TheGZeus
The GZeus   Minnesota, United States
 
 
Gretchen ZW
Review Showcase
16.6 Hours played
First off, If you don't like the graphics as you see them in the preview/screenshots, move on. This game is about gameplay first, story second, graphics third. Well, that's how I see it. ymmv.

The story is more or less a sequel to 3089, in which The Overlord, an alien artificial intelligence used two armies of robots and you, a robot with experimental sentience to study emotion and come to dislike it. They then left the planet and their expirment behind. The other half of the story is continued in 4089.

The flow of the game is fairly simple. An X marks the boss, which changes at certain points in the main quest. You advance your character and the game by doing quests, which you get via kiosk-like quest terminals. The main quest requires finding other specific locations, (see the preview video for a clue). You'll likely end up re-claiming bases as well, block-by-block using items gained by performing these quests. The game would be very difficult without doing this often.

At the start of the game you name your character (this is also your game's seed, so sharing a character name with a friend lets you share tips and experiences in the same world, which is cool!), and either choose a class, or start with no added points into any attributes and 12 points to spend (the latter was my choice). Character advancement is by gaining skill points directly, not by advancing levels. There is no combat exp. Enmies do drop parts, though (see below). Skill points are gained by performing quests, claiming enemy territory, or taking down the boss of an enemy tower (which is an experience I won't spoil, but is pretty dang cool). The number of points varies based on difficulty of the area in which you do the task.

Gear is an interesting aspect of the game. The closest comparison is Borderlands, where individual gun parts contribute to the stats of the weapon. However, here enemies only drop a single part (most usable gear can only be purchased) which you need to assemble at a workstation, and there's also 3 armour types as well as chips, hoverboards, grappling hooks, and more. Each piece of gear equipped can boost your base attributes. Choosing gear that matches your build is very important, but relying too much on gear can come back to haunt you.

Death results in a respawn. You don't lose money as you would in a Diablo-like game (Borderlands included (-: ), instead you lose an item in your inventory. This could be a heath/energy recharge item, your grappling hook, or a piece of a weapon/armour. If you're carrying only one weapon, this can be devestating until you can find a replacement part or buy a new weapon. (that's where I stand in my current game, and it's not the first time, but getting a replacement is totally do-able). Thankfully all you lose for failing a quest is your pride. It stings, but I'll live.

You can recruit quite a few followers, and the way followers work is the best I've encountered in a 3D game. If you move far enough away from them or they from you POOF they teleport to you. No fussing about trying to get a follower un-stuck from the environment or getting caught up in a pointless battle and dying. You can command an 'army ' (troop, really. I'm unsure of the number, but it's in the teens at most) of robots to fight on your behalf (if your Prestige stat is high enough), which can be very helpful. You can also build a tanky brute, a sneaky thief, or any mix of the above (though you'll have to do a bunch of quests in one location to get enough points).

You also interact with NPCs a bit during some quests (you can learn more about the world and/or fail quests depending on what you say), which is a nice addition. I'd like more of that, but phr00ts doesn't seem to have lost neither passion nor ambition for games, so here's hoping for the next game.

The game mechanics are exposed to the player, allowing you to meta-game all you like (well, you can even use it for RP. You _are_ a robot, after all).

Overall, this game has replaced Daggerfall as my go-to game when I just want to run quests, explore a world I've never seen before, and do a bit of character building (though in Daggerfall I tend to always build a spellsword, and in 3089 and 5089 I tend to go for energy weapons and Prestige with some Pilot).

Rollertank.UFO/10

PS What other game lets you recuit a robot named Edgar Rodriquez and go fight a giant boss named Christian? c'mon! That's awesome!
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