Bot Vice

Just a short unique little shooter that kind of reminds me of Wild Guns for the SNES. Most of the stages are fun (I'm looking at you, 19 and 23) and the game has a lot of that oldschool charm with the artstyle. It's kinda hard, so I see why it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but I recommend it if you're used to retro shooters and bullet hells.
Also, can I just take a moment to appreciate that THERE IS NO FANSERVICE!? Like, why is this becoming rarer each passing day?

Bot Vice is a challenging game, which on occasion left me (positively) frustrated. This game offers fast paced gameplay, with a screen full of different enemies types and mechanics to deal with. Your variety of weaponry is ripped straight from the Time Crisis series and each have their uses and were a lot of fun to use. 25 Levels in story mode, another 25 in Extra Missions, each of which can be completed in as little as a minute, if you are effecient enough.

Gameplay really comes down to target priority and reaction time. Enemies dont really telegraph before attacking and when faced with multiple, its easy to get overwhelmed. Success is continuously strafing and rolling. The cover mechanic is important, but over-reliance will see your cover destroyed and eventually leaving you exposed and a sitting duck. ALWAYS. BE. ROLLING.

Sound and visuals remind me of classic Capcom/Namco titles. Voice acting came off as light hearted, silly, and wasnt taken seriously. Bot Vice is a lot of fun. If you are looking a challenging arcade shooter, give this one a go.

Great on Steam Deck.

This game is much more difficult when played with keyboard, but I did it anyway, it give me more challenges when playing the game. The graphic is great, I love it so much.

Little modest game with enough charm and gameplay to make it's price a worthy purchase.
What you are seeing in the steam page about it is basically what you are getting for a few hours, few more if you really like it and it has enough good gamefeel that many people would just play it for it even if they have already finished it.

Well Bot Vice is a pretty good time. It's got a really good foundation that is held back by some odd controls and rather tough gameplay.
Bot Vice puts you at the bottom area of the screen, moving left and right through running, dashing rolling, or crouching. You're goal is to clear the enemies flooding the top of the screen. Each enemy has a different attack pattern you need to learn so as to dodge their incoming damage. This is where the first difficulty rise shows it's head. Some of these patterns can create just chaos on the screen. While you can crouch at any time to put the damage on your blockade, it becomes impossible to find moments to pop up and shoot. So taking damage is your only way (Keep this in mind).
You are given different types of weapons to clear your enemies out faster. You are required to cycle through them in a left to right fashion. I think a weapon wheel to get directly to the weapon you desire would help, but the voice shouting your selection is helpful. Some of your weapons include things like Spreadshots, rapid fire, actual fire, or rockets/grenades. Some weapons are nearly required to kill some enemies.
Now this part is only important if you are going for 100%. There are some tough ones. Most levels have an achievement attached that require some side objective to be completed. These can range from simply don't get hit by a certain attack, all the way to do not hit a certain destructible items in the level. Which can be difficult in the chaos considering...
The lock on. It is not precise at all. You will be locked on and even if the enemy is standing still as are you, you will not be actually shooting at the enemy. This can cause a lot of frustration at times when you need at angle. Other times when you roll the lock on deactivates only to lock onto someone else, which can throw off what you are doing. It turns into a bit of a mess at times.
Other achievements include getting an A or above on all levels, which is usually just how fast you beat it. This usually isn't that bad if you use your other weapons.
The last big achievement is getting 4 hearts each level. This means ending the level with 4 hearts. You'll see during play that there is a bot that will drop hearts, so at the start you'll think you can just take a few hits and collect hearts back to full. But that isn't an option. That bot only drops *A* heart when you've lost 2 hearts. Meaning to get 4 hearts on every level, each level must be beaten without being hit. Remember earlier about some moments requiring a hit to finally get a shot in. Yeah... That was a killer achievement. It was rough and a pain to finish.
Over all, this game is a blast to play. But man it's got a few quirks to it that take it to that frustrating level at times. I recommend this game at full price though. Just maybe spread out your play session and keep them in short bursts. That will make your time with it fully enjoyable.

Purposely bad 80s-90s voice acting with purposely bad-ass gameplay, on sale is a steal.

Bot Vice

Fun indie shooter you can beat in one-sitting. Writing and story is entertaining if you want that but it's all about that action. Quick tutorial and easy to get started into. Beat the game within an overall time limit with the MC against a good variety of enemies and bosses. Couldn't say I clearly saw what the Boss or goal was for a mission or two, but I still beat it lol. Getting it on sale was a steal but I'd say it's worth at least $5. Maybe $10 if you rock with the developer. Absolutely recommend it though,

It's a fun retro/arcade style shooter. There is definitely a learning curve, but overall I'd say it's a fun pick up and play game.

Very neat little shooter! I love the 2d pixel art and the difficulty was just right imo.

peak of the cover shooter genre

Plays like the old 16-bit school shooter games like WIld Guns. Game play is pretty good. Unfortunately its difficulty is its own worst enemy, even on the easy setting. Thumbs down strictly because of this as a neutral recommendation can't be given. Buy if you like challenges. If not, you'll more than likely end up frustrated.

Score: 7/10

• Art: The visuals are acceptable, featuring a colorful pixel art style. While not outstanding, it effectively delivers a retro vibe that's appealing.
  
• Story: Very basic, with minimal narrative development. It serves as a functional framework but isn’t the game’s focus.
  
• Gameplay: The mechanics are interesting and provide a solid challenge. However, they can feel complicated at first, potentially frustrating less experienced players.
  
• Visual clarity: During more intense levels with many enemies and projectiles on screen, it can be hard to discern what’s happening, impacting the overall experience.
  
[*]Music: It does its job of setting the mood but is not particularly memorable.

starts off way too hard, way too fast

Good for ~5 hours of solid, challenging gameplay. My main complaint is that the title is strangely overwritten, every dialogue exchange goes on for about a minute longer than it needs to and all that time is spent on a real nothing of a story. It doesn't seem like DYA is making games any more, which is a shame - the core shooting mechanics feel great and would probably receive wider praise if they had been in service of a less generic narrative. It's an iffy recommendation at $10, but the game's on sale often and I definitely think it's worth picking up at $5 or less.

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Bot Vice is a LOT of fun imo. Quick paced bullethell like gameplay, pixel graphics and a banger soundtrack make this game work quite well. It feels like the 80's but also dystopian vaporwave. Fun, cheesy story, and a surprising amount of replayability for what it is. Challenging, but not too bad. Overall score: 8/10

I purchase this to enjoy a lil game on a sunday afternoon.
I was happy at the beggining and it was fun.
But closer to the end a few levels are just ANNOYING AF.
And the final boss is unfun and the voice actor is the worst I have even heard in my entire life.
So I went to "having fun" playing the game, to hating it.
And even after finishing the game, they decided to make you watch a JPEG while another bad voice actress lore dumps you, what tf do I care about all that nonesense? make it shorter or make it skipable, its just dumb game lore.
Sound, gameplay, pixel art is alright. But some levels, the last boss, and the voice acting is unnaceptable.
2/10.

Beat the main story in around 2.5h. Note that there are other additional extra 25 levels you can play after beating the game. They have the same layouts, but more and harder enemies.

Difficulty comes in spikes, some stages are pretty easy while others are a complete hell, but generally fair, 99% of times there is a escape, just gameplay is quite fast so easy to get hit anyway, The cover feature is almost useless, only had to use it for the boss of level 21, in rest of stages you will get hit by bombs or lasers that bypass the cover, so its not great.

Controls respond quite well, but i recommend to edit the mapping, as it was a bit weird, you need to roll a lot and by default that is "B", when having it in the left trigger is much more confortable, at least for me.

Dialogs before main bosses are terrible, but the BSO and sound in general is quite good.

Honestly i liked, took it for 2€ so i believe its worth. For the retail 10€ price...only if you like the genre way too much.

nah, didn't enjoy it

It has an amazing soundtrack, the pixel art looks great, and it's just so much fun! The gameplay is fast-paced and it's easy to lose track of time while playing it. It's not the longest game, in fact it's short, but it's worth every penny, especially if you like old-school arcade style games.

Pewpew bangbang, i win. fun gaem

Fun bullet hell type of game. Can't wait to play more.

Cool

So, the key to this game is not to get hit.