The Dead (Robots) Walk!
HIGH The payoff of the ‘rare scrap collector’ storyline.
LOW Locking quests by accidentally moving the plot forward.
WTF So we’re just not going to explain the zombie robots?
In an age of bloated development and enormous open-world maps, I can’t remember the last time I got to the end of a game and found myself thinking wait… is that all there is? So, if nothing else, at least Robots at Midnight found an exciting new way to disappoint.
I’m being glib, of course. As a 3D action-adventure with Souls-inspired combat, there’s plenty to like about Robots at Midnight. However, the further I got into the experience, the more I found myself thinking that this couldn’t possibly be the whole game that the developers set out to make.
Set in the distant future after all life on earth has been wiped out by some kind of an electrical event, the player controls a teenage girl who was thrown into twenty years of stasis to protect her from rogue bots. She’s now awake and has a chance to explore the rusted-out and overgrown remains of an extremely small section of the world’s surface. There are only four distinct areas in the adventure, with each one featuring the same basic threats as the one before it.
As with most titles that broadly fit into the soulslike format – explore a wrecked location, kill enemies with mostly melee combat, reset monsters at campfires – there’s not much content here other than combat, and it’s extremely simple combat at that. Robots at Midnight‘s fighting involves locking onto enemies and using basic combos, then blocking when enemies attack or parrying to stagger them and set them up for a vicious counterattack. There’s an arsenal of weapons, but they don’t have major differences — just variations in damage, attack speed, and stamina usage while performing the same set of attacks.
Over the course of the adventure, the player can unlock three special techniques that offer concrete combat advantages. The first is a super punch that interrupts any enemy attack, ragdolling even bosses. The second is a laser blast that’s perfect for wiping out groups of foes, and the last is a ‘super-parry’ with timing so fiddly that I rolled credits before getting the hang of it — although Robots at Midnight‘s extremely brief running time was a factor in that.
To the game’s credit, it has some genuinely interesting creature design. All of the killer robots have seen better days — decades without humans to run the factories that make their parts have left them struggling to cobble together whatever repairs they can. These robots don’t fight with high-tech energy blades, they stumble around with nailbats and clubs built from bundles of rebar they’ve crudely welded together. The fact that the enemies are barely holding it together reinforces that this is a world on the edge of collapse. This precarity is only heightened by the titular midnight. It’s not just what comes after 11:59 PM, it’s also when a horrible beam of red energy sweeps across the planet and gremlins reanimate all of the robot corpses, turning them into mindless killing machines – moreso than they already were, anyway.
Which brings me to the most frustrating part of the experience – just how underexplained the story is.
There are a lot of strange elements here – the aforementioned zombie robots, a robot cult that worships the light beam, a leather-clad robot who ultimately serves as the main villain… even for a Souls-inspired game, Robots at Midnight does a terrible job of explaining any of these pieces. The main character is very interested in figuring out what’s going on the in world – she just never has the chance to do so.
Robots at Midnight is promising, and if this were an Early Access title, I’d be excited to see where it’s going. The combat is solid (if basic) the art style offers a cartoony take on a world post-collapse, and the mechanics of exploration were satisfying from moment to moment. Still, the whole thing feels like an idea for a game, as what was in front of me for review felt miles away from being a full, complete experience.
Rating: 5 out of 10
Disclosures: This game is developed by Finish Line games and published by Snail Games USA. It currently available on PC/PS5/XBS-X. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 10 hours of play was devoted to the single-player mode. The game was completed. The game contains no multiplayer modes.
Parents: This game was rated T by the ESRB, features Violence. There’s constant human-on-robot violence and the game is set in a post-apocalypse, but there’s noting particularly traumatic about it. After all, it’s not like the player is ever introduced to any of the billions of people who were presumably killed offscreen. It’s fine for even younger teens to play.
Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: I played almost the entire game without sound and encountered zero difficulties. All information is provided via text, which cannot be resized. The game is fully accessible.
Remappable Controls: No, the game’s controls are not remappable.
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Great review! It’s interesting to see how the rare scrap collector storyline adds depth to the game. The mention of locking quests certainly raises some questions about player experience. Overall, it sounds like a unique take on the genre!
Thanks for your thoughts! I agree—the rare scrap collector storyline really enhances the gameplay by giving players a unique motivation. It also makes the world feel more immersive, as each piece of scrap has its own story.
Absolutely! That storyline adds depth and encourages exploration, making players feel more invested in the world. It’s interesting how it also ties into the overall theme of survival and resourcefulness in the game.