RoboPhobik Review

RoboPhobik is set in a fictional alternate reality in the 1970s where the government created a secret experimental robot city, controlled by a supercomputer called PAL 9000. As you’d expect, one day, PAL 9000 decides to go the way of Skynet (i.e. haywire) and rebels against its creators by capturing scientists and wanting to conquer the world. It’s up to Julie, a 19-year-old rookie agent, to save the captive scientists and save the world.

RoboPhobik is a top-down/isometric perspective shooter where players, as Julie, need to find and save the scientists captured on various levels and unlock the exit in order to progress to the next area. Each level has obviously robotic forces to hinder your progress. Enemies will spawn from trap panels on the floor which has a grid-type layout.

What makes things interesting is the game’s premise: enemies won’t move if Julie stays stills, i.e. doesn’t move or shoot. This adds a small layer of strategy because you can take a few seconds to strategize your next move and figure out a way to beat enemies without taking as little damage as possible. Some trap panels will have levers to open doors, get health items, XP boxes, and additional weaponry such as shotguns.

As you progress through the game, you also need to save two types of scientists: weaponsmiths (blue) and armorsmiths (red). These saved little souls will aid you in your quest as the more blue scientists you save, the stronger your default weapon will be. Whereas saving Red scientists will benefit your character from better armor/protection and sustain more hits before dying. You can also save and find 5 more playable characters each with their own playstyle and unique skills.

The game does look great. Level design is quite vast and challenging at times. While the
characters do look like deformed Playmobil toys that sound like LEGOs being shaken in a box when talking, the environments have a LEGO-like feel to them. While the game’s premise is a bit on the dark side, the soundtrack is a surprisingly soothing lounge-y type score to accompany you through the robotic carnage.

While there’s nothing overly wrong here, there are a few nuisances and inconsistencies. First off enemies do respawn. When the counter on the tiles that spawn enemies reaches 0, a new one will respawn. The other issue is that while the game’s premise is that enemies move only when you perform an action (moving or shooting), some enemies will move even if you do nothing. Don’t know if it’s an omission or a glitch, but sounds like this got past QA.

RoboPhobik is a fun, unique action puzzler with addictive gameplay which requires a bit of thinking and strategy in order to move on to the next floor as effectively as possible. This is the perfect game to play in short bursts and clearing a few levels at a time. This is one of the most interesting puzzler-type games I’ve had the privilege of playing. If you’re looking for a light head-scratcher, RoboPhobik is definitely worth your time.