Robotica Review (Sega Saturn, 1995)

I’ve only recently come to discover that the Sega Saturn actually had a decent line-up of first person shooters. Some were even exclusives. The Nintendo 64 and PC overshadowed everything from that generation so it’s easy to see why they would be forgotten in time. Robotica is one of these such titles. It’s a game I never heard about back in it’s heyday but recently have had the pleasure of discovering. It’s an early release on the Sega Saturn, and one that hasn’t been ported anywhere since. Considering it’s almost thirty years old that’s really saying something. There also weren’t any sequels so it must not have performed that well. Today we’re going to take a look at this decent little shooter here with our fancy new review. Here we go!

Robotica takes place in the distant future. The year 2877 to be exact. The Earth’s peacekeeping organizations as we know them have long since collapsed, and now we’ve got a planetary government that rules over mankind from a fortress in outer space. Terrorist factions have begun to emerge to fight against this super government deemed too powerful and archaic by mankind. You play as the sole survivor of an attack launched by these groups; an elite pilot aboard an assault mech. It’s up to you to fight your way through the endless robotic drones through all thirty floors of the space station to put an end to its rule once and for all. All of this is told through a surprisingly well animated opening sequence which looks better than the majority of FMVs on the Sega Saturn.

I’ve already mentioned that this game is a first person shooter, and on paper it sounds pretty bad. Robotica has a lot of things I don’t really like. For example, the game is at its core a basic corridor based shooter. You walk through hallways and open doors which either lead to rooms or other hallways. It feels very closed off and claustrophobic. Your goal in each stage is to find a key and pass through a locked door. Each level is also randomly generated, and typically this sort of thing is a huge turn off for me. For some reason, and I’m really not sure why, I actually liked this feature here. Robotica plays kind of like a marathon where you’re trying to reach the end with limited ammunition and shields. Your health and bullets aren’t replenished between the stages which adds some light survival elements to the game.

Because you play as a pilot aboard a mecha robot you have a few abilities not typical for first person shooters. For starters you can hover and dash, replenish your shields (which functions as your health), destroy all enemies on-screen, and even create a temporary barrier around your character. All of these cost generator power which can be refilled via power-ups. You’ll need to use these abilities in smart ways. The hover special, for example, is used to avoid specific trap tiles on the floor which drain your shield. These never completely block your way forward and you can always find a way through without taking damage. Still, being able to hove over them is an addition I really liked. Being able to dash forward also makes those long hallways less of a slog to explore.

Health pickups are kind of rare. That you can simply opt to recharge your health when you can’t find one made me more comfortable with how Robotica is designed. This also makes it feel more like you’re piloting a robot instead of playing as a typical guy with a gun. Speaking of that let’s touch on the weaponry. You’re a bit limited in this regard compared to other first person shooters of the era. There’s also a lack of variety in their function. Your basic shot is the vulcan gun which sometimes takes a few shots to dispatch foes. Then there’s the slightly more powerful laser (which is still just a single shot forward). The strongest one is the missile which results in a laughably small explosion on contact, but is strong enough to take out most foes with just one shot.

Each gun uses it’s own ammunition, and obviously the more more useful ones are more scarce in bullets. I liked the way that this forced me to plan ahead. Generally while wandering hallways I found that the vulcan was enough for foes in this situation. The room areas are typically populated with more enemies so that’s what you want to save the heavy hitters for. If you completely run out of bullets you can rely on a punch attack. It’s not particularly useful because enemies either shoot at you, or kamikaze into your craft. Still, it can be enough to keep you going until you find some more ammunition for the more useful weapons.

The major complaint I have with Robotica is that the gameplay is pretty repetitive. The mazes are randomly generated but typically feel very similar to one another. The scenery doesn’t really change which is surprising given that this was released on the CD format. What’s more is that there aren’t a lot of different enemy types, and you’re up against only hovering robot foes. As I’ve already mentioned your goal here is to find the key in each level as well as the door it unlocks. Later on things can become more complicated when the areas are dimmed and you must find a switch to turn on the lights. You’ll even have to find and destroy cores in the late levels. I hate randomly generated stages, but the in-game map really helps to alleviate the issues I usually have with this. It’s incredibly useful and takes away the guesswork.

Robotica is an early Sega Saturn game. This isn’t a platform well known for it’s 3D capabilities, but somehow the developers managed to make a great looking game considering the era. Robotica uses a combination of sprites and polygons. The scenery is completely 3D but characters and items are composed strictly of these blocks. Where Robotica impresses is in how smoothly it animates. For such an early release the game sure takes advantage of the Saturn hardware in some pretty significant ways. I found that I was able to move smoothly through the environments, and even into the large rooms filled with enemies. This makes strafing around these little arenas while dispatching foes surprisingly fun. The soundtrack has just a few different musical pieces but I really enjoyed them. The redbook audio really helps to make Robotica feel like a lonely and dark game.