Not The Robots Reviews

This is a wonderful rogue-like procedurally-generated stealth-oriented game with brilliant mechanics, nice graphics and a good sense of humor going for it. The machines have taken over this office building and somehow you, an exclamation-mark-looking robot with a remarkable appetite for office furniture, are the only one able (and willing) to look into it and discover the truth waiting on the last floor. In order to beat each stage and access the next one you'll be required to consume a certain amount of furniture, but here's the catch, the only way to avoid lasers and sentinels' line of sight is to duck behind those same piece of furniture. So yeah, it's not like you can run around consuming whatever you stumble upon. Luckily the game will try to ease up your time by providing rechargeable assets like stuns, teleportation, temporary invisibility and even means to modify the stage itself. In addition to the standard campaign you'll also find challanges (set number of floors with certain conditions/limitations) and operations (speedrunners-friendly stages exploiting a particular asset/trap) NOTE: there is no character evolution, but you do earn XP which levels up the campaign itself, thus unlocking/upgrading traps and unlocking new assets. At the very beginning, with low levels campaigns, there will be little variety in enemy types, making early runs a little sentinel-heavy, but don't give up, get some more XP and the problem will solve itself right away!!

So far so good. I personally love stealth games, but this one is a huge pain in the ass if you aren't patient (and I'm most certainly not). It can get frustrating so I usually only play one or two lives in a sitting but it's a pretty pleasant game to play if I've got a little bit of downtime. Again, stressing the necessity of patience and the frustration you'll most likely experience.

[h1]Both frustrating & addictive // Recommended for endurance-gamers[/h1] + Random generation of level design makes for a separate experience each play-through + Myriad game-types available upon unlock + Includes level builder + Audio logs are fun to collect and listen to; these also boast competent voice-acting and a cheeky script + Powerups, traps, and sentries all come together to enrich what is, on paper, a rather dull concept + Visuals are plain and practical; it isn't visually spectacular, but it doesn't feel as though it should have been + Music fits well with the game's approach and style; it won't leave much of a lasting impression, but it's comfortable and focused + An interesting dichotomy is created, in that one finds oneself consuming the environment, robbing oneself of cover and hiding places, in order to progress + Overall, boasts an admirable level of replayability + Solid, simple, and responsive controls - No multiplayer modes - Difficulty will quickly spike around the early buildings (usually about 3 or 4); sentries are particularly unforgiving [h1]LockeProposal's Big Day Out[/h1] [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/bigdayout#]Community Group[/url] [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/7611703/]Curator Page[/url] [url=https://www.reddit.com/r/SeriousSteamReviews/]Serious Steam Reviews subReddit[/url]

[h1][b] You are a defenseless robotic exclamation mark valiantly trying to help hoarders declutter their office by eating their furniture. [/b][/h1] Your goal is to collect enough food to move to the next level or the next office building while dodging rotating lasers, staying out of sight of patrolling floating robot skulls, navigating moving barriers and other obstacles. There are other objectives you will need to complete as well as collecting enough food, like: tagging the rotating lasers and activating sequenced floor plates. You can collect powerups like 1-ups, the ability to become invisible and place blocks, and eat walls (the most useful one). The story is told through auidologs and it's mostly played for laughs, it's pretty entertaining. The graphics are really slick and the music/sound is passable. The really novel thing, besides the premise, is how the difficulty levels up with you - this is a cool idea and makes you play carefully but it does tend to leave you unfulfilled when you have your best run and still can't reach the last level and realize your chances of reaching it in future runs just got worse. As you progress you also unlock challenges, which are mostly just frustrating, and perks for the different powerups. The stealth aspect is clever, you have to balance eating furniture and leaving furniture to hide behind and block lasers. All the obstacles work really well - except the skull bots, they're really unpredictable and difficult to evade. Unless you flow like water they will annoy the crap out of you in the later levels where there can be 6+ of them. In short, this game is worth playing but you should catch it on sale. PS - check out 2DArray's earlier game Company of Myself, it's a really awesome free flash game that'll make you ponder life, the universe and everything.

If you've ever played the Ultimate Assassin series on Kong, and enjoyed it, you'll enjoy this too. A stealth game with an interesting mechanic; you must eat your own cover (the furniture) to clear a level. Not all of it must go however, so planning ahead is key, and the patient are rewarded. Close calls are common, even at the early levels, and you will need to have both wit and reflexes in order to survive. Features some great abilities to choose from, such as invisibility, removing walls (which are otherwise inedible), placing immovable blocks, teleportation, sprinting, as well as some others. Using the abilities are risk however; in order to activate them again, you must recharge them by eating furniture, so you really want to use them when you need it most. The AI performs brilliantly, making me hate the sentry bots for their perceptibility, yet still feel fair, for they mess up occasionally. The aesthetic is what really gets to me. It is obvious from the get-go that you have been dropped into some dystopian robot future. As I haven't completed the game yet, I don't know what our purpose is behind eating furniture, but throughout gameplay, the game drops subtle hints as to what might have happened, through the snippets of conversations (which are voice-acted quite well), logs, and advertisements of a dead civilization. It's subtle, it's dark, but most of all, it's creepy. There were a few things that got on my nerves however. First off, the game has a leveling system, in which you gain experience each time you die, based on your performance in the previous playthrough. Every level grants you a permanent upgrade. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a list of my upgrades anywhere, or else I am just missing it entirely. The tutorial is extremely short, which always gets on my nerves, even more so then extremely long tutorials. Granted, it is a simple game, so you shouldn't have many problems picking up the pieces that the tutorial failed to. Lastly, it would have been nice if they included some tooltips or any information on the differences between campaign, challenges, and operations. Tooltips for other functions would have been nice as well, however they are somewhat self explanatory. All in all, a good game, well worth the price as it stands now at $6. At $10, however, it might not be everyones cup o' tea, althoguh I personally would buy it again at that price.

Not The Robots is a breath of fresh air, and has some of the most tense stealth gameplay I've seen in a while. You play as a table leg on a ballpoint, being a complete jerk that eats all the office furniture. It does not allow you to get comfortable and swing into a set pattern when you start collecting cool toys. No, it throws a lot of shit at you, and it keeps throwing more and more variables at you until you have to become a robot contortionist just to get to the next level. The game has a point system that unlocks more terrifying shit along with cool toys and audio logs (that slowly tell a story that doesn't really come together until the last two are collected), but it still won't allow you to beat the game easily. So what are the things that make me want to throw shade on it? The level randomization will occasionally laugh in your face and dump a bunch of obstacles at the beginning of the level. Sentries have unlimited line-of-sight, which makes stealth harder than it needs to be. And the experience point system should be turned off once all the cool XP-related bonuses are collected, because it gets in the way once it's no longer needed in more ways than one (end-of-level bonus boxes contain all sorts of neat stuff! Including multiplier bonuses, whether you want them or not!) All of these are minor quibbles. Not The Robots is goddamn fantastic, relentless, and it won't fucking let up on you until you die or you kill it.

Kind of wish I didn't have to give this game a thumbs down, since it's not a bad game. But just that there's not enough content to stay interesting for long. The novelty of the idea seems to wear off pretty fast and there's nothing much else to the game apart from it. You play as a robot that travels from one office building to another with a single goal - to eat furniture. Not sure why exactly (we don't get a reason). However, there are dangers, ranging from unusually placed laser-beams which can only hurt you, but do not cut through anything else, some kind of floor heaters that switch on and off repeatedly, and sentries in a shape of floating robot heads that shoot at you. I kind of wish all these things had a reason to exist. Maybe they do, but it just is not apparent why in any way. The levels are all randomly generated since it's a rogue-like. You also do not recover any health in between levels. So if you finished one level on low health, you'll continue on from the next one with the same health. Luckily you do occasionally find med boxes that can heal you, but again, it all depends on luck if one will spawn in the level or not. You also get to find various gadgets which can help you, like letting you sprint, or place blocks to hide behind, or dig through a wall, or become invisible. These are all good, but you can only ever carry one at a time (unless you get lucky and find an upgrade that lets you have more), and if you want to pick another one up, you have to permanently drop your current one. One of my biggest gripes is that you can never see what the item inside the box is, so you've no idea if it's better than your current item or not. Again, you just have to get lucky. Visuals are very nice in this game, but I am not a big fan of the music. It was a bit jarring. The sense of humour seems quite nice too. The game has a nice light-hearted feel to it. As I said, it's not a bad game, but I don't feel it has enough content or excels much at what it does for me to recommend it. If you are into rogue-likes or stealth games, you might like it. Probably best to get it on sale, like I did.

I [i]love[/i] Not The Robots, and here’s why you should too: First and foremost: Nothing is sacred. You can’t just run from one piece of cover to another. Instead, you actually have to destroy your cover to progress through the game. I can’t emphasize how amazing this is – there’s so much more depth than just waiting for guards to move along a set path and running from A to B. Do you start eating from the start, clearing out room after room, or do you go to one end of the map and only eat on your way back? Ideally, you should eat as little as you can while still fulfilling the objective, but of course that’s easier said than done. The next amazing thing is that slow and methodical play is equally effective as straight-up YOLO running and gunning. The game doesn’t reward recklessly aggressive play any more than it does painstakingly slow play, it only rewards [i]skillful[/i] play. Mechanics like eating your cover, inventory management, procedurally generated levels, and random sentry movement all emphasize calculated risks and culminate to create a [i]huge[/i] skill ceiling. As a result, any playstyle (even the extreme ones!) can be successful, as long as you know what you’re doing. Finally, the game’s ambiance is perfect. The in-game music “consists of 70 loops which are dynamically mixed together.” It sounds weird, but basically there are a couple of tracks looping which can switch on the fly depending on the current situation. When you’re safe, it plays a nice and eerie theme, but when you’re spotted it becomes faster, louder and more rhythmic. What’s really impressive though is that you don’t even notice this change – each loop flows seamlessly from one situation to the next, and yet it still adapts immediately. Back to the ambiance, haha. Most levels have a dark and off-gray color pallet. It sounds boring, but just like the music it fulfills two requirements: It creates an ominous and tense atmosphere which works [i]incredibly[/i] well in the game’s favor, and it’s pretty much as unintrusive as physically possible. One last thing I have to say is that this game is an example of randomness done [i]phenomenally[/i] well. There are few enough random elements to count on one hand, and yet they all work in tandem to make this game everything it is. [olist] [*] Level generation: This is pretty standard for roguelikes, random levels add replayability and make it so you can never know what you’re dealing with ahead of time. [*] Items and upgrades: Each item has a clear-cut situational use and nothing is ever strictly better than any single other option, except maybe Dig+ and Blocks+. The items are balanced enough that decisions like Dig vs Teleport, Stun vs Blocks, and even Invisible vs Invisible+ are almost never easy ones. Is it worth keeping a half-charged Invisible+, or can Sprint fulfill the same role immediately? Like the level generation, it emphasizes dealing with the situation you’re given with the tools you find. For upgrades, my only complaint is multiplier is mechanically useless. Scanners and Inventory both have their merits – sure, having up to five items is great, but there are always situations where it’s hugely helpful to know what’s in a box in the corner of an empty room. [*] Enemies, especially Sentries: If there’s one thing you’ll quickly find out, it’s that Sentries are a b*tch. They have a formidable line of sight, they can teleport furniture away from you, and they move randomly with no set path? Good heavens! However, I have to admit I love Sentries. I’d even go as far as to say they single-handedly make the game what it is. Every other enemy is extremely predictable and easily avoidable, or both. Adequate cover and charged items are all you need to be well-equipped for an encounter, and even without that you can reasonably run into safety if you can think on your feet. This part extends to all enemies: The game is [i]completely[/i] fair. While the later levels no doubt incredibly challenging to say the least, you have three to four buildings to prepare before that. Any combination of items you like, within reason, can be found in 9 out of 10 games before you even have to worry about tagging anything. You have to work for it, though – is that item across the room a teleport you so desperately need, and are you willing to get rid of your trusty Blocks+ to find out? It’s a calculated risk – it could just as easily be another Dig. No matter what, however, nothing in the first four buildings is ever a death sentence. Got three Stuns? Put them in doorways and you can eat like a maniac. Three Blocks? Cool, you have permanent cover wherever you want. Three Digs? Great, you can get to any part of the level in the shortest path possible. Three Sprints? Congratulations, you can literally run away from your problems. Realistically, of course, some levels will always be easier than others, but overall any situation is workable. It’s all about dealing with the situation you’re given with the tools you find, and death is always caused by a mistake by the player. I’d go as far to say that it’s possible to go through the whole campaign with no items without taking any damage. Accomplishing this, however, is an exercise left to the reader. [/olist] This game is really amazing, and I love darn near everything about it. You should try it. [url=http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=455746486]My comprehensive guide to Not the Robots[/url]

Excellent game that tries a lot of interesting mechanics I haven't seen before, and pulls them off very well. It's a procedurally generated stealth game where you must consume your cover to progress. The guards have unlimited sight range and their patrol patterns change on the fly. This makes the game enjoyably tense, and the procedural generation churns out a fair bit of variety. Being spotted is not an automatic death sentence, and scrambling to meet the level goal while pursued by alert guards is a common occurence and a big part of the game's appeal. The procedural level generation works surprisingly well for a stealth game - everything from layouts to cover to enemy composition to level goals is put together from random parts, resulting in levels that shake up your tactics (or are borderline impossible on higher difficulties). The layouts of levels, cover and guards vary dramatically The game can be described as "layered" - the more you play it and the further you progress, the more layers unlock. More enemies, items and hazards in the campaign, more optional challenges, and more story elements. Even as the campaign "levels up" and becomes harder, you can still control it with difficulty levels, which range from "relatively stress-free" to "not even remotely fair". The story deserves a separate mention. It's completely optional and out of the way - in fact, you'll need to put some effort into putting it all together - but it completely changes the atmosphere of the game. Your first impression of the game will be that of an goofy, arbitrary world where you are are a robot that sneaks around eating furniture in office buildings. As the story comes together, it justifies most of game's arbitrary mechanics and reveals the game world as somewhat dark place. The game explores its ideas to the fullest, and feels like a labor of love the developer enjoyed working on. I normally dislike rogue-lite games, but I had a blast with this one.

I've only just started with this fabulous little gem, but already completely hooked. So without giving too much away (since the game developer clearly loves his secrets!), this is basically a tight stealth game, where you are zipping around randomly generated levels picking up 'loot' as you go. The brilliant, brilliant twist is this: that loot is your cover, the only thing keeping you hidden from lasers, levitating skulls of death, and - as the levelling system has assured me - 'nastier things'. So that's twist #1. You have to pick up your 'loot' (AKA 'food', AKA 'furniture) very carefully, since any cover you yank is cover permanently deleted. Yikes! Yet to leave the level you will have to grab a certain amount of it. Then it starts getting crazier. For one thing, new objectives get added. NOW you have to go through a series of ordered points, scattered randomly through the level. NOW you have to 'tag' every enemy on the map by getting close and using an item - scary stuff. Mysterious laptops provide a gateway to the game's cryptic story of business skullduggery and a strong feeling of conspiracy. And, like my favorite kind of rogue-like (sometimes called rogue-lite, I believe), the game changes each time you play. But maybe it should be called rogue-heavy in this case, because the game doesn't get easier (through 'upgrades') so much as harder (new elements, new ENEMIES). Of course, you also get to unlock special challenges (pre-designed maps with tailored problems to solve) and special runs. Some of these provide more 'XP' to continue advancing; some are just for the glory. All of this is to say that Not The Robots is a fantastic, fun, panicky stealth game, pure and simple. There are no weapons (at least, so far), there is limited cover, and there are plenty of lasers and drones to end your run with a foolhardy step. I'm a glutton for this kind of finely-crafted punishment...are you? ;)