Space Pirates Beware, RoboBlitz is Here
(Rate this game! 136 votes, average: 3.37 out of 5)
Loading...RoboBlitz is a great new FPS-ish physics game by Naked Sky Entertainment. The game plays quite a bit like your standard shooter with a delicious physics coating on everything. The characters are actually physics rigs; they’re “animated” through physics simulation rather than hand-created keyframes. This setup rarely means much in second-to-second gameplay, unfortunately, although the game does employ some clever physics puzzles overall.
The official description is:
RoboBlitzâ„¢ is a humorous, physics-based action game full of inventive gizmos, weapons, characters, and environments. Players take on the role of Blitz, a multi-talented robot who must activate an aging Space Cannon to save his world from a band of maladjusted space pirates.
Physics Puzzles
While the RoboBlitz marketing emphasizes the puzzle aspects of the game, I actually think they could’ve done much more in terms of physics puzzles. There are some neat designs–I particularly enjoyed the laser levels–but on the whole the game makes little use of physics during the standard enemy encounter. You’re usually better off just blasting your enemies, rather than using your grapple/connection beam or utilizing the physics of your environment in some ingenious way.
Because of the weak tactical advantage of using your environment versus simply using your weapons, RoboBlitz plays out much the same as any other shooter or FPS. It’s certainly a challenge to encourage the players to use physics for gameplay, but the designers could’ve done much more (especially with the grappling hook and playing with gravity).
Scrumptious Content
RoboBlitz does a great job delivering plenty of content. The game has 18 levels broken into six groups of three. The third level of each group is a boss fight. I found the boss fights to be somewhat frustrating. I’m perfectly willing to accept that I might be a little daft, but I usually had to wait for the automatic hint before I figured out exactly what the level designer wanted me to do.
The game also employs a user-driven unlock system for new weapons and upgrades, which is a welcome feature. Even though your choice isn’t very significant, since you’ll unlock everything before too long, any level of control makes me feel like I’m more in charge of the experience.
(RoboBlitz Game Screenshots)
Available on Xbox 360 and PC
Overall RoboBlitz is a very polished looking game. The artwork is fantastic, the game makes impressive use of its UE3 engine underpinnings, and the overall production quality is very high. It’s an especially impressive title considering its rather affordable $15 price point.
Download RoboBlitz Game (181 MB)
The full version of the PC game is available on the official RoboBlitz page for $14.95 or on Xbox 360 Live Arcade for 1200 points ($15).
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My name is Matthew Wegner, and this site is dedicated to physics games.
on December 10th, 2006 at 6:40 pm
Your little trailer shows NO physics at all. It’s just picking stuff up, sticking them to walls, then shooting for a little while. If I had to make a decision on buying this game, with only your trailer for information, I would not get it.
on December 10th, 2006 at 8:41 pm
I just beat the 360 version on the easy level, and I’m looking forward to playing it on hard, without buying any upgrades (of course, to try and get the achievements ;)
I too thought that they could have used the physics more, but I did spend a good while just playing around with objects, sticking them together, grinding up enemies by sending them flying into compactors, etc.
All in all, I thought it was pretty fun, and am looking forward to more.
on December 11th, 2006 at 5:14 am
I tried it, but it hated me and didn’t install properly.
And I didn’t pursue the game further, as it looks pretty top-end computer-ish.
Hey Tinman!
-TGP-
on December 11th, 2006 at 11:38 am
Hmmm I’d not consider this a physic based game at all, but instead a puzzle game using physics, wich is way different…
I found the boss fight quite frustating too. I was able to beat around 2 without the hint.
This is undoubtably a good game but not in the most strict mean of “physic based”… I don’t know why this game is here while others (as of DEC 11th) aren’t and deserve to be much more than this (N, Soldat, Newton Playground…)
on December 11th, 2006 at 12:08 pm
I agree with the comments about the game not being very physics-based. It seems that “physics-based” here is more of a production consideration. Everything is a physics rig, rather than hand-animated with simplified collision geometry. For instance, you can actually snag Blitz’s arms on walls as you go by, which isn’t possible in most FPS games (unless you want to go back to Trespasser).
Blitz does make some use of physics in gameplay, but really not much more than most shooters. It’s probably not even on par with HL2.
I reviewed it for two main reasons though:
1) It’s new, and people are talking about it.
2) For completeness. At some point in the next year the review list will top out and anything remotely physics-based will be covered.
I actually consider N to be in the same boat as Blitz. If you take away the ragdoll deaths, the collision and gameplay in N isn’t much more physical in nature than other platformers…
on December 11th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
this game wont run on my computer, thats why it sucks.
on December 11th, 2006 at 4:25 pm
I’m really not gonna try to play it because my computer sucks. :P
I’ll just go back to Crimsonland for now.
on December 12th, 2006 at 6:50 am
Probably worth pointing out that it’s available to buy through steam (VALVe’s E-distrubution app) too.
I liked it but got fustrated at times with the controls.
Can anyone also shed any light on to that the PhysX app was that the game installed before it would play?
on December 12th, 2006 at 5:05 pm
Leelad: PhysX is the physics engine used by RoboBlitz. I’m not sure why they’re installing the driver, actually (typically you do that to support the hardware physics accelerator).
on December 17th, 2006 at 9:10 am
Anyone know if the XBLA version has a level editor in full version like PC version?