Roboquest is a first-person shooter roguelike that takes the best parts of legendary titles such as DOOM: Eternal and Borderlands, rolls them into a tight, easily consumed package without any extraneous guff, and then polishes that package to an absolute mirror sheen.
My build is perfect. My invulnerability shield is at peak efficiency; even taking damage in the rare moments when it's off helps me get it back online. My guns, a shotgun and a high-precision rifle cover every range. I’ve got this. I step into the arena with the boss; it’s Billy Boom, a walking bomb armed with laser shotguns.
Okay, I can handle that. I’ve barely taken a hit by the time he falls to one knee; he’s stunned; I go to finish him! I notice too late, beneath his health, the words "DO NOT DESTROY” and the flashing handle on his back. He detonates, and with him, my run goes up in flames.
Hot head. 😠
I start over. That was just one of a million ways my run could’ve gone, and now that I know about the handle, it won’t happen again. With each death, I improve, not just in knowledge but more tangible ways, through the permanent upgrades I unlock back at camp.
That’s the appeal of a roguelike: every run will be different, with different tools and challenges, but with each, you get that little bit more confident until you finally break through to the end. Then you do it again. I love roguelikes, but I don’t think I’ve ever found one that embodies their charm so well or has such an insane degree of polish as Roboquest. After all, to have the randomness to keep the game replayable, there needs to be a huge number of variables to tweak and turn, and randomness can be the death knell of refinement.
But that’s not the case with Roboquest. Everything about this game has been polished to perfection, from its cell-shaded visuals (very Borderlands) to its banging soundtrack to its buttery smooth, high-speed gameplay. If you told me this was a triple-A production with a massive team behind it, I’d believe you! But it’s not; RyseUp Studios, the team behind it, is a tiny indie studio of 22 people, making the game's ability to fire on all cylinders all the more amazing.
With the right loadout you can have more than enough cylinders.
Roboquest is exactly what it needs to be. Story, cutscenes, lore? All of these are there, but they’re kept at the periphery; you’re a guardian robot trying to make a home for humanity by defeating the evil AI IRIS. That’s all you need to know because the game's focus is always on the gameplay, and its gameplay has so much depth to unpack.
With six classes, dozens of weapons, hundreds of perks, and seamless 2-player co-op, every run feels distinct. The game is filled with secrets to uncover and mysteries to unravel, unlocking even more options for you to enjoy.
My favourite class is the Recon, a teleporting melee specialist who rips foes apart up close with a dagger. Still, my first successful run was with the Guardian, a brick wall of a tank whose shield provides them precious seconds of invulnerability. Who will be your favourite robot rumbler, I wonder? You’ll need to hop into the cloud to find out; I can’t wait to see you out there, fighting for humanity on GeForce NOW Powered by CloudGG.
This spotlight was written by CloudGG team member "Motley" and does not represent the opinions of CloudGG or NVIDIA.
