The most tense moments in any action movie has to be a scene where a bomb squad is called in to disarm a bomb. A lot of sweat goes by and after much deliberation, a well-timed snap from the wire cutter saves the day. In reality, the bomb squad mostly use robots to limit the risk of actual limbs flying in the air. In Robot Squad Simulator you can be the guy operating the robots and be the unsung hero of the day.
Land, sea, air
Besides two land operated robots, you’ll also be able to maneuver a mini-submarine and a flying drone. Each of these robots gets introduced while going along the 6 training missions and the 16 story missions. Each robot needs to be decked out with its own special tools. Learning to use the right tools for a certain job will be vital to your success. Once decked out, robots can be tweaked out to work more efficiently. A speed upgrade, for instance, will be one of the first things you’ll look for because the standard robots are excruciatingly slow.
Simulator
As with any simulator game, Robot Squad Simulator has to walk the line between offering a genuine simulation feel while still being a game. In my opinion, Robot Squad Simulator doesn’t hit a home run but takes the 3rd base. Meaning, It’s not quite there. The missions all have a very generic backstory which becomes almost laughable. The actions you have to perform to save the day genuinely feel hard which suits the simulation part of the game.
Tedious
I completely understand a simulation game going for some degree of realism, is not going to be simple. Robot Squad Simulator, on the other hand, makes every action very tedious because of bad programming. Driving, diving and flying feels awkward at best. The robots don’t always move as intended. In a game where you’re handling bombs which can explode from the smallest impact, this was just frustrating. The fact that the robots sometimes move on their own without any input made me quit the game a few times. I’m not known to rage quit much but this game surely tested my patience.
Some poor decisions in the control layout department made the handling of the equipment painfully meticulous. A robotic arm where 2 controllable segments were plotted to 1 joystick while the other joystick wasn’t used is just one of the examples where they went wrong. These poor design choices are all over the game which made me fail way beyond my intentions. As with any game I learned to work around these flaws. Nevertheless, the motions you have to pull off never feel natural which kind off ruined the simulation for me.
2017
The Nintendo Switch version of this game initially does a fine job of hiding the fact that this game is just a port of a game from 2016. The “2017” addition of the original is hiding somewhere in the background of the title screen, but if you look closely you can find it. Robot Squad Simulator is actually called Robot Squad Simulator 2017. The original idea was probably to make this game an annual thing. How to make some more bucks from this unsuccessful game? Just port it to the Nintendo Switch… and even use toned down graphics to top it off.
Conclusion
The idea to make a simulation game about operating robots to disarm bombs and counter-terrorism is great. The way Robot Squad Simulator handled that idea, sadly, is not. I would stay away from this game. On the other hand, if you want to experience bugs which have been reported back in 2017 on the steam page in handheld modus… be my guest.
