Robotica, known in Japan as "Daedalus" feels like FromSoft's Armored Core started as a King's Field game.
It features more than satisfying graphics and a trendy ambient soundtrack, in fact, Robotica's presentation goes beyond most shooters I've seen from the early 90s until Quake of course. There's no saving system, and its levels are randomly generated so you're always getting a new experience. The FMV is really decent for an early 90s title and eliminates loading times between areas. It all sounds really good on paper, so what is the problem?
Robotica is a slow game - it's painfully slow, we get that you're controlling this tank mech, the game is trying to imitate Mechwarrior or tank games perhaps too closely. As we said, its levels are randomly generated, so you're bound to experience the same Wolf-like level design over and over, there's not a lot of souls put into it, it's definitely like advertised, Robotica...l? You'll be wandering these square rooms with a random assortment of enemies in each of them. While the graphics are really good, there's this draw distance that blocks your view of anything not at point-blank, at least there's a radar on your HUD. The game gets darker as you go deeper through the game, maybe to compensate for more enemies being on screen because the game was already running at around 15 FPS on the first level.
It's not that awful a game, if you want something flashy for your Saturn maybe give it a try, it's definitely a good-looking game to play on a CRT screen... but the game itself, meh. I won't "spoil" it for you, but the "end boss" is as fascinating as you'd expect.
I gave it 1 ½ for its great soundtrack and presentation, it's just not that diverting of a game.
It features more than satisfying graphics and a trendy ambient soundtrack, in fact, Robotica's presentation goes beyond most shooters I've seen from the early 90s until Quake of course. There's no saving system, and its levels are randomly generated so you're always getting a new experience. The FMV is really decent for an early 90s title and eliminates loading times between areas. It all sounds really good on paper, so what is the problem?
Robotica is a slow game - it's painfully slow, we get that you're controlling this tank mech, the game is trying to imitate Mechwarrior or tank games perhaps too closely. As we said, its levels are randomly generated, so you're bound to experience the same Wolf-like level design over and over, there's not a lot of souls put into it, it's definitely like advertised, Robotica...l? You'll be wandering these square rooms with a random assortment of enemies in each of them. While the graphics are really good, there's this draw distance that blocks your view of anything not at point-blank, at least there's a radar on your HUD. The game gets darker as you go deeper through the game, maybe to compensate for more enemies being on screen because the game was already running at around 15 FPS on the first level.
It's not that awful a game, if you want something flashy for your Saturn maybe give it a try, it's definitely a good-looking game to play on a CRT screen... but the game itself, meh. I won't "spoil" it for you, but the "end boss" is as fascinating as you'd expect.
I gave it 1 ½ for its great soundtrack and presentation, it's just not that diverting of a game.