I found this game a while back, wishlisted it. Months later, after a painful night in Risk of Rain 2, a friend who had it mentioned a demo. I say this because good lord, I should have played this sooner!! I played one run on the demo, then immediately made one of my best game purchases in a long time.

Why? If I had to say it briefly…
Roboquest is a brilliantly made game that knows exactly what it wants to be, and delivered it at an absolutely top-class level on all fronts, with no padding.

More specifically though, there are a lot of reasons. (My stream-of-consciousness writing this went in this order, I know it’s odd)

Visuals: As the trailers suggest, this game has some great style. I love how they used color and good shading instead of just going for maximum fidelity. The little comical additions like the comic-book sound effect words when you fire mesh perfectly! I like the look of every zone in this game. It’s not the next visual
redefining game, but you will feel like you are in different places. Which can be sorely missing in this genre.

Writing: That sense of style extends to the lore-snipets you can find throughout the stages. Those did a great job as pieces to put together what has been going on, and foreshadowing the ending too! Yep you heard right, this is a roguelike with a story that matches its gameplay and style. Plus it has real charm! Don’t look for a novel or anything, the story is small and mostly straightforward, but it’s a fun, sappy background to the game. It’s also a world that could still have stories to tell! The plot does have a real resolution, there’s just more in the world that can be done. Which is awesome news because…
Gameplay: This game feels SO GOOD to play! Seriously, it’s just well put together. In fact, time forsub-headings….

Controls / Movement: The movement is snappy and quick, but doesn’t trivialize the challenge. It’s also just fun! You OPEN the game with a fast sprint, powerslides, rail-grinding, a double jump, and the ability to Goomba-stomp your way across enemies for fun and profit; and yes, the levels DO have all of this in mind. The feedback on guns is super clear with hit marking, unobtrusive but very clear damage feedback (we’ll come back to this), oh and the guns themselves are FUN!

Weapons: Standard pistols, snipers, S and LMGs? Check, sure, but also: Chain lighting guns, energy saw launchers, mortars, power-fists, homing energy-launcher-palms, blast cannons, kunai, energy-shard launchers…there’s not anything you’ve NEVER seen before, but the variety is good. It’s also present from the get-go! No spending hours with a basic pistol to see the first interesting thing. Plus, we have a very Borderlands situation going on where every base model of gun can have a ton of modifiers on it, so they’re always a little different each time you find them. Two highlights are random elements or the lack there of, and the chance for an extra alt-fire ability on a Cooldown.

Character-classes / Powerups / Abilities: There are six archetypes you can play, and all of them are cool. Even the default class has fun abilities. It’s actually still one of my favorites after having played all 6. Each class has two active abilities. These are varied, explain themselves VERY clearly, and are all good. As you do runs you get Upgrades that are your draftable randomized perks. Some people may be disappointed that none of these are actives; it’s all passive upgrades. HOWEVER, they are NOT all just “number go up”. These passives are the kind that are very fun to play around, and can significantly affect your playstyle and weapon desires between runs. So I personally never felt like there NEEDED to be active options in the upgrades. If you like new abilities though, don’t fret just yet! Because those can be found in…

Progression: Roguelikes can easily have an issue here. Not Roboquest. Not only will you get resources to get passive upgrades to the QoL of your runs every time you play, but there’s also a system called Gadgets. Gadgets are permanent improvements that you can discover by completing various secrets, and THIS is part of where you will find your new buttons. For instance, new movement abilities. There’s one more kind of progression you can discover by completing some pretty tricky challenges in some of the more hidden levels. I’ll let you discover what they are and how they work, but know they are very worth your time and effort. PLUS all of these additional abilities and perks are unlocked as OPTIONS. Want to pick and chose for a specific challenge, or to make difficulty alterations? You can!

Levels: This is a linear roguelike, but every path segment that is not itself some kind of special hidden challenge has a pretty good number of secrets to find! Side quests to complete over multiple runs, bits of lore, hidden areas, shortcuts, optional puzzles…Roboquest has all of these. Almost every single one is not only cool to find, but mechanically rewarded too. Guess where a lot of those gadgets and classes come from? The individual puzzles and quests are pretty well put together too. Some of them even have hints in the lore bits if you pay attention! Now, if you’re JUST here to do some robo-smashing, I don’t think these will get in your way too much, but since they are so rewarding, I would strongly recommend you don’t just ignore them. (If you’re looking for buttons, not all of them are on floors. No, I will not elaborate further.)

Difficulty: I think the standard difficulty is right on. No pushover, definitely wants you to get some upgrades before you clear a run, but also fair. Like most other things in Roboquest though, you’ve got options! After the (very brief) tutorial, you can choose between four difficulties. Two difficulties below standard, and a Hard mode. Tiny spoiler, but once you BEAT a run, you can then take the difficulty even HIGHER too!

Enemies / Bosses: Enemy variety is good, and there are several types of attacks that normal enemies use. It is a shooter, so a lot of enemies use similar attacks, but there are still a good number of different types of threats. Not a humongous number, but definitely enough for the style of game. There’s “only” about 10 different bosses, but each one is really unique. I’ll take 10 well made bosses over 30 lower-quality ones with too much overlap in how they fight any day.

HUD / Info: Last point really quickly, this game does a great job showing the info you need. All the basics are here; clear font, good labels, readable mini-map…The thing that SHOULD be basic that too many games forget is proper info. Roboquest shows you exactly how much every perk, weapon, and piece of gear does, with proper percentages. No annoying stat ”bars” that are hard to compare. Weapons even auto-compare when you look at a pickup option, with FULL info. Enemy status is very clear too, with status build up bars, damage numbers, and in the case of a boss that needs it, proper indications of unique states / meters.

Music: The music in this game is good. I like the changes as you get to later stages, or break rooms vs combat. It suits the atmosphere of the game too. I’m not a composer or anything, but I thought the beats were good, and the electronic style melodies were well done.

Multiplayer: It works, it’s fun, and it’s pretty well balanced too! It is only two players max, which can be a tiny bummer, but the levels would have gotten pretty cramped with more than that. So it’s entirely understandable. I did run into a couple lost runs while playing with my friend, but I actually mean a couple. We may have played 8-10 hours together total and have had like…two connection issues? Always when THEY hosted, so likely not even the game’s fault.

If you read this far, and like Roguelike Shooters…at all…then get this game.