Surprisingly solid, even with a single normal difficulty playthrough. There are a lot of evasive/defensive options at any given moment, to the point that it's very easy to forget about one or two of them (the "Winners Roll a Lot" title card ensured I never forgot about rolling, though that's not always the ideal option), and this can come back to bite you in later stages that call upon the utility of all of those options in some situation or another.
The time mechanic, while hardly strict enough to be that challenging on Normal difficulty (I finished the game with close to 10 minutes remaining on the clock, with very few repeat playthroughs of levels to lower my times - and those that I did only because I felt I'd learned to play the game better since my first run of them), does provide tension throughout every level. Some stages will shower you in a hail of bullets, and while it would probably be easiest to duck behind cover, in the back of your mind, there's a concern that doing so could draw out the level too long, and put you "over budget" for the level; not a horrible thing if it happens once, but if you get in the habit, it could leave you without enough time to reach the ending.
The presentation is mostly good, with enjoyable and fitting music throughout, and clean pixel graphics that clearly convey what they need to and just look good overall. But the voice acting (in English, at least) is abysmal; both the script and recordings seemed like they could have used at least a second pass. Given the retro aesthetics, it would have been more than acceptable to leave it out. As it stands, there's not even the option to turn it down separately (which would have left the cutscenes in silence, and cut down on the enemies spewing contextless 80's action movie references throughout the level - an option which I would have preferred to have). It's not too much of a problem, but it does leave me concerned about how the developer's more dialogue-heavy games will fare.
But that's the kicker: Bot Vice was solid enough that even though I'm not familiar with its inspirations, I really want to see what else DYA games has put out.
The time mechanic, while hardly strict enough to be that challenging on Normal difficulty (I finished the game with close to 10 minutes remaining on the clock, with very few repeat playthroughs of levels to lower my times - and those that I did only because I felt I'd learned to play the game better since my first run of them), does provide tension throughout every level. Some stages will shower you in a hail of bullets, and while it would probably be easiest to duck behind cover, in the back of your mind, there's a concern that doing so could draw out the level too long, and put you "over budget" for the level; not a horrible thing if it happens once, but if you get in the habit, it could leave you without enough time to reach the ending.
The presentation is mostly good, with enjoyable and fitting music throughout, and clean pixel graphics that clearly convey what they need to and just look good overall. But the voice acting (in English, at least) is abysmal; both the script and recordings seemed like they could have used at least a second pass. Given the retro aesthetics, it would have been more than acceptable to leave it out. As it stands, there's not even the option to turn it down separately (which would have left the cutscenes in silence, and cut down on the enemies spewing contextless 80's action movie references throughout the level - an option which I would have preferred to have). It's not too much of a problem, but it does leave me concerned about how the developer's more dialogue-heavy games will fare.
But that's the kicker: Bot Vice was solid enough that even though I'm not familiar with its inspirations, I really want to see what else DYA games has put out.