ROMBIE

Normally I'm a big fan of Phr00t's games, but I just can't recommend this one. The progression is painfully slow at first, and then it introduces obnoxious gameplay elements like enemies that literally freeze you in place instantly and then kill you. This happens over and over in a particular area that the game locks you into until you meet a certain progression goal, but important pieces of your equipment break when you die and you quickly run out of funds to repair them. This basically softlocks your save and makes you do the first two or three hours of grind over again. The only realistic counter to this progression block would be to grind EVEN MORE for consumables that allow you to just heal while you're stunlocked, and even then you might run out because there are only so many inventory slots.

Bottom line, it's very grindy with some downright unfair enemies and a very obnoxious death penalty that can send you right back to the beginning, grinding out level 1 funds and equipment because all your good stuff is broken and costs too much to repair.

This game is a pain to navigate through. The level designs make it super confusing. I stop moving to find out where to go next but I do not see a general waypoint posted just the direction on where to go. Navigating through this game world is a pain.

I love combat-oriented exploration games and I am enjoying this as I have enjoyed many of this developers other games

These are neat games, unique and relaxing. Like something out of a dream. I'd also recommend the other titles, 3089 is my fav!

It's not what I thought I would get.

I've loved every game befor so I applaud the effort put into this one but it is NOT like 5098 or prior. The previous entries had a very jump in and play. This one feels stiff off the start, everything felt like a chore the first few minutes for me. Gotta float around not go to where the first quest takes you because it's a strong area, so grind somehow and then go to that area. It was just sluggy. Anyway for 10$ if I'm wrong call me out on it by buying the game and enjoying it. Many reviewers have, but this is not what I expected in bad light.

This is just a short positive review for this game. It is an amazingly well done game for an inexpensive price. If you like arcade fps shooters with a geeky vibe then you should like this one. The vr support in this game is really good. At roomscale it is a lot of fun. If i had one complaint it would be the need to add a turning function to the vr so one could play it seated.

The feeling of a dystopian tron with industrial modular robots is quite a spectacle. Especially combined with the choice of the weirdly electric industrial soundtrack.

my two cents pipe dream comment to the developer: Please make a programming game. I love all the quirky robot worlds you have created and think they would make a great setting for a something like a spiritual successor to Robot Odyssey or some similar game.

I'm a fan of Phr00t's work, I have most of his other offerings. I love that he's embracing VR. One thing though, I wanted to play this game on my Rift S, but was unable to turn using the thumb sticks on my touch controllers. If this feature was added, I'd be very grateful!

This is very different from Phroots last game, 5089. i Dont know, its very different. there is no actual world, just a acid flat planet with huge constructs over them. very focused on using jetpacks for movement. robots look all similar to each other, and stations look really bad, even worse then previous games. also the guns arent shown, i dont know about this one, so far thsi is not recommended. the aesthetics this time are worse than previous despite using unity which is good for shaders and graphical stuff

Apparently this game was made using unity, which is a horrible engine for collisions but much better for coders than unreal. Unreal is horrible to learn but apparently it has way better physics.

so far, it feels like a work in progress/early access game that has very few features compared to his previous games. I recommend either waiting for it to be finished or just play his previous games, they are VERY GOOD.

A phr00t FPS where you can be a head-sniping ninja robot frankenstein who jetpacks across a long series of bleak abstract floating islands filled with infinitely re-spawning modular machines which you harvest for upgrades by leading them into quiet corners and shooting them in the head with projectile-based (not hitscan) self-recharging energy weapons.

erradical wrote:

Robot mugging simulator.

TL;DR: Didn't really feel the Phr00t magic in this one. Get 3089, 4089, or 5089 instead.

3089 is one of my favorite games ever but, ROMBIE, despite graphical and gameplay similarities, misses some of the crucial elements that made 3089 such a blast. I'll be comparing ROMBIE to 3089 in this review to see what went wrong (which may not be fair because 3089 is a masterpiece).

The first issue is the loot system. In 3089, every enemy or almost every enemy drops some loot when destroyed. In ROMBIE, you don't get that. Enemies only drop broken parts which can't be sold, only repaired. If you pay to repair it, selling it will lose you money, meaning you only equip the item if it's better AND you can afford to fix it, which is rare. Attacking enemies is unsatisfying because they almost always drop purposeless, worthless items.

Instead of the wide variety of weapons you get in the 89s, every weapon is almost the same in ROMBIE except for some effect on impact or a firing speed change. The 89s have much more weapon diversity.
And, the way weapons are equipped is less interesting. They all, always, fire at once. If you equip three you shoot three bullets at once unless one is on cooldown. In the 89s there are weapon slots which let you have different weapons for different situations, but in ROMBIE it's always shoot the same guns all the time.

I generally like Phr00t's games. 3089 is an open-world masterpiece, 4089 is a creative twist on 3099, and 5089 is an excellent remastering of 3089 with new content and story. His other games are also lots of fun. You should buy all of them, especially the 89s.

Unfortunately, I can't recommend ROMBIE. Phr00t's done better in past games, and I know future games by him will be better as well. Especially the RTS he's making at the moment. Get hyped!

What I do recommend is 5089. Go get it. It's a lot of fun.

I've put only 3.5 hours into this game, but I have enjoyed them. It's fun to shoot the robots' cannons off and watch them scramble off in search of a replacement.

Gotta say, I've really been enjoying this one. At the time of this review, I'm almost 10 hours into the game, after only a night or two.... that's pretty rare for me. I'm finding this game to be constantly engaging and fun, despite a couple of rather nasty flaws.

If you've ever played any of Phr00t's other games, you're going to feel right at home with this one. It has the same feel that most of his games do, and the same wonderfully bizarre and surreal world for you to explore. Rombie tasks you with traversing a desolate world mostly comprised of an endless sea of acid, with only these "islands" of tangled metal serving as any sort of solid ground. Islands entirely populated by robots. Most of whom want you dead. While each funky island structure thing tends to look very similar, I found that the game kept me constantly interested in exploring each one nonetheless... which is something that Phr00t's games have always been good at. I call these structures "islands", but that's a misleading term. Each of these structures is an enormous tangle of rooms and spires, going in all directions. And I really do mean ALL directions. You'll have to do boatloads of vertical navigation to get around these places, as they are just as tall as they are wide. And they are complicated, each one a confusing labyrinth, but in a good way. It's a far cry from the expansive yet flatter worlds of the X089 series.

To aid in this vertical exploration, you are given a jetpack. This is one of the main mechanics of the game, and you'll be using this thing constantly. The jetpack can let you fly around for quite some time before either overheating or running out of energy... this isnt just some dinky little thing meant to make small jumps. You'll be outright flying through the sky with this, even perhaps having midair battles against other robots. When playing the X089 games, one thing that always stands out about them to me is the various fun ways to get around, making the act of exploration that much more entertaining. This game isnt much different as the jetpack is lots of fun to use. Even better when combined with the Dash module.

Of course, it wont be easy to get around. Enemy bots, known as ROMBIEs, litter the landscape, ready to pound your metal face into the ground. What's more, these foes are just as procedural as the rest of the game. Each one is made up of multiple modules, each serving a unique purpose and adding to the bot's physical shape. While bots tend to look similar to one another, this means that they'll often have very different capabilities, so you'll have to be very careful as you go, lest a powerful enemy take you by surprise. This modular system also comes into play during combat, as each piece takes damage seperately. Destroying the core or the head will result in the bot as a whole being defeated, but there are plenty of times when it makes sense to try to target the weapons or shields or other modules. When a bot is beaten, it falls apart, and you can pick up it's modules to use yourself. However, these are usually in a broken state (you did just blow the crap out of the guy, after all), and so will need repairing before you use them. This might sound a little annoying, but it serves an important purpose in balancing the game.

There are alot of different modules to find, and they'll form the core of your build. In the X089 games, there was a fairly typical system of having a variety of stats and earning points to put into them. But here, that's gone. Your stats are purely driven by whatever you have equipped. Cores, generators, shields, weapons, stealth modules, you name it. I love the way the module/equipment system works as a whole. The game keeps me constantly interested in fine-tuning my build, and finding new parts to power up. Some modules are fairly basic, such as shields and power generators. Others are more like activated abilities, such as the dash (which also puts you in a sort of bullet-time mode), or the megablast, or the cloak, or other stuff.

You wont just be getting these parts from enemies though. One returning mechanic from the X089 series is the idea of stations, themed vendor booths that sell all sorts of things, but each one provides exactly one type of service. A shield station will only sell shields, an offensive module station will only sell special attack-related abilities, and so on. These are randomly scattered throughout each of the structures you'll be exploring. One of these terminals will be extra important to you: The job station. This is where you get random missions that you can do to earn credits. These are pretty much the same sorts of things that were in the X089 games. You might have to drop off a black box in a specific location, defeat a set of targeted bots, observe a bot for a time from a stealthy location, or other things. I wish there was a larger variety of mission types, but that's a small complaint. You have bigger quests and such to do of course, but these jobs will comprise most of the goals you have. One way or another, no matter where you are in the game... you have lots of stuff to do, and lots of decisions to make.

Let's get the flaws out of the way now. There are a couple of things that do bug me quite a bit. First is the station finders... a consumable item that shows you the location of all terminals in a structure, for about 30 seconds. With the way that these structures are generated, this is your main way of actually finding the terminals you need. Trying to search for any speciifc terminal without a finder is an exercise in futility and frustration. So if you ever run out, you can expect to spend quite awhile running around like an idiot before you get more. It also is a constant drain on your credits, as you have to keep buying these things. Another issue is the whole acid sea thing. As you progress, you'll be moving from one structure/zone to the next, and between each of these is the acid sea. There are no bridges or anything to help you cross... you gotta jetpack, and it can be a long way from one to the other, often punctuated only by very flat, tiny platforms on the very surface of the acid. It's very easy to either run out of energy or overheat during your flight between structures, and if you end up in the acid, it's a death sentence. You'll get the hang of dealing with the crossing after awhile, but still, it can lead to the occaisional frustrating death nonetheless.

It's also worth noting that this is a LONG game. Of course, so are the X089 games... so this is nothing new. But it bears mentioning.

Overall, I really like Rombie alot. It's everything I've come to expect from Phr00t, similar to the X089 games yet with enough twists to really give it it's own identity. Full of exploration and action, there's never a boring moment here, and there's always something to do, and the combat system is excellent too. All in a gloriously surreal, somewhat spooky world. A criminally overlooked game that I highly recommend.

Robot mugging simulator.

Roam around a grim gloomy robot hive world, murder robots, steal their modules, work your way towards a far off objective. Lots of vertical action. Fun for me because I like robots and procedurally generated open world games.

"Release the Dark Warriors."

Maybe this will happen to you, or maybe it won't. There are many choices to make, and the story branches out in very different ways. From the first decision you're left wondering "what if?", and that is one of the best parts of ROMBIE.

The gameplay is a steady climb of exploring randomly generated floating fortresses, gathering more powerful loot and items to strengthen yourself, and fending off (at times) a metric ass ton of robots that each have their own unique combinations of modules. Those modules make up the body and core of the enemy, and can be shot off one by one, or blown entirely to bits, or carefully sniped to protect their durability for possible recovery (aim for the head). These are the most common enemies, but certainly not the only ones.

If you've never played a phr00t game before, this is probably the best place to start. Controls are basic enough to be learned quickly, and within an hour or two, you'll have a solid grip on the overall gameplay loop.

Pros:
-Addictive. One more piece of gear... One more fortress...
-The setting is mostly dark and eerie, which creates good atmosphere.
-Branching story with multiple endings.
-Ground-based fighting and usage of cover, or aerial warfare with your Jetpack, or both. Great freedom of movement.
-Tough battles often come with better rewards. Robots with better modules will be more difficult, and rightfully so.
-Good variety of offensive and defensive abilites to help turn the tables. You'll need them.
-Nice music
-The penalty for death is just right.

Cons:
-Graphics are a bit lacking in variety and polish.
-Sound design. Lots of pew pew laser noises.
-Bots with Stun are a pain. They can lock you from a pretty far distance. If you're facing more than 1 or 2, forget about it. EDIT** Stun mechanics have been reworked and it is much better now.

Dive into it. You may just enjoy the swim.

ROMBIE, is another good Phr00t software title.

Unlike 3089/5089, (which once you know the basics, you could just become a one robot rampage machine) in ROMBIE you must take care with every step, you never know if there is going to be a giga-tank-dash-robot just around the corner.

The graphics are usual Phr00t fair, just enough so that you can play without your eyes bleeding, but the gameplay more than makes up for it.

The jetpack is a nice touch, useful yet must be monitored, you don't want to overheart whilst trasnitioning between areas.

Solid 8/10 game.

Its a good well made game. Another cool game to play by phr00t. I've still to get out of the first areas and survive, but so far it feels like a well worth the money game to buy, mostly for its replayability and challenges. The modular robot design is a fresh idea, and works well with the environment. All in all I recommend it to anyone that likes action fps games with a sci-fi theme.

I've been playing phr00t's games since 3079 (great game in its own right!) and I think this is the best combination of the exploration, kill, loot, upgrade cycle which characterize his rpg-type games.

The loot/repair upgrade system in this game is addicting and definitely doesn’t dole out the good drops like before making the rewards and choices more meaningful. The environment is more streamlined and part of the gameplay, I always felt cover was just a dive or dash away and maintaining jet energy has real consequences with the acid river always below. The shooting feels nice and the new combat mechanic of hitting critical areas on enemies makes even the toughest ROMBIES victim to a carefully planned shot! I really like the cryptocoin economy even though it hasn’t worked out for me yet, it’s awesome making investments and hoping they come through! The standard credits economy is also very well balanced and there are always things to buy as having a surplus of money means you can move faster between areas. The story and writing in general are quite barebones and not as engaging to me as in 5089 but I do like how this game has a few set pieces and story parts. The sound is a step up from previous titles and the soundtrack is great as always.

This is a solid title with addictive gameplay and lots of freedom in how you want to tackle its challenges. I’ve put in about 20 hrs for reals and will definitely play again to get the ending I want. Totally recommend giving this one a shot to experience the zen of leveling up!

That's an odd one.

Like all of Phr00t's games ("5089" for example) the world and quests are procedural, the visuals are just plainly weird with a low poly count and low res textures, and the atmosphere is oppressive and the whole game shouts "indy one person team". It also shouts of dedication to content.

If you're in the "meh .. I want flashy graphics" crowd then avoid at all costs. If you like immersive "otherwordly" (for lack of a better word) open worlds with procedural quests (and NPCs) and an interesting overarching story then it's definitely worth checking out.

The VR implementation is very good by the way. Not CroTeam-level of superb, but enough to make the experience pleasurable :)

definitely need an update to make it run faster, i can run 5089 effortlessly but this game is lagging on potato graphics

i'll keep the review positive since my criticism isn't about the gameplay itself

edit: the developer wasted no time to fix the issues i had with the game, after playing through 5089 i definitely have to complete this one as well

Just to note, I'm not too far in so my review could be subject to change, but I wanted to throw one in at least as a placeholder. So, ignoring the game completely, Phr00t, as a dev, is such a breath of fresh air in the current gaming environment of today, with large games often being released and abandoned shortly thereafter with empy promises from the devs or community managers. Just checking the steam forums for his games you can see how actively he listens and talks with the players.

Compare this with Nier:Automata's customer interactions "We received your reports, thank you for your feedback, we will be investigating the issues that have been brought up" (One year later, not a single word said)

Onto the game.. I would not recommend this game to anyone who wants a real good hand holding. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who expects not to die in a game. I also wouldn't recommend it to anyone overly obsessed with graphics. However there's a group of people who read the last three things I said and their eyes lit up progressively more with each sentence, I do recommend it to them. There's only one thing that I'm far enough in to say that this game definitively has, and that's raw gameplay. I mean that in the best way possible, of course.

I'd also recommend it to anyone who has a vive and is looking for something a little bit grindy to burn some hours. Somehow grinding in VR just isn't as painful as doing it on a flat screen, don't ask me why, I'm not the scientist here.

TL;DR : Recommended to anyone capable of knowing what they're getting into prior to playing. Not recommended for sissy babies and people who get frustrated when games don't coddle you for making bad decisions.

TLDR: Rombie is a great game where you investigate the secrets of the Central Command. There is a lot of exploring to do through this procedurally generated world with many randomly generated quests you can use to become richer, stronger and ready to dig deeper into hostile territory. It's awesome.

If you haven't been exposed to Phr00t's games before there are some common characterists that span the catalog: randomly generated worlds, random weapon drops, random battles between NPCs, great mobility (this time with a jetpack). Dude is a one man gang and has created some really interesting, fun and kind of overlooked games. Please go back to his other titles, 5089 and 4089, if there's anything here you like. You can get them for a song and I have sunk dozens of hours into those crazy worlds. These games will all lead you into memorable situations from the emergent gameplay.

I've only played Rombie for about four hours at the present but I think I know enough about it to put some thoughts together about it.

Almost all quests are randomly generated so this won't be like The Witcher. However, The Witcher doesn't have weird broken robots that ask you to kill them either. The quests allow you to make money and fight your way through hostile territory, defeat robot enemies and hopefully get to their broken shell to loot their equipment before their remains disappear. As you acquire currency you can buy new modules and equipment that will make you into a robot murdering badass.

You can play this game however you want to. Stealth, guns blazing, whatever, there aren't a lot of rules.

Rombie is 9 bucks and it's totally worth checking out. You could play this game forever.