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The Daily Click ::. Downloads ::. Review Review: Prograbots
Don't let the lower scores fool you - Prograbot is a pretty amazing game. With some more time and dedication, it could be absolutely stunning. It has all the staples of a solid game - well built menus, (mostly) bug free play, decent music, single player and skirmish modes. Prograbots is a great design. Presentation: Excellant. The design itself was very well done, I only see a few places that could use any serious work. The workshop screen could use a debugger to test your code better, and while the workshop has a very nice list of commands built into the frame, it DOESN'T contain any information on syntax. Still, strong score on Presentation. (9/10) Gameplay: I loved it and I hated it. Like all 'programming' games, it's hands-off once you enter the arena. A nice use of objects and balance in the levels, and bonus points for the 'unlockable' levels. Unforunetly, the balance is a bit shot on some of the weapons (The 4Knife goes through opposing robots like a plasma knife through melted butter) which makes the gameplay a little touchy. I beat the whole single player 'campaign' in about 10 minutes using my Ripper bot which just boosted towards an opponent and went Freddy Kruger on him. So solid gameplay, it just needs tuning. (9/10) Graphics: The biggest failing in Prograbots, which is understandable. It's an incredibly beautiful piece of work on it's own.. it's a shame the graphics don't reflect it. I would love to see another version with more detail paid to the graphics. Still, the graphics are more than enough to reflect what's going on in the levels, which is what counts. I can still see that a fair amount of work went into the graphics, with the character portraits and all. (6/10) Sound and Music: Solid. I didn't pay a lot of attention to either, but that's actually a good sign - games where the sound and music stand out a lot usually tends to be because the music or sound in question.. well, sucks. The only music that grabbed my attention was the MIDI on the title screen, which I actually kinda liked. It's not Lucas Arts, but it's a solid soundtrack. (8/10) Lastability: Another drawback. Like I mentioned in Gamplay, I managed to beat the entire game in about 10 minutes. And if there was a large variety in the weapon choices and strategies available to the player, I would still be playing. Unfortunetly though, the 4Knife + Booster combination seems to beat even oppoenents with twice, sometimes THREE TIMES your health - which is just insane. I can't find any other weapon combination in the game that comes even remotely close. Basically, after 10 minutes I had an unbeatable robot. After 20 minutes, I was bored and quit. (4/10) Overall: An okay interface, an incredible design, and a ton of potential. Prograbots could easily become the next best programming game on the 'net. I'm a huge fan of these kinds of games, and i've noticed a distinct lack of them. The author has put a lot of creative ideas into the game too, including a gravity wells and repelling weapons, 'sticky' traps and bombs (which i'm still sure has combination potential), a whole array of shields and several others - you'll have to play it to see them all. It's definetly worth a play to see one of the more creative engines at work, even if you are not a huge fan of programming games. (9/10) Wow. Throw in some homing rockets, a flamethrower, delayed-fire chaingun (spinup) and more programming commands and you'll have one beautiful robot. Basically, this is a very solid game with a few minor flaws and an incredible potential.
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