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About the game
Alien Robot Monsters is an epic sci-fi tower defense action game with a 16-bit era look and feel. Somewhere in the future, humanity's desire to expand to the stars is yet again faced with expected adversity.
After finding an earth-like planet capable of sustaining a civilization, a colony ship is sent with a small detachment of space marines. However, the whole planet seems to be infested with hostile robotic life forms bent on removing all humans from the planet. The fate of humanity is in your hands!
My thoughts
The thing with Tower Defence games is that there’s quite a lot of them, and unless you’re doing something awesome and rather different, you will probably fall a bit flat. It's true for a lot of games to be fair, but Alien Robot Monsters just feels a bit flat gameplay wise. It’s all very familiar and quite a bit boring if I'm going to be totally honest about it.
It does looks pretty though, the audio soundtrack is quite nice too, but nothing here is jumping out me even making me think it’s cool. It does have a somewhat interesting upgrade feature for towers, and they “transform” into other things like a barracks to send men out, but it’s nothing I haven’t seen done before, and done better.
Honestly, the way it works, it feels like a mobile game. With no audio options to adjust levels, and to move the map you click and hold the mouse down: WASD please. The developer has confirmed they will be adding both of these in, so when they do my thoughts on it will improve a little bit.
Some of the later levels do get a bit more challenging (I actually failed one too), so the game does actually improve a bit later on, but I still think the overall gameplay is quite flat.
I didn't play it for a prolonged period, as all I wanted to do while playing it was load up Revenge of the Titans.
Issues
The fullscreen option doesn't currently work, and I have notified the developers about it.
There is no vsync option, so it leaves my GPU squealing constantly at over 600FPS, very annoying.
One of the special abilities is dropping a missile down on the enemies, and sometimes it just seems to completely fail to register the fact that I've clicked on the road, and this creates major frustrations.
Final thoughts: It's okay, but nothing really new, gameplay is very much the same as most other TD games without really bringing all that much new to the table. For the price though it's quite reasonable, so fans of general TD games would probably like it.
You can find Alien Robot Monsters on Steam. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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8 comments
Oh wow, you even sound bored in my head reading this article. Which I guess is a compliment?
It rings true though, tower defence games have been done to death.
It rings true though, tower defence games have been done to death.
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Fraid I can't agree with that review. I'm really enjoying this - the multitude of tower upgrades give this TD game a unique selling point. It's also got a lot in common with Kingdom Rush and that's no bad thing - in-lane warriors, missile strikes and para-troopers are similar to KR's knights, comets and re-inforcements, but it's all sufficiently different that I feel that this is £4 well spent.
The pacing is nice, perhaps a little slow, but some of the linked upgrades are fantastic. Linked upgrades mean that you don't just build a flame-tower. Instead you build a MG-tower, upgrade its range, which unlocks a ranger tower. Upgrade the ranger tower with rockets and that unlocks the flamer. It's a neat system and reasonably logical so you don't have too much to remember. But it adds flexibility to your strategy.
So yeah, this a harsh article. If you like TD generally and you like Kingdom Rush especially, you'll love this - it's slickly done and dirt cheap.
Oh - quick edit to add:
1. No fullscreen issues on Intel chip. Perhaps it's NVidia specific?
2. No CPU hogging either, but there wouldn't be on Intel graphics? Perhaps use Nvidia-config to create an app profile for this game and enforce the v-sync on that profile?
Last edited by scaine on 10 September 2015 at 10:02 pm UTC
The pacing is nice, perhaps a little slow, but some of the linked upgrades are fantastic. Linked upgrades mean that you don't just build a flame-tower. Instead you build a MG-tower, upgrade its range, which unlocks a ranger tower. Upgrade the ranger tower with rockets and that unlocks the flamer. It's a neat system and reasonably logical so you don't have too much to remember. But it adds flexibility to your strategy.
So yeah, this a harsh article. If you like TD generally and you like Kingdom Rush especially, you'll love this - it's slickly done and dirt cheap.
Oh - quick edit to add:
1. No fullscreen issues on Intel chip. Perhaps it's NVidia specific?
2. No CPU hogging either, but there wouldn't be on Intel graphics? Perhaps use Nvidia-config to create an app profile for this game and enforce the v-sync on that profile?
Last edited by scaine on 10 September 2015 at 10:02 pm UTC
2 Likes, Who?
Obviously everyone has different views, thoughts are my own. You call it harsh, I call it my honest thoughts.
I'm a big fan of TD games, but this just did not draw me in. The upgrade system really isn't all that great.
I'm a big fan of TD games, but this just did not draw me in. The upgrade system really isn't all that great.
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lucifertdark Sep 11, 2015
Read your review, bought it anyway, why? because reviews are always subjective opinions of the person reviewing, I may agree with you after playing it but I reserve the right to disagree with you. ;)
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Quoting: lucifertdarkRead your review, bought it anyway, why? because reviews are always subjective opinions of the person reviewing, I may agree with you after playing it but I reserve the right to disagree with you. ;)
Oh hey, someone does agree with me, that doesn't happen often!
Edit: I may have misread, have you played it?
Also, fullscreen definitely does not work for me on Ubuntu 15.04 (Unity).
I played a tiny bit more and it's grown on me a tiny bit, but still I don't consider this game all that fun. A minor time killer maybe, but nothing fantastic about it. I have updated the article to reflect some more stuff.
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 11 September 2015 at 10:55 am UTC
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lucifertdark Sep 11, 2015
Well I've now played it for a few minutes, full screen is working for me on Ubuntu 14.04 (Unity) Nvidia GTX 770 with up to date drivers. I am getting 1000+fps at the moment as well though.
I've only played through 3 levels so far but I like it.
It's not a bad game & I can see myself playing it to the end, why not? it's cheap & easy to play.
I've only played through 3 levels so far but I like it.
It's not a bad game & I can see myself playing it to the end, why not? it's cheap & easy to play.
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I wonder why fullscreen seems to be working for you guys, and not me? I am on Nvidia, with the latest stable drivers too.
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Quoting: liamdaweObviously everyone has different views, thoughts are my own. You call it harsh, I call it my honest thoughts.
I'm a big fan of TD games, but this just did not draw me in. The upgrade system really isn't all that great.
Absolutely! Never meant to imply dishonestly, Liam. Your reviews do tend reflect your opinions superbly, whether it's a game bought with your own money or a developer gift. I just have a different opinion! Perhaps I'm overtly swayed by how similar this is to Kingdom Rush (a brilliant TD game), but I'm still really enjoying this one. It's... satisfying.
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