Robotron: 2084 | Review

Robotron: 2084 is a 2D top down shooter originally released in arcades in 1982, it's also an early entry into the 'Bullet Hell' sub-genre. Bullet Hell games differ from standard top down shooters by featuring a lot of enemy projectiles darting around the screen at the same time, making it difficult for the player to avoid getting hit and thus avoid dying.

So, why am I reviewing this game now you ask? Well, a homage to Robotron: 2084 was recently included in the Fallout 4 DLC, 'Automatron', as a holotape game you can use on your in-game personal computer. After playing Automatron (the holotape game), I wanted to go back and play the game it was inspired by.

So, Automatron is a game within a game, which also happens to share the same title as the DLC it's accessible in. Are we on the same page?

Of course, I can't play the original version of Robotron: 2084 because I would need to invest in an arcade cabinet, so instead, I invested in a port of it. But which port? It was originally ported to Atari consoles (the 5200 and 7800, strangely it wasn't ported to the 2600, the most famous of the Atari consoles) and eventually to other consoles too, but these versions aren't faithful to the original arcade version because they don't feature dual joysticks.

So, I decided to play Robotron: 2084 on the PlayStation (featured on the 'Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits' compilation game). This is for two reasons; the first reason being that the PlayStation is my favourite console of all time, so why not play a game I've never played on it before, and the second reason is that the PlayStation controller has two analogue sticks (on the Dualshock controller anyway) meaning it more closely resembles the original arcade game.

Can't wait to use those two awesome analogue sticks!

The first thing you see when you boot up the game is a fancy looking leaderboard, this gives you incentive to beat all the scores listed there which is a nice little bonus, but this is something that was common in arcade games. Of course, me playing the PlayStation port of the game sort of defeats the object of the leaderboard because it was supposed to have other people's scores who had been playing at the arcade with you, but it's a nice feature to have if you're planning on playing the PlayStation port with friends, to see who can get the highest score.

The next thing you see is the title screen which let's you know this game means business. There are bright coloured balls moving around the edge of the screen to create a border, the name Robotron in big letters and the publisher and designer information. Certainly would have been eye catching back in the days of arcade machines. The only thing it's missing is music, which would have grabbed even more attention and gotten people pumped up to see what the game was all about.

Look at all the pretty colours!

Next you see some introduction text and a basic animation. The text tells the player the story of the game while the animation explains the basics of how to play. The story is about the year 2084 in which humanity manages to create robots (Robotrons) that are superior to humans in every way. Being the superior beings, they decide that the human race is irrelevant and must be destroyed. Because of an unexplained “genetic engineering error” the player character possesses “superhuman powers”. I appreciate the attempt at trying to explain why the player character can shoot lasers, but it's a bit of a vague explanation, I would have just assumed you were wearing a special helmet or something, but no, you are apparently a “superhuman”. But we didn't come here for a complex storyline, we came here to kill some Robotron scum!

So you press start to begin playing Robotron: 2084 and accidentally open up the pause menu for Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits. On this menu you can save/load your game and customise the controls, both features that weren't in the original game. Rather than saving progress made in the game, the save function simply acts as a way of saving your customised control schemes and high scores. So if you're playing Robotron and you need to take a quick break, you can't, but games don't tend to last long, so you'll be fine. The customisable controls are a nice feature, but why you would want to change the controls from the default setting anyway, I have no idea. I assume this was implemented for the other games in the compilation. But we aren't talking about the other games, we're talking about Robotron.

Also, why is player two's controller scheme set to be completely blank by default?

After realising that you need to press R1 to start the game (effectively what you're doing by pressing R1 is putting a coin into the arcade machine and pressing play), you then finally begin killing the Robotrons.

Remember earlier when I said that because the PlayStation has the Dualshock controller it would more closely resemble the arcade version of Robotron? Well, the game was released a year before the Dualshock existed, meaning that unfortunately, it doesn't use the right analogue stick to shoot and the left analogue stick to move (like the arcade version did). This is slightly disappointing because had the game been released a year later I have no doubt this would have been implemented. So, as would be expected, you move with the D-pad, but you shoot with the cross, square, triangle and circle buttons. This probably sounds like it would be awkward, but it actually works quite well. Aiming diagonally can feel a little bit strange to begin with but you get used to it very quickly.

The primary objective of Robotron: 2084 is to kill all the Robotrons that you can on the screen. Each type of Robotron has a different attack method, the Grunts attempt to kill you by walking into you, the Sphereoids and Quarks create more Robotrons to attack you, the Enforcers and Tanks shoot projectiles at you and finally the Brains possess other humans, turning them into your enemy. Other humans I hear you ask? Yeah, there are other humans in the game too, and unlike you they are not “superhuman”.

The enemy variety is one of the best things about this game, and it keeps you anticipating what it'll throw at you next.

Your secondary objective is to rescue the other humans on the screen (by walking into them), however, there is another type of Robotron, called Hulks, who will attempt to kill all the humans before you get to them, often turning the game into a mad dash to not only kill all the other types of Robotrons, but to get to the humans before the Hulks or Brains can kill them. Not only do the Hulk Robotrons kill humans, but they are invincible, meaning that you can't just kill all of the Hulks on the screen and rest easy knowing the humans are okay, this keeps the game very fast paced.

You're rewarded points by rescuing humans and killing Robotrons. Each level is it's own screen and as the game goes on the screens are filled with a bigger quantity of Robotrons, and more powerful types of Robotrons too. Because of this the later levels are going to get very hectic indeed. The points you earn aren't just to show off either, because every 25,000 points you get earns you an “Extra Man” (or to put it in normal terms, a 1-up), and these are absolutely essential if you plan on getting very far into the game.

See those “Extra Men” at the top of the screen? You're going to lose them all. Quickly.

So, is the game fun? Yeah, it's really fun, and it's really addictive, these arcade games were designed specifically to be addictive in order to keep you putting your money into them, and had I been born in the era of arcades, I would have been doing just that. It starts off easy, with just one type of Robotron, then gradually introduces new types, so you learn what they do and then it adds a new type, then it does it again, and again, and this repeats until the old Robotron seen in the first level disappear and you're left with the harder Robotron replacing them.

The PlayStation version of Robotron: 2084 also features a two player mode. Although, it isn't a true two player because you don't control two characters on the same screen. It implements a system seen in Super Mario Bros. In which one player goes through the game until they die, then the second player begins at level one and goes through the game until they die, at which point player one resumes play from where they left off. This is a nice feature because if you're playing with a friend to see who can get the highest score, you can do so using this mode to create a greater level of competition between each other, but I do find myself wishing a full two player mode had been implemented, I think the game would have benefited greatly from this.

Now for player two to keep playing for hours without dying.

By today's standards, the game obviously looks dated, everything is pixelly and the animation on the sprites is very primitive. Having said this, you can always clearly tell what everything is on the screen, so it's not like the game is unfair or suffers gameplay-wise because of the visuals. It's not bad looking by any means and it get's the job done. The animation as you kill the Robotrons is oddly satisfying too. The standard of graphics in Robotron at the time of it's release were okay. Games such as Donkey Kong Jr., Q*bert, Pitfall!, Dig Dug and Jungle Hunt were all released the same year as Robotron: 2084, and I would say every one of those games looked slightly better. Especially Jungle Hunt and Pitfall!, which looked great at the time because of the detail put into the backgrounds.

Where the game really falls down though is in the sound and music design. There's almost no sound in the entire game aside from a teleporting sound as you enter each stage, the firing of your laser, the destruction of the Robotrons, the firing of Robotron weapons and the rescuing/killing of humans. Admittedly that's pretty much every function in the game that has a sound, but the whole experience would be a little bit less drab with some kind of music, even if it was just like Pac Man where the music was played at the start of the game and in little cutscene sections as you progressed (Pac Man was released two years prior to Robotron just to add some perspective). An even better situation would be if it was like Donkey Kong Jr. in which there was music all the way through. The only song we get in Robotron is after you die when there's a horrible high pitched tone that lasts far too long, and then a short jingle. The jingle part is good, I just wish there was some more music like that in the actual game.

Robotron: 2084 is a challenging, fun and rewarding game. Like many games released in it's era, the story is minimal, the graphics are dated and the sound design is lacking, but when a game is fun, these things don't particularly matter, it all comes down to the gameplay.

7/10

Pros

- Addicting, yet simple, gameplay keeps you coming back for more.

- Graphics aren't the best (even for it's time), but they are clear, and any background detail may have made the enemy projectiles hard to keep track of.

- Lots of different enemy types, all with unique sprites and attack patterns, which keep the game interesting.

- An attempt was made at a story, even though it's vague, it's nice to have some context as to what you're doing.

Cons

- Sound design is very minimalistic and somewhat annoying after a while. It could have done with more music.

- A simultaneous two player mode would have been great, especially in the PlayStation port.