Review

Shoot Many Robots

I love playing RPG Shooter hybrids; blasting baddies and collecting the mountains of loot that’s left behind is what I call a good time. Doing the same thing with three other gamers is what I’d call a great time. The fact that there isn’t much of a story, or that the enemies and weapon skins were recycled didn’t bother me; as long as I was able to fight off the hordes while using insane weaponry, we were happy. If our life gauge got low, we’d down a beer and jump right back into the…what…there is no beer in Borderlands? No…I’m not talking about that game. I was talking about Shoot Many Robots, the new title developed by Demiurge Studios. I can understand your confusion!

All jokes aside, Shoot Many Robots is an awesome game. Demiurge Studios (collaborators on Borderlands, Brothers in Arms, Mass Effect) developed a fun title that doesn’t take itself too seriously, yet is competent enough to be considered one of XBLA’s best games. Gamers take on the role of P. Walter Tugnut, a hillbilly who has stockpiled numerous munitions in fear that one day the world would be taken over by robots (think Dale from King of the Hill). Because all video game apocalypse theories come true, Tugnut was ready when the onslaught of robots descended on humanity. This isn’t anything we haven’t heard before; robots just need to be shot from time to time. Really, the story is just an excuse to shoot things while collecting a ridiculous amount of loot.

Shoot Many Robots (SMR) gameplay borrows elements from classic titles and mixes them into something new. SMR even uses a classic control scheme; movement and aiming is handled by the right analog stick. X is used to shoot, A jumps, Y changes weapons, and B does a melee attack. Holding the left trigger will make Tugnut stand still so you don’t have to worry about him moving around while you’re aiming. Those who are familiar with games like Contra and Metal Slug will feel right at home here. Most levels require gamers to guide Tugnut from one side of the screen to the next while blasting enemies and dodging bullets. Robots will swarm players from all sides and the screen will quickly fill up with bullets. Gamers will need to shoot, jump, slide, and basically do anything they can not to get shot. However, unlike similar titles, if the protagonist gets shot, they won’t die right away due to SMR’s inclusion of a life bar. A swig of beer will heal Tugnut (he’s a hillbilly after all) right away. A good thing, as it’s easy to get lost in the ensuing chaos; you’re bound to get shot.

This is especially true on the survivor like levels. Backing up a little bit, SMR uses a map to show each place Tugnut needs to liberate. Once you pick the place and Tugnut drives his RV there, you’ll be shown the levels for that area. Most levels are of the side-scrolling, platforming type. Others are horde-like, tasking players to survive a certain number of enemy waves, which can be quite challenging since you’ll have to fight different types of robots all at once. There are robots with chainsaws that can only be hurt by being shot from behind, giant ones that spawn little robots and more. Good thing SMR features RPG elements. As you run through levels and kill robots you’ll find loot, either within the environment or dropped by certain enemies. You will also gain experience and acquire lug nuts from killing robots. These dropped items will unlock weapons and gear that you can purchase from the armory (using the lug nuts) found in Tugnut’s RV. Gained experience points will level up Tugnut so he can use stronger weapons and wear better gear designed to keep him alive longer. By mixing and matching the equipment can turn this hillbilly into one bad mother trucker!

Weapons come in two major flavors, a weaker weapon with unlimited ammo and a stronger one with limited ammo. With that said, the weapons themselves range from the conventional machine and shotguns to rocket launchers that shoot explosive garden gnomes. It’s awesome to be able to go from melting robots with a flamethrower to freezing them with a ray gun. Clothing items also have their own special perks. Wearing a cowboy hat may give Tugnut more ammo for his secondary weapon, allow him to jump higher, make his attacks stronger or all of the above. Some items grant special moves, like a wrestling belt that allows the player to jump and slam into the ground Mario style to damage large groups of robots. Just like the weapons, the gear can range from more obvious items likevests and gun belts, to the completely random rocket packs and hockey masks. I once saw a player go into battle wearing army pants, a space helmet, and a baby strapped to his back!

As far as difficulty is concerned, the more players working together the harder the levels become. The game will throw tougher robots at you earliy on as well as increasing the number of normal enemies. If that wasn’t enough, the robots will also be able to take large amount of damage before going down. While I saw this as a challenge, other gamers may disagree. It’s easy to get discouraged when you’ve fought off a crazy number of robots in order to reach the next checkpoint only to be crushed by a large, grenade-lobbing machine. Challenging as it may be, it can be very fun to play, even with the eminent reoccurring deaths.  Plus SMR allows you to revive fallen teammates so all hope isn’t lost during harder levels.

The only complaint I have with SMR is in its lack of content. Yes, there are mountains of loot to sift through as that’s its main hook. SMR does a great job of dangling the carrot of better loot in front of gamers so they’ll continue playing. Heck, I even used 80 MS Points in the market place to buy a large bag of nuts to purchase various weapons and gear (much better than spending it on a shirt for my Xbox Live avatar). At the same time, there aren’t that many completely different places to explore or enemies to fight. Don’t get me wrong, the levels are great with a lot of details and the robots are cool looking. Actually, everything looks really good in this game. It just that there are many elements that get recycled.  There are enhanced versions of the same enemies; you know slightly larger, with bigger guns. But mainly the enemies are the same 9 or 10 robots types used over and over again. The bosses, aside from the last one, are replicated as well. After beating the game, one of two things normally happen: you had a good time but aren’t willing to keep playing on the higher difficulties, or, you find yourself just wanting to accumulate more loot. I personally continue playing because the game is really fun. With that said, I can understand if I don’t see many gamers online a month after SMR’s release.

Shoot Many Robots really is an awesome game. It features crazy shoot’em up action, awesome colorful graphics, and a stupid amount of loot. On the flipside, the difficulty can reach frustrating levels when more players join the action, understandingly turning off gamers. The lack of content will become noticeable once the loot monkey climbs off your back and you may not want to continue playing. Even if your playtime is short due to these two issues, I believe you’ll still have a great time shooting a bunch of robots!