ndie developer Demiurge Studios cuts
right to the point with the title of Shoot Many Robots. Blowing away
mechanical hordes of bad guys is what this simple-yet-addictive actioner
for Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network is all about, so there
is no mystery as to what you get. You may not get anything like
originality here, but you do get a lot of robot-shooting action for the
$10 asking price, along with such amenities as a huge range of weapons
and gear, full co-op support in the campaign, and a great sense of
humor.
You take on the role of P. Walter
Tugnut, an amiable hick who manages to deal with a robot apocalypse just
fine until the metal bastards blow up his truck. From that point on,
it's war. So you hop into your RV and head off on a kill-crazy
expedition to make the walking toasters pay for wrecking your ride. And,
uh, for destroying all of humanity. That too.
That's it for the storyline.
From there, the gameplay is all about shooting many thousands of robots.
The RV serves as a command base where you trick yourself out with
various weapons and other gear in the bathroom before hitting up a map
by the steering wheel to select a destination. Standard platform carnage
ensues. You tromp, stomp, jump, slide, and brawl across well over a
dozen levels in the campaign, either solo or with up to three buddies in
co-op. Combat plays out from left to right, with you blasting
everything that moves with two weapons: a shooter with infinite ammo and
a cannon with limited shells. Kills result in leveling up. Dead bots
explode into nuts that you collect to buy new weapons and armor. If you
kill fast enough, you trigger combos that multiply nut numbers up to
five times. Bottles of beer (juice in the oddly alcohol-free PlayStation
version of the game, which seems otherwise identical to the Xbox 360
one) are chugged to earn health. Movement is handled with the left
stick, while everything else is done with the face and trigger buttons.
Yes, you've seen it all before,
but Shoot Many Robots has a certain flair to it. The game has a great
sense of humor that isn't confined solely to the hillbilly stuff that
could have been abused to beat you over the head with one-liners.
Instead, you get a surreal Serious Sam vibe to everything, mostly
courtesy of the huge selection of bizarre weapons and gear. Items get
progressively more absurd as you go, with Walt soon able to use his nuts
to buy automatic weapons like the 110 percent American assault rifle, a
blunderbuss, a beer (juice) helmet that lets you hang onto more
brewskies (juiceskis?), shiny chaps that increase sliding skill, a Tam
o' Shanter hat that boosts damage, and so forth.
Every item is given an appropriately
weird description, as well as absurd stats, such as the Scottish hat's
supposed ability to increase brogue. Gear greatly customizes what you
can do out on the dance floor. You can go for fast shooters or slow
blasters, headgear that buffs damage or increases health, a backpack
that adds ammo or lets you hover in midair--that sort of thing. Gear can
be switched up in dramatic ways to favor a personal playing style.
The action itself doesn't vary
much, although there is a blend of all-out speedy insanity and more
measured shooting. There are just a few robot types in the game, but
they feature enough differences among them to keep things interesting.
You have to contend with masses of rushing grunt troops that look like
robot scorpions with chainsaws in place of stingers, krush-kill-destroy
humanoid bots, charging automatons with armored fronts that demand rear
assaults, and a range of gun turrets. Sometimes, you need to hit them
hard with concentrated fire; sometimes, you need to sit back and deflect
larger turret bullets back at targets with flicks of your wrist; and
sometimes, you need to jump all over the place to avoid attacks. Levels
come in Standard mode, where you fight to the end and then kill a boss
to move on, as well as a Survival mode, where you try to outlast a wave
of robots. There is some repetition here, though. Level art is
regurgitated a fair bit, as are boss fights like a foundry battle that
you go through over and over again, with the only difference being the
steady escalation of having to kill more robots.
Shoot Many Robots becomes
monotonous with time, but there is a hypnotic quality that sucks you
into it. Pulling yourself away may be hard, especially when playing in
co-op. The pace is steady; the killing is gratuitous, as well as
suitably explosive with loads of boomy sound effects; and the range of
weapons along with other goodies are varied enough to keep you going.
Just seeing what sort of whacked-out murder device you uncover next has a
perverse appeal all of its own. Checkpoints are well placed, saving
your progress before big fights without forcing you to repeat tough
battles often.
All of the mayhem unfolds before
handsome cel-shaded levels with varied, mostly destructible landscapes,
such as Walt's rural countryside, a bombed-out city, and a Sonic-like
foundry with molten steel or whatever else it might be that flows
everywhere. The only visual problem is that the interface gets in the
way too often, especially when dealing with flying foes that get lost in
the meters and other stats at the top of the screen. Levels also have
replay value because you are given a star rating based on the number of
nuts collected that is impossible to max out the first time you complete
one. Also, you need a certain number of total stars to unlock new
levels, which pretty much forces you to backtrack at some point.
It may be mindless and
repetitive, but it's still easy to get drawn into Shoot Many Robots. The
one-trick gameplay has enough humor and weapon variety to make it a
good buy if you're looking to shut your brain down for a while.
Source :
asia.gamespot.com
