Botlike - A Robot's Rampage

Review

Mankind was eliminated over 30 millennium ago by the evil Robot League. After installing their new orbital station above earth, a strange phenomenon triggers a massive tidal wave that is heading towards Rust Town.  Rust Town is inhabited by one grumpy, old warbot named S.I.R.  As the mighty wave starts to crush down onto Rust Town, the S.I.R. contingency protocol initiates, which sees him being propelled sky high to save his metal! After landing safely on dry land, the grumpy old warbot is looking for revenge by going to war against the evil Robot League.

Botlike – A Robot’s Rampage is a fast-paced 2D platformer game with rogue-like elements where you control a warbot named S.I.R.

As you arrive on the main menu page, you’ll be able to choose between three modes of difficulty before starting your first run. This game is very challenging, so I would suggest selecting the lowest difficulty (civilian, in this case) if you are not used to play hardcore games.

On your first go, you’ll be given a small rendition of what to do, which is basically jumping, dashing and shooting at enemies. Your warbot will always start the first level with a rifle; there are an additional nine weapons to collect (miniguns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers and others) throughout the game. These weapons can either be found on crates or purchased at the stores located within the levels. If you already have one of these weapons in your inventory, you can upgrade them by repurchasing them again up to five times. You can also purchase items at the store which will help your warbot to increase its skills (critical hits, double shots, healings etc) within that run.

From the moment you spawn into a level, expect to have enemies coming from left, right and overhead!  Most of the enemies will need to be next to you in order to inflict your warbot with damage. Be wary of the little yellow bots which run extremely fast; as soon as their reach you, they explode! You’ll come across a massive robot which will take more than a few shots to eliminate, and if you’re really lucky, you might encounter a champion, which is really hard to kill! You’ll die a lot in this game and it will take you a while to reach a boss fight, let me tell you!

There are a few important things to collect in the levels. The first one is the scrap metal, which is your currency to be used to purchase items, weapons and ammunition packs at the stores. Each time you destroy an enemy, a metal bolt of varying colours will appear where the opponent has fallen. A grey bolt will give you 10 credits, the yellow bolt will give 100 credits, and if you manage to get a blue bolt it will give you 500 credits in one go! The other things you must collect are circuits. They are mostly found in crates but can be dropped occasionally by an enemy robot. Then what happens after you die? Well, you’re going to lose everything except the circuits you collected. You respawn in Rust Town and will be able to do a couple of things.  You can upgrade your warbot skills in the tuning workshop, but you must have circuits to be able to do so. There are 15 different options, and I would strongly recommend upgrading either your attack, your defence or your dash distance first. Then, look at the Merchant Discounts or even the Keep Scraps options so that the next time you die, you’ll keep a percentage of scrap when you respawn in Rust Town. There is also a poker machine and a store. If you still have a circuit left in your inventory, you might want to insert it into the machine to give yourself a chance to win a weapon to take with you on your next run, or purchase items at the store if you have activated the Keep Scraps option.

The graphics are very good, as is the soundtrack. In terms of the controls, they work well either with a gamepad or with the mouse and keyboard. Personally, I think we need a bigger variety of enemy. It’s a challenging game; you can expect to be frustrated. This is a solid early access game and I look forward to seeing more content.