As the title implies, shooting is a primary function of the game. Also, there are robots and a large quantity of them. Luckily, you are well equipped to do so. P. Walter Tugnut is quite possibly the most ridiculous name in recent memory, but he is a powerful man wishing to end the production of all robots who have come to harm humans – because they blew up his truck and killed his cat. Forget the apocalypse that occurred destroying the buildings and eradicating the humans – he’s out for revenge. You’ll never interact with another human in-game, unless you play co-op.
While it’s entirely possible to play the game in single-player, the ratings you earn on each mission will be much harder to max out at lower levels. You’ll find a lot more enjoyment by taking your game online or joining someone’s game in the cooperative multiplayer which supports up to 4 players, or 2 players locally. The missions are on a 5-star rating system. By collecting nuts (the game’s currency), you will be able to spend it on items for your character and the one with the most at the end of a mission, wins (an achievement). In Shoot Many Robots, the nuts collected when in co-op go into a shared pool that you all work towards to earn that 5-star rating by the end of it. There are loot drops, color-coded to match your on-screen character color. Death and checkpoints are handled differently online than in single-player as you’ll have the ability to revive team-mates when down and checkpoints only replenish ammo and health-kits in the form of beer.
Outside of that, you can customize all types of apparel for your P. Walter Tugnut to wear. You’ll have a finite amount of hand-crafted hats, shirts, and pants to wear. Ranging from beer helmets to to jetpacks to skirts to even Penny Arcade’s Fruit Fucker. While my mere mention of it reveals the surprises within the game, what you see it do to you – is indescribable. You can also equip him with primary and secondary weapons with special stats. Unlocking some of the weapons require you to explore each of the mission areas for secret crates. As I mentioned before, leveling is quite important to the game. It opens up new gear to purchase but also scales the enemies for each mission. There are no attributes to assign your character when you do level up, but the stats that the weapons and clothing carry is more than enough.
Looks-wise, the game a soft cel-shaded art style comparable to Borderlands. It’s fast and fluid, regardless of how many robots are dumped onto your screen, which can easily be 50 robots at a time. It’s intense, frantic, and amazing to see. Backgrounds to each mission are are smooth and detailed as they animated in the background as to evoke that you’re a small part of something bigger going on around you. Sound is solid, but also hit and miss as I found that the sound of the gunfire subdued to the music or other effects. It happens randomly and not often, so you’re likely to miss it or it’ll be patched quickly.
The mission structure is wonderfully done. You’ll navigate from place to place in your RV. From there you can go to the gear locker to set your gear such as your guns and apparel. Once you’re set, head up to the driver’s seat and pick a location from the map. You are restricted by design to play on the Normal difficulty at first. Hard and Insane missions are locked away until you earn at least 50 Stars in Normal missions. But from there more stars are required to unlock the rest of the missions to play. Variation is stellar in the game. You’ll have to get to the end, fight a robotic overlord, or just survive as long as you can.
The focus of the game is in the co-op, and for good reasons – it’s a lot of fun. Though, many may be put off with that but there’s plenty to enjoy in a solo adventure. There’s a ton of replayability here, which is required to enjoy the game, but if you’re not willing to grind to level up and get better gear – maybe this isn’t for you. However, if all that I’ve said has excited you – then you must go online and buy it now!
An XBLA code for the game was provided by Ubisoft for Review purposes