Roboquest is a frenetic FPS roguelite by RyseUp Studios where you blitz through a horde of robotic minions using a variety of weapons and abilities. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Roboquest Review Overview
Roboquest Pros & Cons
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Immense Replayability Roboquest Overall Score - 88/100
Roboquest is an absolute blast to play and I mean that in the most literal sense. Its fast-paced FPS combat and roguelike elements blend together into a beautiful balletic barrage of bullets and bashes that'll get your blood flowing the moment you boot it up. If you're up for some robotic carnage and aren't one to shy away from a gunfight, then Roboquest is the rock'em sock'em robot experience for you.
Roboquest Story - 8/10
Roboquest's story is complex enough to keep things interesting without being overladen with networks of interconnected lore. The game scores extra points for expressing its story through its gameplay, but the collectible nature of data logs and lore points locked behind difficult bosses do make it less accessible to the casual player.
Roboquest Gameplay - 9/10
Roboquest is a DOOM-inspired FPS roguelite done right. In a market saturated with similarly designed games, this is the one that manages to lean into both aspects of its roots: gunplay and roguelike progression. The only thing holding this game back from a perfect score in this regard is its grindy, almost nonexistent metagame progression.
Roboquest Visuals - 8/10
This game ran away with its stylization and decided to go full Borderlands in its visuals. That's not to say that it's an exact copy, mind you, as its comic book-esque twist to the usual cell-shading style makes this game pop. That being said, it can get a bit tiring to look at with its vibrant colors, and the various onomatopoeia clutter the screen at times. Players that get overstimulated quickly should stay clear.
Roboquest Audio - 10/10
No robot shoot 'em up is complete without a banger soundtrack to back it up and Roboquest has it in spades. Composed by Noisecream, this game's techno/rock fusion soundtrack accompanies the robot carnage well, pumping pure energy into your veins with every pull of the trigger. The sound design is superb as well, giving heft and realism to the weaponry of an otherwise cartoony game.
Roboquest Value for Money - 9/10
You'll be getting all this mechanical mayhem for a mere $20, so you better believe that this game is worth its meager price. As with all roguelikes and roguelites, Roboquest offers near-infinite replayability in a neat little FPS package. If you can spare the cost of a modest lunch, you'd be halfway to Haven City by now.
Game8's Review Policy and Scoring System
Roboquest Review: Rockin' Renegade Robot Roguelite
Alliteration in the title aside, Roboquest is a masterclass among it peers, masterfully merging the best aspects of its inspiration - DOOM - with the infinite replayability, metagame progression, and synergistic run modifiers of a classic roguelike. While its FPS aspects downgrade the game to a roguelite, there's no denying that this game puts many true roguelikes to shame with its charming art direction and robust gameplay. Without further ado, let's take a deep ground stomp as to exactly why Roboquest is a rockin' renegade robot roguelite.
I'd love to start things off differently and talk about the game's visuals first but I need you to understand just how fun the gameplay is before anything else. In a nutshell, this game is as fun as how you think giving a gun to a robot would go. Now multiply that throughout nearly 15 different worlds, add in an armory's worth of guns and weaponry, then sprinkle in a few spicy run boons, and you've got yourself a wrecking run-through that'll leave you breathless.
There's no putting into words just how intense this game can get when you're in the thick of it. You're thrown into the fray right from the get-go with nothing but a pistol to your name. Eventually, you'll find better and better guns, new passive upgrades to your damage, modifiers to your guns, secondary fire options, and, heck, even a few world secrets while you're at it. Unlike other FPS games, this one has a real momentum to it, whether you're fighting through hordes of robots or just freerunning through each level's surprisingly vast map.
Through your ever-forward movement; your endless equipment switching; your peerless weapon mastery; your constant data log entries; and your grand battles against massive bosses; this game is a quest through and through. You'll find yourself defeated many times, but that's the essence of a roguelite. Just dust yourself off, find a new class to play, maybe rearrange your gadgets, unlock some new features with your metagame currency, and head out for another. There's no keeping a good robot down, after all.
The best part is that you're not limited to just shooting guns, as each class gives a new approach to every run. Guardian is the jack of all trades, letting you spec into almost anything. Ranger plays around with invisibility and critical hits, trading survivability for massive single-target damage. Commando lets you unleash payloads of rockets and shotgun pellets into enemies endlessly. Engineer lets you run amok with drones and energy weapons. Recon plays with teleportation and melee hits, letting you live your Shinobi fantasy. And finally, Elementalist (a secret unlock in the game) puts your foes at the mercy of your elemental mastery. Each class has its tree of upgrades that synergize well, as well as their own main and secondary abilities. It's like the PvE mode that Overwatch 2 never delivered, only a thousand times better.
The guns themselves are also charming as heck, doing away with boring standard-issue firearms and adopting the oddest, most out-of-the-box firearms you can imagine. Why settle for an AK-47 when you can have a dragon-shaped cannon that lobs explosive firebombs at your enemies? Each one is incredibly complex and layered with modifiers out the wazoo. Secondary fire options also expand each gun's potential further. Rarities and upgrades take this complexity (and you) to the stratosphere, allowing you to scale as you progress. With an arsenal this varied, it's a legitimate challenge to end a level with the same gun you started with.
Lastly, let's talk about the game's charming and unique art direction. This game has a cell-shaded art style similar to the Borderlands series, sporting heavily inked lines, solid color panels, and saturated color pallets. Whereas the Borderlands games prefer to take this cell-shaded style to space with modern accents, Roboquest opted to embody the comic-book look. Onomatopoeia like "BANG!", "TAKA!", and "WOOOSH!" accompany every shot, step, and explosion, which sells the aesthetic they were going for.
The game's music is no slouch either, as your servo-severing spree is accompanied by a thumping techno/industrial soundtrack courtesy of Noisecream. Anyone who's ever played DOOM can attest that the soundtrack assists with the mayhem, giving cohesion to your carnage and pumping your heart to the beats.
All in all, Roboquest is an experience one that would leave you breathless and waiting for more. Its story could have been presented better, and its skill floor could be a bit more accessible, but all that pales in comparison to the oil glistening off of your armor plating.
Pros of Roboquest
| Things Roboquest Got Right |
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Immense Replayability
Just to give you a scale of how replayable each Roboquest game is, allow me to list down all the variables that could potentially differentiate a run. First is your class, of which there are 5 initially and 6 when you unlock the Elementalist. Each class has its own set of upgrades that synergize well and branch off into their progressions like a tech tree. You only get a selection of 3 to choose from every time you level up so it's not guaranteed which one you'll get at any given time. That's already a ton of variance, but wait, there's more.
The game has 73 weapons, comprised of pistols, shotguns, rifles, cannons, and even a few melee weapons as well. These can drop from enemies during a run or through chests. Each has a rarity that determines how many affixes it has, ranging from common to legendary. Affixes are weapon stat boosts or changes, of which there are 70, that determine how a weapon behaves. Each weapon can have an alt-fire that's chosen from a pool of 18, which gives the weapon a secondary attack. These, too, are affected by affixes. Lastly, for weapons, each one has a level that scales its damage accordingly up to the maximum. That's a lot, but wait, there's still more.
Your path to the final boss isn't always the same, as the world branches from level to level, and some aren't available unless you follow a specific path. There are 15 levels in total, each with its gimmick and theme. Some branch into two more, while others are a straight shot to the boss. Not counting the secrets found in each level, the data logs hidden in odd places, and the gadgets you can find scattered across the whole run, you're looking at near-infinite replayability here, and that's not even covering the random boss pool.
Great Art Direction
This game has a very distinct art style that lends itself well to the wacky carnage you can get up to in the middle of a run. Despite its dystopian presentation, the devs opted to make the game cartoony and bright, with even the most rusted weapons and explosions looking almost comic book-like. Roboquest undoubtedly took inspiration from the Borderlands series and its cell-shaded aesthetic. Heavy lines and comic book paneling help sell the idea better, but my favorite tidbit is the onomatopoeia that shows up whenever you shoot. It's a very cute detail that ties a bow around the whole thing, keeping it cohesive across its exhaustive run time.
Tearing other androids limb from limb has never looked this good, and I am all for it.
High-Intensity Robot Wrecking Carnage
I've mentioned this game's intensity in this review already but there is no accurate way to express it succinctly. It's not a matter of getting into "the zone" here, you're gonna be pulled into it the moment those doors slide open. The way the combat moves is exquisite, with every enemy having just enough health to be a challenge but not so much that it takes too much of your time to defeat. Shoot, reload, and move on to the next target.
Even other mechanics like gaining new perks, switching stages, upgrading weapons, or moving about the map won't lose you that momentum (this is improved further by the Grappling Hook gadget). This type of combat is likened to cutting a swathe through a horde of zombies. They aren't that hard to kill, but there are a lot of them, and they have guns. If you're looking to feel the rush of being a one-robot wrecking crew, this is the game you're going to want to get.
Cons of Roboquest
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Skill Floor is a Bit High
With all that intensity in mind, you're not gonna make it far if you don't "git gud", as they say. The skill floor for this game isn't the most forgiving, even for the lowest difficulty settings, which lowers enemy damage and health significantly. The sheer number of foes can overwhelm the unprepared, and the unforgiving fact that you need to hit your shots to deal damage can be a hurdle for newcomers.
Many of this game's Steam reviews call it a much more fun and engaging version of Aim Labs, a famous training tool/game that FPS players use to hone their accuracy. Honestly, I can see the resemblance, as many of your enemies can either fly, jump, shoot, or any combination of the three. Not everyone has the time to learn such precision, so I can see this as a major hurdle for those just looking to tear robots to shreds.
Storytelling is Vague and Inconsistent
I like that the game presents its story as a comic book of sorts, using minimal animation for its cut scenes and utilizing panels to separate scenes. This is only for its cinematics and loading screens, however, as the in-game lore can only be gleaned through collectible audio logs. The game's story isn't pivotal to its progression, as you won't be making any story decisions anyway, but the fact that its lore can only be found and not earned through normal progression means that it can go above many players' heads.
Sure, the game encourages finding the audio logs by giving you metagame currency in exchange, but it doesn't mean you'll find them in order (or at all), leaving it up to you to do the legwork and find out what events took place before the game's setting.
Too RNG Dependent
In the same way that the game's variety serves as one of its strengths, it can also serve as one of its pitfalls. RNG is fun, great even, but too much RNG removes a player's agency in the game, making their decisions pointless in the churning tides of chaos. Sometimes you just get a bad gun, even if you were dominating the past 5 levels. Sometimes you don't take into account the downsides of your Corrupted Upgrades and die to something you didn't even see coming. Sometimes, things just don't pan out, not that you didn't try to avoid it.
Admittedly, enough skill and perseverance can turn the tides in your favor despite the RNG, but that route begets skill and perseverance in the first place—something a player won't always have. RNG is a staple in both the Roguelike and Looter-Shooter genres, but doubling down isn't the way to address it for a genre-fusion game like this.
Is Roboquest Worth It?
Grab a Brobot and Get This Game Now!
The short answer is yes, Roboquest is worth its $20 price many times over. The long answer is yes, you should get it, but maybe think about the commitment you're going to have to give to play this game properly. If you're already skilled with FPS games then great, you won't have to worry as much. Newbies have much to learn, however, and this game won't pull its punches just because you don't know how to play it well.
My best recommendation is to grab a Brobot (2nd player) and play this game in multiplayer. Not only will it enhance the experience by providing more chances for synergy, but the extra firepower could be just what you need to get past a certain boss.
| Platform | Price |
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 Steam | $18.74 |
 Xbox Store | $24.99 |
Roboquest Overview & Premise
Roboquest's story revolves around you, The Guardian, and your new human friend Max as you fight your way to humanity's last bastion, Haven City. Iris and her army of robots stand in your way, however, but they're no match for your tenacity, guile, and most of all, your arsenal of weapons.
Rise, Guardian, and finish your task. Guide the humans to Haven City and demolish all in your way.
Roboquest FAQ
Where Can I Find the Chromatic Cell in Roboquest?
The Chromatic Cell is a collectible in Roboquest that requires several runs to attain and a specific set of weapons to unlock, as indicated below:
Step 1: Reach the Energy Center Checkpoint Area
Midway through the Energy Center level should be a checkpoint that has a door off to the side that requires 25 energy cells to open. Doing so will grant you access to a room displaying a 6-digit code with 4 numbers missing. Note the 2 numbers shown.
Step 2: Hit the Energy Center Orb with Elemental Weapons
Inside the room should be an elemental orb. Take note of the orb's element and hit it with the other two elements in the game (between fire, ice, and lightning) to change the number shown on the wall. Note these numbers down. This can be done throughout several runs if necessary.
Step 3: Input Code at the Start of the Energy Center
Take the full 6-digit code and input it into the door at the start of the Energy Center level. You will find the Chromatic Cell and an Audio Log inside. This will unlock the Elementalist class starting your next run.
Where Can I Find the Shovel in Roboquest?
The shovel can be found within the secret area of the Quarry map, alongside a free level-up and the entrance to a secret level.
Roboquest Product Information
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| Title | ROBOQUEST |
|---|---|
| Release Date | November 07, 2023 |
| Developer | RyseUp Studios |
| Publisher | Starbreeze Publishing, RyseUp Studios |
| Supported Platforms | PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S |
| Genre | Action, FPS, Roguelike |
| Number of Players | 1-2 |
| PEGI Rating | 7 (Mild Violence) |
| Official Website | Roboquest Website |
