ADDICTED TO SURVIVING
Also for: iPad, iPhone, Nintendo Switch, PS Vita, Windows
Don't Die, Mr. Robot! is small part Pac-Man, big part
Robotron: 2084 in yet another one of those games that searches the past for simplistic gameplay inspirations. Games
like these never die, they just merge with other, similar ones to unite
against the competition. They seem to live and thrive eternally in the
undergrowth of the industry's juggernauts, never in demand, but always
surviving by sinking their venomous bite into the right player base, and turning
them into addicts.
The title says it all - the goal of this little gem (from
Infinite State Games) is to stay alive. You control a box-shaped robot (yellow by default) with an expressive, animated face on a single 2D-screen,
using but a single stick as you try to avoid wave after wave of enemies. Get
hit once and you're dead, but you can retry indefinitely, so don't worry too much about
dying.
Apart from movement, your only defense is the fruit pickups that appear at
random. Grabbing them causes an energy blast that kills nearby creatures. If you hold out long enough to allow loads of fruit to stay on the
screen, you can cause a chain reaction of explosions, which garners a higher
score bonus. This can also, with some luck, instantly wipe out all enemies, which is oddly satisfying to behold.
The great, varied 50-level campaign is divided into 10 "remixes" of rising
difficulty. It squeezes just about everything it possibly can out of the
simplistic premise. Every level has its own rules, restrictions and winning
conditions, and the strict gatekeeping between remixes forces you to learn
some tactics to increase your chances.
Your bronze, silver, gold or platinum performance on each level nets you an
aggregate score, and you cannot progress from one remix to the next until you
meet a certain score requirement. This forces you to master a few levels by
replaying them until you pick up a few gold or platinum performances.
The variation in level design is where the game shines. Every level has a goal, clearly communicated in a short sentence. Some of them require you to kill a certain number of enemies before you
get hit, whereas others need you to stay alive against increasing enemy
numbers. Later levels alter the standard mechanics, and certain levels add
tough restrictions. Some narrow your playing field to a small circle or even a
line, yet others prohibit picking up a certain fruit or any fruit at all. The list goes on. Every level feels like a mini-game in itself, with its own innate reward for
playing conservatively or aggressively.
The enemies vary greatly in behavior. Some home in on you, other skim the
edges and shoot deadly laser beams, and yet others sweep the field in straight
lines. Their patterns are easy to predict, but they quickly grow in numbers
and combinations, and that's when the level turns hard. When you kill them,
they leave coins in their wake, but they hardly matter.
That's all the facts you need. Don't Die, Mr. Robot! is extremely addictive.
Once I picked up the game, I could not put it down until I had won the
campaign. That took me a few hours. The increasing difficulty is handled
perfectly, and you pick up the strategic thinking and awareness unnoticeably
as you advance through the levels. Returning to stages I had once beat by a
hair, I could later beat by a landslide.
It is one of those easy-to-learn-but-fun-to-master experiences that never
sets one foot wrong. The old-school, single-player arcade feels right at home,
strengthened by the parallax scrolling grid in the background and the thumping
soundtrack. I didn't find (most of) it particularly hard, but playing it in
one single day allowed me to learn quickly.
What sounds unremarkable turns out to be a good experience for a quick
adrenaline boost. I don't think I've ever played I game where I died so much
and blamed myself every time. "Why'd I risk it?", "Why'd wait so long to
activate the fruit chain?!", "Why'd check the time instead of focusing on the
enemy?!?!". Every failure just spurred me to do better, because I kept getting
better with each attempt. Games like these don't need skill trees - it's like
I can feel myself leveling up.
And when you're done with the remixes, you can test your mettle against the
rest of the world in arcade mode, which also allows for upgrades purchased in
the in-game store (for in-game currency). The shields, the coin magnets and
improved blast radiuses for fruits would've made wonders for the campaign -
but it would've also made the game significantly less entertaining.
[All screenshot are taken from
www.mobygames.com]
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