ROBOBEAT PS5 Review. Partway through the first draft of my review for ROBOBEAT, I thought I was just going to have to hang the game up and admit that it maybe wasn’t for me; that the frenetic and fast-paced rhythm gameplay was maybe a bit much for me to digest properly and leave it at that.
But then, it clicked. And while I can’t pretend to say that I’ve mastered the game or its mechanics, the vision of ROBOBEAT suddenly appeared to me in a single moment of brilliantly choreographed gameplay. Apart from the fact that it wasn’t choreographed – I managed to clear a room of enemies with just my sense of rhythm and a good set of weapons, and it felt fantastic.
I don’t think ROBOBEAT is the most approachable game of all time – it’s a mechanical monolith to wrap your head around and the skill floor is far higher than I expected, but that doesn’t mean that this game can’t be commended for what it does. And that’s deliver a compelling and layered first-person rhythm shooter that has a lot of potential.
ROBOBEAT Review (PS5) – Dance Till You’re Dead
Getting Down With It
The rhythm-action genre is one that’s seen somewhat of a resurgence over the last few years; there’s just something intangibly cool about playing something that syncs up with the soundtrack. It’s something that the most satisfying clip compilations are built on, and the rhythm genre quite literally is built on that principle.
If you take that, and the athletics of the Matrix series, you’ve got ROBOBEAT. It’s remarkable how well these two manage to pair together and provide an exhilarating and completely modular experience that is very much in the hands of the player. I’d be lying if I said that my initial experience with ROBOBEAT wasn’t fraught with some pretty stiff learning curves, but these curves are in service of some of the most layered and intense first-person action that I’ve experienced in recent memory. You aren’t chaperoned through a game that’s excited to let you see the end, you’re thrown into the (quite literal) depths and expected to tough your way out.
Embarrassingly, I threw my hands up in frustration the first few times I played through a run. I felt like there was too much going on, and that I wasn’t understanding what to do or how best to play the game. And – while there was a level of me just forgetting how mechanics worked – it very much came down to becoming comfy with the game and the way it plays. As much as it feels like you should, you shouldn’t charge in without a thought. Your approach to ROBOBEAT should be reserved and easing yourself slowly into the feel, rather than going in, all guns blazing.
Take Your Time (But Not Too Much Time)
ROBOBEAT is a game all about maintaining momentum and constant movement around the arenas you find yourself in. Stand still for too long and you’ll be put into a corner with few options for escape and a potentially lost run.
Put this in conjunction with constantly needing to keep the pressure up with a sense of rhythm, and you’ll understand what I mean when I say that ROBOBEAT takes absolutely no prisoners when throwing you in the deep end. If you can’t spin these plates, you’ll struggle to make a decent dent in the gauntlets ahead.
A high skill floor doesn’t mean that ROBOBEAT is unfair though, there is a surprising amount of granularity to the experience to make sure you can ease yourself in before upping the difficulty in the future, thanks in large to the innovative approach to difficulty when compared to other roguelites.
Where ROBOBEAT follows in the footsteps of its predecessors in offering isolated rooms of challenges and power-ups over time, it also blazes new trails by actively allowing you to change the way the world moves around you, almost on a whim, thanks to the cassette system. In a rhythm game, music is everything. It’s the backbone of the experience and directly influences the way you approach challenges. Therefore, what about a rhythm action game that lets you change the music on the fly?
With a simple press of the D-Pad, you can open a menu and swap to any other track on the OST that you’ve unlocked up until that point. As well as each track offering a totally unique vibe, each one is labelled with a BPM that directly influences the speed at which you should be making your shots at enemies, with some songs being dramatically slower at the cost of maybe shooting less often. The same goes for your enemies, they’ll match the BPM.
The result is a system that is totally open to player expression, you’ll steadily feel more confident at a higher BPM and this opens the door for some really awesome-looking clips to share around. It’s this spectacle that forms the connective tissue for ROBOBEAT, and a lot has gone into ensuring that the spectacle is well-earned.
Going Again (And Again)
It comes with the genre, but ROBOBEAT is a game that demands replay after replay in order to learn and steadily grow your skills. You aren’t going to beat each area on your first try, and that’s okay!
You aren’t expected to totally steamroll the game on your shooting skills alone, you’ll grow and unlock permanent upgrades between runs to make the process a bit easier on your next go around.
This somewhat cushions the landing of another failed run, still letting you feel like you’re at least growing between each failure in a tangible way. You can focus on smaller steps and growing your arsenal to take on tougher challenges.
These unlocks range from weapons, to actual types of rooms that you’ll come across during each run. There’s no shortage of interesting weapons to use outside of the standard fare of guns – how does an explosive table tennis paddle sound? Each weapon interacts with the beat in a different way and changes the way you approach combat. You’ll find your favourite, but adapting to the situation is vital.
Unique weapons, in conjunction with a parrying mechanic and slick movement, creates a gameplay foundation as broad as it is deep and was a real timesink as I wrapped my head around the various moving parts.
Have I Been Here Before?
It comes with the territory but you’ll naturally be revisiting the same locations throughout your time in ROBOBEAT. It’s the foundation of the roguelike genre and yet I felt like more could have been done to make each area stand out that bit more for this type of game.
The atmosphere throughout the game is great and lends a unique feel, but it all feels like it blends together into a single mass – that while cool – never really felt like it delivered on itself. There aren’t any predefined “level designs” to speak of, but each arena ended up feeling fairly standard.
There’s an argument to be made that the variety of ROBOBEAT comes from the unique loadouts that you can build, but that variety is only half of the story. Level design and build variety need to come together, and I feel like this is where ROBOBEAT starts to creak a bit. There’s a super interesting game here, but the experience of unlocking that potential and seeing the story unfold feels slightly betrayed by level design that falls too close to the status quo.
Something for Everyone
Rhythm games aren’t for everyone, that’s a fact of life. There’s a pressure of execution and concentration that isn’t the right fit for some people. That’s no different here, there’s a real emphasis on keeping time and succeeding under pressure, and that could feel overwhelming at times.
Interestingly, there are a bounty of accessibility options that are seemingly dedicated to trying to relieve this pressure for those who are less experienced, turning the game from a rhythm-based shooter into a standard first-person one without any of the need to keep the beat.
To some extent, you could argue that this almost totally undermines the point of the tape system and the variety of weapons, but it’s admirable that this feature is even included in the first place. For the sake of the few players who won’t be able to play without this concession, it’s a nice inclusion that doesn’t feel intrusive (or even that clearly signposted!)
Additionally, settings to do with how the BPM of the game is shown on screen are present and let you tailor your display to suit your needs. These come in a variety of options, all the way down to actively removing it from the HUD and letting you play without any guidance, for the experts out there.
Keeping these options in an unintrusive space helps to keep them as just that – options. You aren’t berated or taunted for deciding to take the intensity down; ROBOBEAT is a game that wants to be played, and how that’s done is down to you.
You aren’t going to miss out on the spectacle of the game because of your own choice to play at your own pace, you’re just marching to the beat of your own drum!