Chumps Preview is a special kind of post where we unofficially preview games in Early Access, Beta, or are otherwise “unfinished.” This kind of preview is meant to be a first impression rather than a definitive review where we provide a rating to determine a game’s value. As such, we fully expect a game covered in a Chumps Preview to have room for improvement, some bugginess/incompleteness, and other features associated with similar games in the category.
I’ve spent but a few hours playing ROBOBEAT, and I’m thoroughly intrigued. A shooter that tasks the player with shooting to the beat and rewards them for doing so? Incorporate platforming and some parkour while enemies rush you down? Upload your own soundtrack to play as you like?
On all of those things: Count me in.
ROBOBEAT is an incredibly interesting idea, albeit one that is severely underrepresented in the gaming space. Meshing rhythmic shooting with roguelite FPS-gameplay works for those who like to jam out to their own personal soundtracks while mowing enemies down with shotguns, pistols, and more. Firing a gun to the beat of the current track makes the game more precise in some ways while also more chaotic. Yes, dear reader, that was a contradictory statement, but it works. It’s hard to explain until you’re actually doing the thing, especially with bursts of particles happening all around you.
It looks so, so, so cool. The game’s technicolor aesthetic blends dark warehouse environments with neon-colored blocky humanoid enemies and flashy bullets. It’s hard to “miss” danger when it is flying all around you and contrasting with the safer (and darker) colors. Imagine a discotech that was originally a warehouse – that’s ROBOBEAT’s visual style.
ROBOBEAT is best described as a high-octane roguelite rhythm shooter. It incorporates mild parkour in the form of sliding, jumping, wall-running, bullet-deflecting, and of course, shooting all to the rhythm of the game’s music. The player is taken through procedurally-generated stages that involve defeating waves of enemies (and weaving through/deflecting their bullets). Clear a room of enemies, get a reward in the form of currency, and then move to the next room. Complete all of the rooms and fight a boss. If you die at any point, you’re taken back to the starting hub where you have to start all over again. Standard roguelite stuff.
Shooting to the beat is core to ROBOBEAT’s gameplay. At the middle of the screen is a rhythm marker that lights up at the optimal moment to shoot in time with the currently selected song’s beat. I didn’t have to shoot on each beat, but timing was critical in clearing rooms and reaping the greatest rewards. There’s a level of flashiness involved that can lead to exhilarating moments, too. For instance, I could slide down a hill while shooting a weapon, and then “ground pound” to launch enemies into the air for easy pickings. The moments where I could successfully chain abilities, attacks, and traversal together made the game feel especially chaotic while rewarding if I was able to delete enemies.
The guns I used ranged from shotguns (that had a cooldown of ~2 beats) to pistols (one of which could ricochet bullets) to a ping-pong paddle that could be used three times in a row to create an area-of-effect attack. During my runs, I would come across different weapons in Reward rooms that were already upgraded and featured different passive abilities. Swapping my “weaker” weapons for “stronger” weapons wasn’t always beneficial for me. Going from using a pistol to a shotgun meant that I couldn’t rapid-fire through enemies, but I could shoot bullets in a spread.
Interestingly enough, the weapon perks are hardly emphasized when they should be. At least, there should be something in the game’s tutorial that brings the player’s attention to the fact that no two pistols will be the same. For instance, I came across a perk that would grant me health on each successful weapon shot. Another perk granted me a critical damage bonus when I landed headshots. Even though these are lower-priority aspects in the grand scheme that is ROBOBEAT, variance needs to be highlighted so that the player can attempt to optimize their playstyles.
The one weird aspect of ROBOBEAT is its progression. I was able to come across blueprints that I could take to a Workbench at the end of the level. If I died before being able to reach a workbench, that blueprint would be lost until the next time I randomly encountered it in a future run. Even more, there is a monetary requirement that prevents the player from enabling the blueprint/permanently unlocking that blueprint, which feels unnecessary. Once I had a blueprint in the workbench, it took a high amount of temporary currency (blips) that would be lost upon losing a run. The rate at which I unlocked new blueprints and room rewards in between runs felt quite slow and punishing as a result. Hopefully, that can be adjusted before the game’s final release.
I completed through the first two levels in their entirety during my preview period. I was able to unlock a handful of modifications and room types while also successfully defeat the second boss. Despite the bare minimum of the game’s mechanics being introduced and the weird progression involving unlocking new rooms and mechanics bit-by-bit, I had fun. This is absolutely critical for a genre mashup like ROBOBEAT. I wasn’t “punished” for missing beats in the ways you might assume. Missing a beat meant that I would miss a shot or lose my killstreak. But I could still persevere so long as I avoided bullets.
Rhythm titles can be hit-or-miss amongst the average player. These titles require rhythmic mastery and the ability to time inputs in a fashion that can be seen as restrictive. As a result, those who aren’t the most “rhythmically minded” tend to struggle with truly appreciating the appeal of a game where rhythm is baked into the gameplay loop. Thankfully, one of the settings in-game can be enabled to strip the game of the rhythmic requirement so you can play as you like without worrying about shooting to the beat.
Since ROBOBEAT is an Early Access, I am unable to assign it a score at this time. I’ve been told that the full release next month will incorporate a few more levels. Hopefully, some of the roguelite progression mechanics can be ironed out so that losing feels less punishing. That said, ROBOBEAT is a lot of fun, and I cannot wait to fully review it.
