Release: 2018
Developer: Armature Studio, Comcept
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Gameplay Stats: 27 hours, 73/73 achievements
The newest game (that I'm aware of) from the team that made Metroid Prime! That game has aged like a fine wine in my mind, so how will the newest vintage be?
Overall! I am definitely torn on how I feel about this game. I've been simmering on it for about a week and I am still of two minds. I think there was something really good here but the game feels unfinished. The gameplay is pretty fun albeit a bit repetitive, but the shell holding the gameplay is rough. The story is very trope-y and simple. I didn't really care about the characters despite the game wanting me to. I think if people went into this as a podcast game and not looking for deeper lore that it would be enjoyable but overall I don't think I can recommend this game.
Complaints: The majority of the game is about shooting/killing mad robots with your color gun and your robot companions. There are also some "puzzles" and some platforming. The fighting is about choosing which of the 3 colors you want to choose for your gun to match the color of your enemies. You get 3 different robot cores that can inhabit 5 different robot shells, each of the 3 cores having a color attached to it so it is better at certain fights. You can switch between only 2 cores/shells. Why 2 when everything else is 3? Beats the hell out of me, I found it annoying. Particularly in the last zone of the game where weather changes it between a couple of different forms. Stumbling across an interaction for a core you didn't have and where the weather was about to change the interaction to be inaccessible was frustrating. Maybe with a more robust mini map it wouldn't have been so bad? There was no way to keep track of the interactions besides your own memory or I guess writing it down. There was also a levelling system that seemed pretty useless. I think it was to encourage exploration but it seemed pretty hamfisted. In a weird way it felt like some executive somewhere was like "this game needs mild RPG mechanics because it's 2018 and that's what games do this year". There were plenty of gates in the game that required collecting things in the environment, it just seemed really unnecessary.
I think this game would've been a lot better if you could switch between all 3 of your robot pals the whole time and if the map actually kept track of interactions you weren't able to complete when you stumbled across them. And without the levelling thing. It seemed unnecessary.
The fighting and weird tug of war mechanic for taking out the enemies was really interesting! I think those mechanics needed a little more space to breathe and a bit less clutter surrounding them. There's definitely some stuff to love here, it just didn't feel like there was enough space for the team to complete their vision. Which is unfortunate.
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