Machine, go right ahead:
And if you’d like to play it, you can do so on Steam right now for $US4.99.
Comments
10 responses to “A Horror Game About Two People Trapped In The Same Body”
Sounds like the setup for a sitcom.
“Do we dee doo doo do doo, doowaaaah!
One person is a 13-year-old girl, the other is a vengeful ghost,
Working together for murder, suicide, or even a slice of toast,
They’re best friends and best enemies in the same host,
Two Souls of One!”
Or a Rob Schnieder movie
“Rob Schneider is The Haunted rated PG 13”
Rob Schneider is the Da Derp Dee Derp Da Teetley Derpee Derpee Dumb.
Wasn’t that the premise of Beyond: Two Souls?
I thought the premise was, “The graphics will make you feel emotions, I made da bad game!”.
I definitely got that feeling.
Isn’t this kind of like System and Bioshock or any other story-based game with a character commenting on your actions?
Yeah, I was thinking it’d be more inventive. Like, at random intervals the ghost would try and take over your body and kill you (jumping in a lake, bash head against tree, stab with scissors sort of thing) and you’d have to QTE your way out of it. Or hallucinations, since the ghost can mess with the character’s mind.
“She constantly a cigarette…”
A 13 year old girl, who IS a cigarette, and possessed by a ghost… this game has it all.
This looks like Shadow Of Mordor but with way more orcs.