Multiplayer madness is in full effect with this one.
Bandit Trap from developer PICOMY is a multiplayer-driven 3v1 gameplay experience. There are four total players involved in the game, one being a homeowner and three being thieves. The idea is to try to prevent thieves from stealing all the valuables in the house by setting wonderfully stupid traps in common household accessories. When the game gets going, it’s quite entertaining, especially if you can find some friends to play online with. But some gameplay unbalancing does occur during its chaotic moments.
Bandit Trap is simple in structure, as one player will defend four sections of a multi-tiered home in different ways, all trap-driven. The owner of the home gets about two minutes to set traps in all four sections. Each section of the home has small towers that allow for a bird ’s-eye view of the house’s blueprint. From that tower, the owner of the home can set traps in particular locations, and they can use the same tower to spring traps when the thieves are in the house. The only issue with these towers is that players will have to quickly and sometimes haphazardly choose where to put traps to ensure that all traps have been placed in all sections before the thieves arrive. Should a thief catch the homeowner in the home, the game is over. In other words, the two minutes given to put down traps is not the type of situation where a player can stop and think. It just isn’t. I had two games when I had to put some of the traps in place as the thieves were raiding my homestead. There were a few times when I had to quickly escape the grasp of the thieves to avoid losing the game. Not ideal, but certainly a good way to up the stress level of the gameplay experience.
Now, staying with traps, they can go inside designated household items, such as a couch, pool table, bathtub, and a ton more. The traps in the game come in a variety of flavors, from rockets that can follow thieves to different levels of a home, all the way to hammers, flame throwers, and bombs. Each section of the house is assigned a certain number of traps, all mirrored images of each other. Limiting traps does create yet another layer of chaos, especially when thieves destroy some, but it’s more entertaining than not. Outside of traps, the player can even wrap a large strand of bungee around a piece of furniture, point it towards an entrance, and enjoy the thief-destruction when one breaks in and gets a couch to the face. That is quite fun to see in motion.
On the surface, the traps look to be an ever-expanding feature of the gameplay, which means that as the game gets its legs, it will probably be updated with more creative ways of stopping thieves. For the short time I had with this game, I leveled up a few times and gained access to new traps, which gives me a reason to come back to the game beyond the fun gameplay. Anyway, the default traps are entertaining and offer a minor bit of strategy to the entire gameplay experience.
On the strategy side of the tracks, it comes from how and when players set the traps off. As thieves begin to break into different sections, the game pushes the player to jump between sections of the house through little holes in the walls, get to the tower where they set up the traps, and then bide their time for a thief to get close to a trap before springing it. Initially, I thought that this game would hide the traps and force the thieves to choose where to look for valuables, thus springing them by surprise. By the second game, I saw thieves just running in and bashing up furniture, thus bashing the traps, which immediately put my homeowner at a disadvantage. It always felt like I couldn’t keep up with the thieves. Less Home Alone and more like a Signs-like situation (those are movie references for the uninitiated).
Of course, having said that, it doesn’t mean the gameplay isn’t entertaining. In fact, the strategy of the game is to get the thieves close enough to a piece of furniture to spring the trap, cause damage, and sometimes knock out the thieves. Should the group of thieves sustain 100% damage as a collective, then the match goes to the homeowner. The strategy of where to place traps, when to spring them, and keeping up with the thieves’ locations adds some exciting value to the gameplay, as it will seem quick and chaotic.
But again, while playing as a homeowner, I felt like I had a bit of a disadvantage the entire time. Getting traps ready, jumping back and forth between sections of the homestead, and ensuring the thieves get their just desserts felt like a lot to juggle when trying to succeed. It didn’t keep me from trying to improve during my gameplay session, but it always felt like I was running behind in the game. It always felt like the thieves completely had the upper hand when it came to winning.
Speaking of thieves, the thieves in the game seem to be a tad overpowered, but nonetheless fun to control. Playing as a thief, the player can break into the home, destroy pieces of furniture to reveal traps, and even destroy walls to reveal what’s going on in other parts of the homestead. The disadvantages of the thief are that they have to deal with multiple traps being set off, avoiding springy furniture during the break-in, and finding the goods without getting more traps sprung on them. The only real job of the thief is to take valuables, and should they collect at least 10 in the regular gameplay, then they will win the match.
Honestly, being a thief is a bit more entertaining than being a homeowner in this gameplay, but it’s all relative to who you play the game with and how much chaos you’re expecting out of the gameplay. During this review period, I played this game against the computer, which might honestly have contributed to my unbalanced gameplay experience with the two competing sides. The computer in this game is ruthless and probably more well-versed in how to play it than most players will be. They hunted me down like a damn dog each time I played with extreme prejudice.
Staying on that last point, and in all transparency, I did have an issue trying to find a human-to-human match for this game. I am sure that the fanbase will build over time, but as of right now, it’s difficult to find players online. Thankfully, the offline mode is a good crutch, as is the local mode, but the online matchmaking is just a bit shallow at the moment. Again, I am positive that it will change as this game rolls out because I can see this game entertaining a lot of folks.
Overall, the gameplay for Bandit Trap was simple to pick up, sometimes a complicated juggling act, especially if you play the homeowner, but unique in its delivery and execution. It was more fun than it wasn’t. It still has some growing pains to get through before it becomes a full-functioning part of multiplayer society.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
Bandit Trap from developer PICOMY is a fun multiplayer game that creates a unique, two-sided challenge between home invaders and homeowners. The 3v1 gameplay is simple and fun, though it is still going through some growing pains.
