Akimbot Steam Charts & Stats

Very nice, very ps2

I wanted to like Akimbot, because I like Ratchet and Clank, and I was excited to play the next game from the guy who made Pumpkin Jack, which is one of my favorite indie 3D platformers. But the game just didn't click with me. I did enjoy the characters and dialogue for the time I played, but the actual gameplay just wasn't fun for me. Here's hoping the dev of Pumpkin Jack's next game resonates with me, but Akimbot ain't it.

Kind of like a budget Ratchet and clank. If you get frustrated, remember that you can always change the difficulty setting.

Such a fun game! I would highly recommend this game, I would give this game a 8/10 from beginning to end

movment does feel great, weapons are lacking, and the enemies can shoot you the moment they appear

Enjoyable 3D Action Platformer. It could stand to have more "Akimbo" action, though.

I played this game on stream and a link to the vod is at the bottom of this review. Overall, it's alright I guess. The game set the wrong expectation; going in thinking this would be the Ratchet and Clank game I have been wanting since Ratchet's direction turn post PS2 era. However that is the wrong expectation, and perhaps the messaging around this game should be adjusted. The first impression of the game is not very good; the characters are not very fun, your starting pistol feels gimped and the reliance on an overheat mechanic that fills up too quickly with melee that is lack luster makes starting combat feel terrible. The dubious idea of comparing this game to Ratchet begins to crop up at this point, where part of me wants to say "Well, in Ratchet, the wrench combat is not just serviceable, but can actually be effective enough to beat the whole game if you are crazy". I would advise players to try to put these thoughts aside. The game definitely has 3rd person platform shooting, but it has it's own identity as well - whether that is good or bad is still up for debate. While you unlock "ultimate" weapons from the shop, only 1 ultimate weapon can be held at a time, and purchases seem to only benefit upgrading these weapons. It sort of begs the question: why bother spending coins on other weapons? Buy one and then devote all your coins to just upgrading that one. Maybe later in the game it matters, but definitely at the start there is no reason to invest in the other weapons. You will, however, unlock other weapons as you progress the story. These weapons are mapped to your D-pad (on controller). Once I unlocked the sniper rifle, the game felt pretty good. Shots were satisfying and the cool down felt reasonable. I'd argue it shouldn't have taken so long to make the game feel good. You'll later go through a ship-battle stage that I think feels pretty good to play with lots of action and some bumpin jock jams to get you hyped, this also felt cool and fun to go through. But where the game really falls flat is the level design and the story. I won't comment much on the story, but it just seems pretty dull overall and all the characters are pretty insufferable for each their own reason (main character is just an edgy dickweed with no redeeming quality - what a party pooper). The levels seem to follow the same formula that becomes pretty predictable from the very first level: introduce an obstacle, introduce a new type of obstacle, put those 2 obstacles together, now introduce another new obstacle, now put all 3 together, level ends. It feels so formulaic that it becomes predictable. The levels lack interesting exploration, surprises, or any real agency in the player's actions; it's just push forward. The levels are also very flat with no verticality to them. Before wrapping up, I wanted to mention this game has terrible performance. On my 1080ti this game struggles to support 60FPS for no discernible reason. With everything having a "low poly" aesthetic, there is no good reason for the game to perform so bad. I was also able to completely brick the game, requiring me to dig into my appdata folder to completely remove it's config files in order to get it to work properly. So, word of warning: be careful what settings you adjust in the options menu. The game will crash when you save the settings, and because those settings are saved, it will forever continue to crash on launch. GG devs. Can we agree to stop using Unreal Engine? This engine always performs like dirt. Anyways, let's wrap up. If you can put aside the Ratchet comparisons and approach the game at its own level (and get past the rather dull beginning), I think the game does kind of open up and start to be fun. That's not to downplay some glaring problems in the design, but I think it might be worth picking up...when it's heavily discounted. And lower your expectations. If you'd like to see my first impression of the game, you can watch here: https://youtube.com/live/okXqHUOfhIc?feature=share

Gameplay is pretty fluid, but the drone's voice acting is insanely grating and the music is so awful it's painful.

Is this some kind of perfect, life changing action platformer? No, but what it is, is a fun decently well paced action platformer akin to Jak and Daxter or Ratchet and Clank on a budget. The small team pulled off something I have to admire, a game harkening back to times of old when new imperfect ps2 platformers were coming out with a frequency we just don't get anymore. If you just want to play something that makes you feel like you're in for a dumb fun ride from start to finish with a hardy amount of polish, a somewhat grating sidekick and slick visuals, you could do a lot worse than this.

Action platformer that wears its Ratchet and Clank influences on its sleeve. We got double jumps, cartoonish bad guys, hammy voice acting, goofy plot, silly minigames, discoverable secrets, health pickups, and limited-use super weapons. For those seeking to scratch that early 00's 3rd-person action platformer itch, there are few games that capture the style as perfectly as Akimbot.