Droid Assault blasts onto my PC

Droid Assault is the answer to my need for a fun and compelling game to relax with. I’m not saying that it’s slow or quiet; quite the opposite in fact. What it isn’t is a plot heavy game that forces me to sit and puzzle through it’s myriad levels full of brain-liquefying enigmas. Droid Assault from Puppy Games is a fast paced arcade style shooter that brings back memories of games like Paradroid (anyone else miss the Commodore 64?), but with some fun twists. It’s bright, frenetic, well designed, and highly addictive. 

Arcade sensibilities

I love a game with a compelling story, but every once in awhile I need to jump into a game and know that the only thing I need to do is blow some stuff up. Droid Assault is perfect for that very thing. It is quickly becoming my go to end of the day crack. You pilot a droid through level after level of shooting other droids and avoiding being shot. Every tenth level is a massive boss droid that sprays laser beams everywhere and takes a bazillion hits to blow up. That’s the whole gist of the game. Sure, there’s more complexity and strategy to it than that, but you’ll never really get that far if you forget to avoid taking blaster bolts to the face.

Graphically, Droid Assault looks like a neon dream from the 80s with much higher definition. It’s as if someone felt that Pacman needed more anti-aliasing and a wider variety of colors. Personally, I love it. The droids in the game all have relatively blocky design, but still remain distinctive enough that you can recognize different models after a couple times playing. As long as you don’t try to play while on acid or anything. Don’t do drugs. One of the more inventive gimmicks is the use of light and shadow in this overhead 2D game. Your droid casts light which can be obscured around corners or behind certain obstacles. It has led to some surprises and a fair amount of swearing from time to time. What you end up with is a blurred line between retro and modern game design that feels intense and amazing.

You will be assimilated

You start as a completely weaponless droid that can do only one thing: assimilate another droid. This is how you continue to grow in power. In Droid Assault, there are no extra lives, just the spare droids that you bring over to your purposes. I’ll try to fumble through an explanation, but it does become pretty intuitive once you start playing. Basically, during the game you accumulate transfer points which you can spend to bring an enemy droid into your team. Each droid will require a certain number of transfer points, so if you don’t have enough, too bad. All of the droids on your team will run on AI through a level while you’re busy piloting the droid of your choice and you can, of course, bounce between them at will while you play. However, you need to take care because as you get to higher and higher levels, your droids stop repairing as much between stages. So you do need to try and take care of your droids or you will find that dreaded game over screen popping up sooner than you would like.

The droid designs are awesome and simple. Each droid type has a designation (there even happens to be a model ED209 in the game) that can help you figure out some of the basic abilities it will have. I tend to favor the police models since they float and can traverse areas that the droids with legs can’t. The droids also have unique blaster types, armor types, batter capacities, and range of vision. The range of vision thing is fabulous. Some droids can’t see as far as others, so when you take control of them the game will zoom in or out to match it. Figuring out the strengths and weaknesses of certain models and building a team to suit your playstyle is pretty important.

If you’re looking for something action packed and arcade styled, Droid Assault may well be the game for you. Tromp through levels, blow up bad guys, collect power-ups, and laugh at bosses! I am highly impressed by this incredibly inspired return to the age of overhead, tactical shooters. I recommend checking this game out while I go hit up some of the other neo-retro games from Puppy Games and likely gush about them in the near future.