RoboRumble (c) TopWare
82%


By: Phire

The government is readying for a possible hostile Alien invasion against Earth. Earth is now in need of weapons. Now that we've witnessed a special weapon used by the Aliens to destroy a planet, the tension is high. Two of the most successful and powerful weapons factories are being challenged to find out who's more powerful, so that they can be the supplier of weapons for Earth, as they prepare for the Aliens. The two competitors are BrainPower and FirePower. This game has a very similar concept to Myth, that is, it is a strategy game with individual units you control. However, I feel that Roborumble is more advanced than Myth.

RoboRumble lets you build units, but you don't gather any resources. In Myth you started out with a number of units and if they died, you lost. In RoboRumble, there are bases and you are supplied with money that the manufacturer gives you from the start. If a unit dies then it's parts are automatically and instantly recaptured and whatever the cost of the unit, is refunded to allow you to build more units. Now you ask, if units die and come back with a full refund, then how do you win or lose? Well the way you win is by destroying the actual base that makes the robots. The base actually has 3 stages of core meltdown. When it reaches the first stage, it will cause an explosion that will destroy all robots that are surrounding the base. When it reaches all three stages of core meltdown, the base is completely destroyed.

Being that the base explodes in each stage of core meltdown, this gives you a great opportunity to redeem yourself. Your base automatically repairs itself slow and steadily, but you won't get that core meltdown again. Those meltdowns only happen once. There are a large number of upgrades you can do. Upgrades to your robots and upgrades to your base. You can even add air components to robots so they can fly over acid waters. You can also add additional legs for speed or to walk over the water if its not too deep.

Before you actually start a mission your allowed to talk to your officials (each manufacturer has a different crew). You can talk to your mission briefer, a spy, a scientist (who can build and give you new upgrades), and an adviser. Talking to these people are very important. It's crucial to remember though, that it costs money to receive information from the scientist, the advisor or the spy. One great thing is that you can haggle their prices down, but if you manage to haggle them down but you don't have enough money for the original price then you don't get anything, so its a real gamble. Either the price can go up or the price can go down, or if your lucky you get it for free.

As I said before there are a lot of upgrades, but these upgrades are very costly and you only get a few milliom bucks to start out with. So how do you gain money? Well that depends on your performance on the battle field. If you get a flawless victory you may get a $5,000,000 increase. As your units die, you have to replace them so that brings down your chances of getting some money after the battles. There are a lot of upgrades you can do to your robots like using a Speed booster, Power booster, Frequency Booster (which makes the robot's fire rate faster) and much more. There is even a component for adding spider legs to robots.

The graphics in this game are excellent and the textures and water effects are breathtaking. I love the water effects in this game, if you just stop and look closely you can see the water moving in waves and you can even see through the water to the rocks below. If you have Voodoo 2, your in for a real treat because this game supports bump mapping which makes the graphics that much better. There is also acid water which units cannot walk into. The only way to get past that is using teleporter upgrade or by flying over it.

The sounds in this game are unbelievable. The reason for that is because it uses 44khz sound which is extremely clear. Most games don't use 44khz sound, but this game does, it's like nothing you have ever heard before. The explosions and acid sounds are so realistic. What's even better in this game is that there are weather effects! When it rains, you actually see the raindrops plop onto the water and you can hear the thunder too. Some units can even use the water to their advantage by shocking you.

I haven't tried playing Multiplayer with this full version but I have played multiplayer with the demo, and I can tell you it was extremely fast. The reason the game is limited to 4 players is because its actually 100% 3D. If you had over 4 players making 30 units with all 3D units fighting at the same time, then the game will obviously crash. You've probably experienced a big battle in Total Annihilation before only to have the cpu choke. Overall this is a great game, definitely worth getting and if you liked Myth then you will definitly love this game too, I certainly did!

Graphics: 18 / 20
Sound: 14 / 15
Gameplay: 20 / 25
Fun Factor: 14 / 20
Multiplayer Play: 4 / 5
Packaging: 4 / 5
Overall Impression: 8 / 10

Overall Rating: 82 / 100


Rating
82%