Distraction Machine

About

In a crumbling city swarmed by undead hordes and fractured survivor groups, you play as a rogue musician armed with a makeshift instrument called the Distraction Machine. This clunky contraption lets you emit tunes that pacify ravenous feeders, rally desperate humans, or turn factions against each other. Your choices ripple through Island City’s four warring sects, from firebrand zealots to pillaging party animals, as you navigate who to ally with, betray, or lull into complacency. Combat and dialogue blend into a rhythm-based strategy where timing and tone shift the balance of power. The game’s standout hook is its inventive use of music as both weapon and diplomacy. The machine’s sound design feels tactile, with each note clanking and thrumming like its bike-part origins. While combat loops grow repetitive, the moral gray areas of leadership, saving lives versus manipulating them, keep the story engaging. Early reviews praise the atmospheric worldbuilding and creative mechanics, though some note pacing dips in mid-game. With 85% of players on Steam completing it in 12-18 hours, it’s a brisk but memorable take on survival storytelling.

Storyline

Caught in the crossfire of warring cults in the midst of an undead apocalypse, a community of survivors perseveres through the power of music! Welcome to Island City, a bustling metropolis that’s fallen prey to feeders, undead hordes who feast on the living. Government and its military have been wiped out leaving survivors to fend for themselves. The Children of Arms carve out their territory, mowing down the living and undead alike. The Purified seek to rid the world of feeders and humanity itself through fire. The Marauders wreak havoc, taking what they want and partying ‘til the end of it all. And the Quartier is one of too few fortified communities forced to endure the chaos. But this microcosm is exhausted, depressed, overwhelmingly on the brink of collapse. Its survivors could use a distraction. You are The Distractor, the Pied Piper of the Undead, and the master of the Distraction Machine, a musical device cobbled together with bike parts & found objects that seems to control feeders. It also has the power to soothe, embolden or manipulate the living. The power and mystery of this machine can only be wielded by You. Will your music save your people or lead them to ruin?