This game was an interesting attempt at outside the box thinking that didn't work well. I feel like the phrase "it's not a bug, it's a feature" inspired this game. The following is a rundown of what I liked and didn't like.
Liked:
-Movement was fairly solid (when it worked) and it felt good to move around (though that might've just been cause've how hard it was to do so)
-Fairly addictive
-Secret areas are somewhat hard to find but not impossible
-Music worked fine and wasn't abrasive
-While the concept didn't work for me, I can appreciate trying new things in game design
Disliked:
-The concept, and I know that sounds harsh but hear me out. Platformer games *require* tight controls to be fun. That's how you make a good platformer: tight controls with hellish levels. At the end of the day, it's up to the player to master the controls to win. A good example of what I'm talking about is Super Meat Boy. In Randobot the very concept is sloppy controls. I mean, if there's a pit in front of us, we're *going* to press the jump button, it just may or may not work. If it doesn't work it's not like we're going to try something else. We're just going to keep trying to jump until we succeed. This is akin to playing a game with unpredictable lag.
-Y'know, maybe this one was on my end, but I died multiple times because I'd be crouching and the crouch would just stop working for no reason and get me killed. *Multiple* times.
-This is a luck based game. You can't win based on skill alone, you have to get an arbitrary number on your "will this button work this time" pass/fail test. This isn't fun. Players feel cheated when they're killed by something beyond their ability to prevent. If I'm playing a platformer and I miss my jump because I timed it wrong, well, that's just part of the game. If I'm playing a platformer and I miss my jump because my ability to move right suddenly decided to take a sick day with no ability on my end to affect the decision, that's not cool. Yeah you can affect the percentages through the course of the game but up until the last level you'll be dealing with a lot of forced deaths and that does not a good game make.
-The levels were all entirely generic. The enemies had no character and nothing really came alive as interesting. Even the human characters with dialogue are just silhouettes. The only interesting characteristic about this game is the concept.
Overall, it's an alright game but the concept is simultaneously the only interesting thing about it *and* doomed to be unfun. This isn't a winning combination. Two and a half stars for not being bad but falling short of good with the flawed concept.
