The bullet-hell shmup genre meets the arena-based FPS: thatā€™s the concept behind Dejobaan Gamesā€™ latest title, and for the most part itā€™s a concept that works pretty well.
Drunken Robot Pornography is an utterly ridiculous name of course, but it comes as no surprise from a developer whose previous games came with names like AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! — A Reckless Disregard for Gravity and Drop That Beat Like an Ugly Baby. Like those games, DRP trades on a combination of absurd humor and tough yet addictive gameplay. Consisting of 52 levels (plus a number of extra bits and bobs), the game has you running around various arenas, collecting points and shooting the hell out of anything that moves in order to reach the goal before your time limit expires.
The campaignā€™s story revolves around a guy named Reuben Matsumoto. Reuben has made the mistake of giving his robot bartender sentience, and now his former servant has decided to destroy the world. The story is relayed through various voicemails unlocked after completing certain levels, while in-game thereā€™s some witty banter between Reuben and his laser gun. Itā€™s amusing, and typically absurd considering the developer, but thankfully it doesnā€™t impede too much on the action.
While the goal in each stage is sometimes simply to amass a certain amount of points, youā€™ll frequently be tasked with taking down a Titan - giant, laser-spewing robots that spawn in the middle of each level and proceed to do their best to make your life hell. While the process of taking these beasts down remains the same throughout - simply fire at their extremities, which gradually fall off until you can finish the boss off - your life is made infinitely more complicated by the waves of enemies which endlessly spawn in the level. Add in some bottomless pits, jump-pads and a jetpack, and you have yourself a game that soon becomes pretty frantic.
While you only have one weapon, your shots can be modified through collecting power-ups which spawn throughout the arenas, which last for a set number of shots; individually, these power-ups give you little more than a passing advantage. However, stack them together and you can quickly turn the odds in your favor as you bounce around a stage wielding a rapid-fire triple-shot laser gun.
Youā€™ll be doing a lot of bouncing around, too. With so many enemies coming at you at once and a limited field of view (mitigated slightly by enemy indicators on the hud), standing still will see you failing a stage pretty quickly. DRP is a game that requires constant movement, and youā€™ll need to make full use of both your jetpack and the jump-pads in each level. While the arenas are largely well-designed to allow you to navigate their spaces pretty quickly, on foot, the implementation of intertia combined with some narrow walkways can often make it frustratingly difficult to keep yourself within their boundaries. Itā€™s all too easy to fall off a ledge and into a bottomless pit, costing you precious time on the clock.
Itā€™s also a game that presents a stiff challenge - often too stiff. While three difficulty settings exist, even on the easiest setting itā€™s frustratingly common to become stuck in a rut of replaying a stage over and over again. Unfortunately, progress through the game is entirely linear. Being able to leave on level for a bit and tackle another could have alleviated some of the despair caused by failing the same stage for the tenth time in a row.
Thatā€™s not to say that there arenā€™t other diversions though - a challenge mode allows you to test your skills against others, thereā€™s full leaderboard support, and a simple-to-use editor lets you create your own levels and share them with others via Steam Workshop. Thereā€™s also some extra bits to be found in a menu simply marked “playground”, such as a fully playable version of the gameā€™s inspiration Inago Rage, which was originally released a decade ago.
Despite having a catchy theme tune, the gameā€™s sound effects arenā€™t much to write home about - and the endless drone of your laser will soon have you turning the volume down. But while the sound fails to impress, itā€™s always gorgeous to look at. With a clean style and bold use of color, itā€™s a game thatā€™s crying out for you to take screenshots, while the menus are well-designed and easy to navigate.
Itā€™s difficult to score a game like Drunken Robot Pornography. It has plenty of content, it looks gorgeous, and when itā€™s at its best, you can happily become lost in its thrall. Itā€™s just let down by some frustratingly loose movement, and a difficulty level that will occasionally see you hitting a brick wall and forced to replay the same level over and over (and over) again. Itā€™s definitely one for fans of shmups more than it is for fans of first-person shooters, but if you like quirky games with a good sense of humor and plenty to keep you going back for more, itā€™s definitely worth checking out - particularly given that there are already hundreds of user-made levels to download for free.
Dale Morgan
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