Thanks to the social networking site Myspace. I met Fost who works for British indie game developer Moonpod. They’ve actually worked on some pretty mainstream games before including Judge Dredd and Actua Soccer 2 for the Playstation which is clearly quite an achievement (Judge Dredd is a wicked light gun game ). Now the team works on independently published PC games.

Mr. Robot is a sci-fi, platformer and RPG all mixed up into one. You play as a robot named Asimov (named after the godfather of Science Fiction, Isaac Asimov) who is a worker drone on spaceship ‘Eidolon’. They are heading towards a distant planet, set to be colonized by the humans on board who are in stasis. You must work your way through the ship sorting out the many errors in the system and interacting with the other drones to accomplish goals.

The games unique role playing element comes into play early in the game and lets you ‘hack’ your way through various corrupted machines. It actually introduces a great battle system which mixes what was great about early RPGs with a modern jump and explore type game. You fight enemies while also leveling up, using items, learning skills and receiving upgrades which can be either attached to you or members of your team.

This game goes to show that you don’t need a massive million dollar/pound budget to make an entertaining and involving game. I love the references to cinema and geek culture in this game; the way the face of the computer system looks exactly like the MCP out of Tron is just great. The graphics are brilliant too, there’s not one bad thing you can say about them. True, they may not be on par with now-generation blockbusters such as Gears of War and Motorstorm, but what they do have is a unique and fun style which works in the games favor. Due to its graphical ‘isometric’ 3d design it also has a level of nostalgia which brings back memories of simply fun games that have been lost due to the massive requirements of the modern games industry.

Mr. Robot is on sale now for £14.95 from the Moonpod store, An extra £4.95 is charged for a CD version and worldwide postage. You can also download a free demo to try before you buy.

Popularity: 2% [?]