Akimbot Review

Akimbot is a third-person action-adventure developed by Evil Raptor and published by PLAION. The game harkens back to the PlayStation 2 era of games. You know, like Ratchet & Clank (2002) and Jak II: Renegade. Heck, one of the main characters kind of looks like Ratchet in Ratchet Gladiator (or Ratchet Deadlocked for all the NA readers). Given the fact that I’ve managed to play every mainline Ratchet & Clank game, I’m excited for this! Let’s check this out and see if it's worth fighting hordes of robots.

Set in a universe where only robots exist, Exe (pronounced X-E) and Shipset are criminal bots with bounties on their heads, who are suddenly thrust together into dealing with a megalomaniac who is hellbent on obtaining an artefact called… the Artifact, unlocking time travel with it, and conquering the universe. With the promise of money and freedom (and stopping the complete destruction of everything they know), Exe and Shipset will do whatever it takes to ensure that the universe doesn’t implode.

We’re gonna start off strong by saying that I think the writing was the weakest part of the entire game. The voice acting is pretty decent, but the characters in the story are often very one-note with barely any character development, the plot is pretty predictable or shows its hand too early and, this might be a dealbreaker for some, Shipset is one of the most aggravating characters I’ve ever seen. I don’t often dislike characters (for example, I like Ava from Borderlands 3), but I hated Shipset by the third level. He was annoying, selfish, greedy, and didn’t know when to shut up. Since he’s your companion throughout the entire game, he’s going to grate on your nerves eventually, although the other characters aren’t that much better. Also, if you’re gonna hang lampshades on boring, annoying tasks like escort missions and collecting X bear asses, at least subvert them instead of actually making you do it. However, I do like the various scenarios the writing allows because things can get really nuts as the game goes on.

That being said, I think the graphics and music are great. The game looks like something that would be released around the PlayStation 4 era, with lively animation from each and every bot you see in cutscenes and in-game, and the levels are diverse and well-designed so you always know where you have to move forward. The songs that play while exploring and fighting are excellent too, with a variety of catchy, sci-fi tunes that will make you tap your feet while blasting whatever is in your way. If there was a soundtrack out, I would've listened to it while writing this review.

You’ll mainly be playing as Exe while Shipset accompanies you to provide colour commentary (read: complain) and help out when the need arises. Inspired by the PlayStation 2 era of games, you’ll be shooting tons of enemies, solving plenty of simple puzzles, and platforming your way to the end credits. The platforming is done pretty decently well, where you have full control of Exe, and any missed jumps, mistimed dashes, or botched wall runs aren’t the fault of the game. However, there were moments where I would’ve preferred instant death instead of taking damage over time. If you can’t save it, just kill me.

However, bottomless pits and deadly water aren’t the only obstacles in your way. There will be armies coming after you, so you’ll do plenty of shooting throughout the game. You start off with a sword, but over time you’ll assemble a decent arsenal of weapons, which are separated into two categories: Standard and Special. Standard weapons are unlocked throughout the story, where all you have to worry about is overheating when you fire. Special weapons, on the other hand, can only be bought and require volts to fire, which are only dropped by enemies, but are much more powerful. While you will always have all your standard guns, you can only have one special weapon that can only be swapped at a shop. The shop only upgrades your special weapons, by the way, which feels like a missed opportunity. Let me buy upgrades for my standard weapons, health, or energy capacity because otherwise that’s the only use for money in this game. And since shops only show up in the middle of levels, never at the start, I never really switched out my special weapons. Still, all the weapons feel great to shoot with. They all have their uses and situations they excel in, so they remain useful all throughout the game. Special mention to the Nano Turbine. It’s a railgun that deals with a lot of problem enemies very quickly.

You’ll also go through several different changes in gameplay to break up all the shooting and platforming. There are turret sections, driving sections, spaceship sections, stealth sections, and even a fighting game section. And that’s not to mention all the times you have to play hacking mini-games, from simple button presses to playing freaking Snake. It feels like the game is throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, and while I do find them nice and even fun, it doesn’t always land. At least they’re short enough, and you’ll get back to the main meat in no time.

Now, onto performance. Akimbot ran very smoothly, staying at 60 FPS with no drops, even where everything was on fire and exploding. No glitches either, as far as I’m aware. Some dialogue in cutscenes do get cut off though, but that only happened three times throughout my playthrough. As for general gripes, I do think some levels and gimmicks overstay their welcome with very obvious padding at parts. Also, the last level was just a mess that went a little too wild. It was fun, but don’t force me to play freaking Flappy Bird out of nowhere.

Akimbot is a good game, with intuitive gameplay and plenty of spectacle that wouldn’t be too different from some of my favourite games I played as kid, but it just doesn’t do enough to make it truly amazing. It’s definitely a great time, clocking in at around nine to 10 hours, and there are plenty of awesome and chaotic moments, but it’s lacking in a few other places that just don’t let it hit the mark for me. Still, it’s worth giving it a shot if you don’t mind muting the voices. It definitely needs a good sequel to hit its true potential.