Gunbot Diplomacy Review

One of my latest addictions is playing games that have me attempting to destroy and survive the hordes of enemies that are trying to kill my hero. These titles are usually chaotic, fast-paced, and do a great job at keeping you on your toes. I love it when a game tries to do something different from the other games in the genre, and that's what developer Sleepy Sentry is trying to do with Gunbot Diplomacy: combine strategy with chaos. But will this mix pay off and result in a great experience? Or will it end up being a clunky mess?

The first thing to do is choose a bot, though this is an easy choice, as there is only one robot available, called the All-Rounder. Each bot has its own stats, but for the All-Rounder, the amount of damage you deal is increased by 10%, critical damage is boosted by an extra 5%, and it has 16 health points.

We then need to decide which of the nine available weapons we want to equip onto it. As you play, you’ll unlock an additional 10, including the Machine Gun, Fire Extinguisher, Shotgun, and even a Nuclear Football. Each one has unique stats for cooldown time, damage per second, range, and duration. When you restart your run, you can swap your artillery to find which one works best for you.

Your mission is simple: fight off the incoming hordes and survive for the required amount of time, or annihilate enough enemies to fill the destroy bar. Once time runs out or the required amount of enemies are killed, you get to select from three powers to improve your Gunbot, like: The Leveller, which increases the amount of damage you deal by 1% per level; Ethics Override, which deals an extra 25% critical damage; or Zone Control, which increases the area of attack by 12%.

Next, you can purchase power-ups with scrap obtained from destroyed enemies and buy weapons and other items, which you place on your Upgrade Grid.

There are three types: Upgrade System, this includes guns and other weapons; Augments, which improve your Weapon System; and finally, Boosters that give other upgrades a boost. Your placement of these on the grid is important, as the upgrades only affect their neighbours on the field. As you progress, you will unlock other Augments, like Ammo, that are attached to an existing upgrade, and instead, you have a chance of triggering their effect. For example, the Machine Gun, when placed beside the Thumper, upgrades it to level two, making it stronger and decreasing its cooldown time period. However, if placed beside a Cooldown Augment, it will upgrade it and reduce it by 20%.

You will fight a variety of enemies, ranging from green slimes to other aggressive robots blasting lasers at you. Why they are attacking, I have no clue; there isn't really a story here, so you will need to make up your own. But I guess who requires a deep narrative when you just want to smash stuff and steal — sorry, “acquire” — the items that they just happened to drop on the playfield. When the map is complete, all the dropped scrap that you didn't get to pick up will be gathered and given to you to purchase weapons and upgrades at the shop.

As you level up, your bot gets stronger and has more hit points while make your way through the 19 different maps, aka levels. Map six was a boss fight against a huge slime that launches enemies towards you. At the top of the screen, you see little icons telling you the types of stages that are coming next. Once you reach stage 19, you will find yourself in a final boss battle. If you successfully defeat the enemy, there are multiple things you will unlock, like a new bot, if you fulfil the task requirements.

If you aren’t successful and are defeated, you will see a stats screen showing who killed you, in my case the King Slime; how much damage each of the weapons dealt; the amount of damage taken; how many kills I had; and the amount of damage inflicted. You will also unlock new items and upgrades with each run that you can try out in your next attempt. I love how it lists my favourite enemy — the one that I killed the most — and my least favourite enemy, the one who killed me the most. This was a fun touch to the stat screen!

Each map you play has a unique layout and upbeat music playing. Some of the stages have patches that are glowing green; I'm assuming it's radioactive goo, and terrain to use in your battle as a shield or to keep enemies away so they don't get too close to you. The visuals are fun; there are a huge number of different enemies that are all animated and brightly coloured. I also appreciate that in the beginning level, I am a scrawny robot, but as I completed levels and upgraded my character, it looked like a strong mechanical protagonist ready to take down anything or anyone that gets in its way.

Like other survival games of this type, the controls are simple, and you don't need to worry about firing your weapons, as it automatically fires at the foe closest to you. All you need to concentrate on is moving out of the way and dashing to avoid incoming threats. Be sure to pick up any oil cans that you find on the ground, as these will replenish some of your missing health. It’s difficult to go far without replenishing your health.

This is the most strategic horde survival game that I have ever played. Your placement of weapons and upgrades on the Upgrade Grid can make a huge difference in how strong your bot is and how much damage you deal. Plus, your grid is different each time, with different global bonus hexes to use for your build; it is so addictive! It makes you want to keep playing to unlock new characters and weapons to arm your bot with. There is so much here to experiment with and unlock; you won't get bored of this title anytime soon!