Drunken Robot Bullet Hell | First Person Saturday

Our latest deep dive on first-person games is focused on a bullet-hell shooter unlike any other.


Published: August 22, 2015 11:00 AM /

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A player can be seen shooting some items

What a title, eh? Drunken Robot Bullet Hell  (Not the game's actual title, which I can't write without Google screwing us over) is a unique shooter, to say the least, one where you must fight giant robots, dodge lasers, and exploding cannon fodder, and collect martinis in a time limit - a crazy premise for a rather crazy game, one that I rather enjoyed. Drunken Robot Bullet Hell is as much of a bullet hell game as it is a shooter, with the bosses, called Titans, spewing an insane amount of lasers, and multiple enemies swarming you from all directions.

It's in these moments when Drunken Robot shines when you're using your jetpack to strafe between lasers in mid-air while you target different arms of a titan with an absurd amount of projectiles coming from the barrel of your gun.

However, in between titans, you're forced to gather martinis and kill weak mooks in droves, something that can get boring after a while. There are different fodder enemy types in theory, but really they all just boil down to different patterns of things to shoot. While it's repetitive, at least it's a game that keeps moving, unlike most shooters in this day and age.

A player can be seen shooting against a ton of lasers

Also, yes, I did mention a jetpack. Your reticle has two bars around it, one for health and one for the jetpack meter. With it, you can glide across maps with ease, and further power it up with tokens scattered across the levels. Similar tokens can also level up the basic gun, so it will rapidly fire in spreads of green lasers. The game looks great as well - very sleek with Titans having strange designs that really make every boss look unique.

But the game is not without its flaws. First off, the controls can be a bit slippery at times. There were times when I took my hands off the keyboard and my character still kept slipping forwards to his death, and in a game where you have to constantly keep moving, this is a big issue. Another thing that may be a turn-off for some players is the difficulty. I'm not going to beat around the bush, this game can be hard. However, luckily for the player, it never really felt too unfair.

Probably the worst part of DRP is its "humor." The game focuses on a bartender who gives his robot sentience, which then proceeds to rampage across Boston. This would be fine if your combat suit never spoke a word, which he does a lot of, especially near the beginning. Let me put it this way. If you found Borderlands 2 to be hilarious, you'll probably think this game is amusing. If not? You'll likely dread every time you get a message in between levels.

The player can be seen shooting some items

While Drunken Robot may not be the deepest shooter on the market, it still manages to be a load of fun when fighting the tough-as-nails titans. It's difficult, it's beautiful, it's got loads of fan-made titans to fight via the steam workshop, and it's certainly not 'boring'.

This post was originally published in 2015 as a part of our First Person Saturday series. It's been republished to have better formatting.

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| Staff Writer

Filmmaker. Entertainment critic. Genre film aficionado. Has bad taste and hot takes.