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Puzzle Bots
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Graphics & Sound:
Puzzle Bots is a fun, straightforward point-and-click adventure that is sure to delight many fans of the genre, despite it's short gameplay time and not-too-complex puzzles. On the other hand, those two details can go a long way to appealing to a more casual adventure gaming audience.
The graphics of Puzzle Bots takes on a cartoonish style very reminiscent of the classic 90's LucasArts adventures like Day of the Tentacle or The Dig. Well, it's the same style of those games, but utilizing the higher definition and better graphics capabilities of today's machines. Each of the game's dozen characters (both bots and humans) have their own unique visual style, and thanks to the solid script and good voice acting, enough of a quirky personality to make them appealing and distinct.
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Gameplay:
Puzzle Bots tells the story of Dr. Hugo's Factory for Making Robots, the very few employees at the factory, and their five mini robots. Each of the company's five inventors has created a small, finger-sized robot, and each one has his or her own unique abilities. Puzzle Bots is all about knowing those abilities and figuring out which bot to use with which object and when.
Hero is a yellow robot, and your first playable character. He has the ability to pick items up and use them with other items in the environment. Meanwhile, Ultrabot is short and green and rolls around on wheels. His gift is the ability to push and move objects. Kelvin has a flamethrower attached to his back, much to his chagrin, and it is useful for evaporating water, lighting things on fire and soldering wires together. The last two bots in the game include Ibi, a girl bot that works best underwater and can tow most things around, and Bombchelle, a pink bot who loves to throw her bombs around and blow things up.
As the game progresses, the five inventors will complete their robots and add them to the Robot Habitat and make them available to you, but it's not like you ever have to choose which bots to take and which to leave. Instead, everybody who has been completed goes on every adventure, and each level will require you to use each of the available bots to get through. A good example of this is when the bots have to repair a toy boat. Without giving anything away, Ibi's underwater expertise is obviously going to be necessary, while Hero is there to add things to the boat, Kelvin can free up some debris with his fire and Ultrabot will have to shove the whole thing off. At this point in the game, Bombchelle hasn't been completed, so the puzzle doesn't require her unique abilities.
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Difficulty:
Puzzle Bots isn't too tough, and with only a couple of exceptions, the tasks that need to be done are obvious, and the bots that need to do them aren't much of a mystery either. This definitely doesn't take away from the enjoyment of Puzzle Bots though. While I was able to run through the game's 17 levels fairly quickly, every one was still a fun and unique experience that fit really well with the game's quirky style and story.
Even if you do find yourself stuck, the game provides a handy Hint button and the bots will discuss what the current obstacle is with a few hints as to what you might need to do. The game never actually gives away the solution though, and it won't give you better hints the more times you click on the button, so if you do find yourself seriously stuck, it's best to simply try using every bot with each of the items laying around. This is a surefire way to progress, but that shouldn't be necessary too often.
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Game Mechanics:
Puzzle Bots is rather interesting in that it takes the basic abilities of adventure games and breaks them up across five characters. Okay, having a flamethrower and bombs ready isn't a "basic ability," but the simple things like pushing an object or grabbing something, and heck, yeah even using a flamethrower if it happens to be in your inventory, would be all a part of your main character in more traditional adventure games. Here though, you not only have to know what you need to do, but which character can do it.
Thankfully, the five bots are so specialized, that you never really forget who is best for what job. Why this seems to work so well, is because of how well the game slowly introduces the five bots and their abilities making it a nice, slow buildup to the more complicated puzzles that require all five bots working together. This would be akin to your main character in another game only having the ability to pick up and use items early in the game, and then learning how to push them, then how to burn things, then learning to swim and finally getting bombs to use. That would be very awkward for a single character's development, but instead it is a natural flow from the ongoing story and it works really well.
Puzzle Bots is just a fun adventure title. Unfortunately, it seems to end way too soon. I was able to blow through the game in just a few hours, and while I enjoyed every minute of it, it would have been nice if it went on longer. If you are a more casual adventure fan, then this is a game that is right up your alley. The quick and simple puzzles mean you can jump in, play for 10 minutes or so and make it through a puzzle and the surrounding story.
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-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer |
Minimum System Requirements:
Pentium Processor, 64 MB RAM, Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP or Vista, DirectX 5, Any DirectX compatible sound and video card |
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Test System:
Windows 7 Ultimate, Intel i7 X980 3.33GHz, 12 GB RAM, Radeon HD 5870 Graphics Card, DirectX 9.0c |
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Related Links:
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