As you navigate through the body’s systems, your nanobot collects atoms, some of which heal you, while others can be saved as a type of currency for upgrades. From time to time, blue tech parts can be found, and these unlock new gear for your bot. At the beginning of the game, your nanobot only has three appendages, but later on you’ll gain up to seven. Each can be slotted with a weapon, propulsion device, or other useful bit. Experimenting with different combinations is an interesting bit of player development, but you’ll probably end up using a fairly balanced ship, since you can only upgrade at stations sparsely spaced throughout the checkpoints.
As the game progresses, there is a constant swing back and forth from lazy explorative sections and frantic enemy-filled areas. I’m not sure what the intention was here; it often felt like just when you were really getting into the flow of exploring things, moving quickly from one area to the next, when you’d have to stop and run around in circles to kill off dozens of infected nanobot attackers. Some battles seem to go on just a bit too long for my tastes, but once they are over, it may be a few minutes before you even see another enemy. This ebb and flow of zen-like peace and pulse-pounding blitzes feels odd. I’d really have preferred a bit less fighting and a bit more exploration and puzzle elements.
Cooperative elements in Microbot are fairly light. Two player local co-op is all that is supported, though you can drop in and out at any time. When atoms are collected in co-op play, both players earn credit, no matter who actually found them. Players are tethered together, so one can’t wander off far from the other. When one player dies, their nanobot will respawn at the other player’s location within a few seconds, another nice bonus. There is actually a weapon called the co-op link gun. If both players equip and use it, a beam of light connects the two nanobots and zaps any bad guys it touches, as long as the players stay relatively close to one another. I can certainly appreciate the idea of such a teamwork-friendly weapon, but it’s very difficult to pull off given the currents pulling and pushing players apart all the time. Still, kudos to the developers for including such a unique weapon.
Microbot, at its core, is a standard twin-stick shooter. There’s not a lot of new and exciting ideas as far as gameplay elements go. However, the theme and overall experience are fantastic. Every once in a while, there’s a memorable moment, like finding a white blood cell ally, or fighting while stuck in some thick bodily goo, and these make the theme even more enjoyable. As long as you’re not looking for groundbreaking gameplay, and just want to relax with a friend for a few hours, co-op style, Microbot is the game for you.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: Team up through the single player missions or take on the challenge missions in a survival style gameplay mode. Players can also tweak their co-op experience using the "co-op editor."
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.