Shoot Many Robots

 
Developer: Demiurge Studios
Steam Release: April 2012
Hours Played: 10.0
Similar To: Serious Sam Double D XXL / Weapon of Choice / Zombie Kill of the Week
Rating: 3/5 Parsnips




*No longer available on Steam.

GAMEPLAY
They weren’t lying when the makers summed up the game with those three words. You control a red-neck from the deep south who moves among dusty landscapes and dilapidated buildings. You carry and fire heavy-duty guns while downing cans of beer. Oh, and you shoot many robots. After you've clicked on the selected level, you start on the left hand side and start striding out towards the right. You fire and blast your way through a multitude of robots who relentlessly come at you in waves. First it'll be the simple, easily destructible model that will explode after just one or two hits but then the tougher variety appear and may need to be taken down with the secondary weapon. A level ends with a good ol' boss fight. The result is crazy mayhem and a frantic scramble to collect nuts that the robots drop when destroyed. 
 

BALANCE & PACE
More powerful weapons and armour become available from the inventory screen as you level-up but the pace is simple and straightforward: you shoot robots, avoid their fire, shoot more robots, bask in the over-the-top chaos and carnage that ensues... and then shoot more robots. A multiplier charges up to a maximum of five depending on how fast you collect the debris of nuts. Nuts and bolts are the currency in the game and are used to buy the upgrades in the shop afterwards but also dictate how many stars you get awarded at the end of a level. As you do the levels the game tells you how many nuts and bolts you need to get that extra star. If you wish to earn the elusive five-star award that you couldn't get earlier with weaker guns you may go back to do those earlier levels with overpowered guns.

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
Pressing Start takes you and your avatar to his ramshackle crib replete with weaponry and map cabinet. Clicking on the weaponry case will take you to his entire arsenal of weapons plus a store where you buy guns and armour in the form of hats, trousers (pants) and backpacks. From here, you purchase and equip anything that will get the job done. When you exit the store your character automatically dons the necessary gear. You can then tottle over to the map cabinet, bring up your map screens and jump into a level of your choice. The game has a deep-south feel helped largely by the dipping guitar and that Texas-style twang. The locations, including the trailer-park motif, adds to that hillbilly flavour and check out the flushing toilet! The graphics are excellent with the foreground and backgrounds blending together to give a nice 3D effect.
 

PROGRESS SYSTEM
You gain experience and level up by completing levels. You don't assign points to skills but instead gain access to more powerful weapons and armour. This makes transitions through levels unnoticeable and painless. The map screens are confusing at first as they are subdivided into 3 groups. The first, with 1-6 chapters, is of normal difficulty, the second (Ch7-Ch10) is hard and the third (Ch11-Ch14) is insane. Each chapter, housing 3-5 levels, is represented by a red padlock. This padlock has a number which is the number of stars you need to attain to unlock it. As mentioned, you can gain a maximum of five stars per level. Finally, visiting the leaderboard will show the maximum amount of nuts gained and the world rank for each level.
 

CONCLUSION
Shoot Many Robots is a satisfying entertainment provider and the fact that you can go back and do easier levels with overpowered weapons is another plus when you just want to kill things and revel in the destruction of it all. Each level should take around 5-10 minutes to complete so the game is very user-friendly if you're after a jump-in jump out game. Be warned though; firstly, the game does not have controller support - baffling in a game of this nature and in this day and age. Secondly, gameplay is truly repetitive and spending longer than 30 odd minutes in the game may well turn the experience into a bit of a chore. Definitely one to play in small doses.