Bright and colorful (and robotic) Souls-like action
“Hey, do you got a second?” I had just left an appointment at Summer Game Fest and was poking around some booths when I saw someone waving me down. “We’d love to show you our game, Robots at Midnight.”
”Sure!” I was enjoying the event for the mix of indie and AAA level games situated right next to each other, and having had about an hour to spare I was looking to fill up that time with any hands-on opportunities that I didn’t book. I always leave free time at expos for just these kinds of situations, hoping to find a gem that maybe wasn’t in the first few batches of press pushes.
Robots at Midnight, from Finish Line Games, hopes to bring Souls-like gameplay to a little more varied audience. It’s not looking to skimp on the challenge, but rather to make everything not as dark and glum. And that’s why ROBOTS and COLOR and BRIGHTNESS — but also still a little bit of darkness, too.
Coming from the indie side of development allows the game to perhaps take a few more chances on how it can present the genre. Typically, Souls-like games have Gothic themes, a lot of death, and a lot of blood. With their modern animation style Finish Line Games wanted to make the experience a little more inviting; even though there have been a few bright, quirky Souls-likes in recent years, these games were all announced and came out while Robots was in development, so it’s a level of validation that there’s a hunger for these types of games.
To push this direction forward the team are including two difficulty levels: Hero Mode and Master Mode. Both will give the same content, but Hero Mode will focus a bit more on getting to the narrative while Master Mode will up the challenge and affect battles. I choose Hero Mode, because I’m pretty bad at Souls-likes but I still want to play them and enjoy the story. The concept is that once players understand the basics of the genre, they’ll be ready to take on a more traditional level of challenge.
In Robots we take control of Zoe, who’s crash-landed on an Earth-2 type of planet. In this future we’ve been sending robots to build out the planets for settlement, with humans eventually showing up once everything is in place. But, uh-oh, something has happened here. Most of the robots have been corrupted by some kind of cosmic event, turning aggressive. One that hasn’t, a bot named Doug, finds and rescues Zoe and teams with her to figure out why everything is going haywire. Doug’s home is a worn down shack, and it serves as a bit of a hub space in the game where we can come back to buy and upgrade our gear using workbenches and tokens. In the demo the team gives me a hefty unlock, essentially fitting me with some of the gear I would get a little later, to get me to experience the basics of the game’s combat. They don’t want me to die off right at the beginning of the game, but they do want me to see how some of that initial story unfolds. I’m outfitted with nano-Aid, attaching that to the D-Pad for easy healing access, and a basic pipe sword as my weapon. The game uses jackets as its form of armor, so I don a nice piece of leather and head out.
Gameplay-wise, the controls will feel pretty standard to anyone who’s played an action RPG. Use the right thumb stick to lock on to enemies when we attack, tap B to dodge, hold B to sprint. While we’re locked on we can dodge and flip around directionally, so we can avoid an attack and reorient ourselves to land a better vantage point. Zoe can even use abilities with her left arm, which has special qualities built in, like a teleporting boost that moves directionally. With just a little practice, I’m able to bounce off the face of one of the bigger enemies I’ve come across, giving damage when I do it correctly, and then throwing in a punch with the Y button.
Just a short while into my demo I have a solid feel for the controls and am ripping combos through enemies. Hmm, maybe I SHOULD have selected Master Mode.
Defeating enemies drops loot, which can include story items or better weapons. After my battle with the big enemy he dropped a monkey wrench, which wasn’t as strong as my pipe but might be better than whatever weapon I’d start with that was in the real game (and not this demo).
After getting the hang of the gameplay loop, my demo switches to the game’s first boss fight. I’d normally have to fight my way into the area and trigger the dude, but for the sake of time I’m just teleported straight to him to understand how these fights take place. The team wants to add a little bit of quirkiness to these kinds of fights, so it’s not meant to be the most serious battle against an Elden Ring encounter. Instead, I have to duck, dodge, and dive using the moveset I learned, while also figuring out ways to get behind him, where his weak spot might be. I manage to figure out how to sneak between his legs, though he does break up one of my charge attacks in the process. As I get knocked around a bit, I notice some of the almost ragdoll-like physics in the animation, which makes the scene feel that much less “hardcore”. After a little elbow grease I’m able to knock him out. It’s not a long battle, but it’s not necessarily an easy one. It feels like the kind of game where learning patterns is crucial to success in bigger fights, and leaning into combos might get us through the lead up.
The team developing Robots at Midnight is small, only about 7 full time and additional contractors, and they hope to have the game out later this year.
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