Shoot Many Robots

Publisher: Ubisoft

Consoles: PS3, Xbox 360

Release Date: March 13, 2012

Demiurge Studio’s Shoot Many Robots will have you doing just that. You will shoot robot, after robot, after robot. Will this junkyard Joe redneck shooter keep you intrigued, or will it leave you wanting more. Read our review below!

Single player:

Shoot Many Robots lets you take control of Pickles Walter Tugnut. Pickles is a hillbilly who stockpiles guns, ammo, and beer in his dilapidated RV awaiting the inevitable robot apocalypse. When the apocalypse comes, you will have a beer in one hand and a gun in the other ready to take on some deadly robots that seem hell bent on destroying the world. The game features an online co-op mode that can allow you to do the story with up to four of your friends cooperatively and it allows you to do survival missions that has you taking on hoards and hoards of robots in waves. Levels and bosses can become repetitive at times and although repetition can be good at times. In a game like this, I found that to be a detriment to the overall game.

Shoot Many Robots is great clean fun when you play with a bunch of your friends. There is tons of competition available to reach the top of the leaderboards between one another. There are tons of weapons to collect throughout all of the difficulty levels, which at times will require additional help from friends. As you reach the end of the game, you will not have to worry about your quest being without reason. Other difficulty levels are available after you acquire the right amount of stars to progress in the game. When you reach a certain amount of bolts within a level, you gain stars. There are wonderful things that you can do you with your friends. The most important one is that SMR will feature offline co-op so that means you and your friend can play the whole game without being online.

If you play with your friend, you do not have to be worried if one of you dies. You will have the option to revive your partner if he is dead. This is great for getting through the game on the harder difficulties. You can also combine and work with your teammates to make strategic combinations of combat with the different weapons that you can equip and acquire.

Gameplay:

This side scrolling adventure is loads of fun. The best part of the game is that you can acquire tons of weapons, armor, and plain old loot on several play throughs of the game. These items all correspond to the level that your character is at and provide several bonuses such as extra juice, better sliding ability, and a hovering ability. The bonuses that you acquire from all of the items that you may find will help you greatly. There are also some outstanding and insanely funny articles of clothing to find. These items will help you get some of the harder to earn trophies and achievements in the game.

The actual gameplay in the game is extremely simple to say the least. The game allows you to pick a couple of weapons, one primary weapon with infinite ammo and a second one that is your special power weapon to do tons of damage. The basis of the game is simple you need to make it from one part to the next. There are checkpoints along the way, which are there to refill your juice and special weapon ammo. This also serves as a checkpoint, when you die you will start at this point and continue from that, until the end or the next checkpoint.

Presentation:

The presentation in the game is similar to Borderlands in the respect that it reminds you of being in a wasteland and in the similar way that it is cell-shaded. There was one problem, which I found reoccurring within this game. There were a few technical glitches involving backgrounds of the levels that really bothered me. The issue came from a static line that would rise during advancement of the level.

The game will have you traveling through many different locales as you play through each of the difficulty levels that the game has. At first, it might look and feel like a unique practicality but after a while, you will begin to notice that many of the level layouts are actually the same and look very familiar. That is because many of the levels are a second interpretation of the previous level. This causes the game to encounter severe repetition as boss battles become very familiar and annoying at the same time. The textures and characters look great although, at times when there are several enemies on screen the game seems to encounter some frame rate issues and slows down for a brief moment.

Sound:

The music and sound in the game are very interesting and provide a lot of fun when you are listening to it. Some very quirky and weird moments will occur as you journey in the junkyard of SMR. The clunky industrial noises of the environments that you are in, fit very well with the wasteland theme that you are adventuring. The characters do not have any voice acting, which I thought could benefit the true bro on bro adventure that Demiurge was trying to create with this title. The lack of voice acting, just didn’t do it for me. If you play the game solo, prepare to use your own devices to keep you entertained.

Controls:

The controls in the game are standard to say the least. Jumping, shooting, sliding and hovering are pretty much the skills that you will have to use at any given time. Other than that there is nothing truly ground breaking about this title that has not been done before. That does not hurt a title like this but in that essence, it does not improve it either.

Cons:

Levels are often repetitive at times

Some technical glitches in the level backgrounds

Frame rate slowdown occurs when there several enemies on screen

Pros:

Multiplayer is a absolute blast when played with a bunch of friends

Difficulty increases, leaderboards and collectibles/Loot!

Final Thoughts:

Shoot Many Robots is a game that does not lie to you at all. You will shoot platoon, after platoon of robots all the while collecting items and loot to upgrade your character into a lean mean robot-destroying machine. This game if played with friends will make the game considerable more enjoyable. When you have friends along for the ride laughing it up with you, you get a great sense of enjoyment. If you like, side-scroll shooters like this, than I suggest you definitely give this game a shot, you will not be disappointed.

Final Score:

I give Shoot Many Robots an eight out of ten.

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