There was a time when I would've given this game an easy 4 stars, possibly higher. The creativity, chaos, and fun of Robocraft was through the roof in its prime. And then the devs sort of just... Sabotaged their game for no good reason. This is a good example of the inherent issues with online-only games. I'll explain:
When I first played Robocraft, the idea behind the game was simple. Two teams would have their own custom built tank/plane/monstrosity and duke it out. This formula was great, though there were no real objectives other than "fight to the death."
Eventually, they added some towers owned by each team that you'd have to destroy/capture to win the game. This was Robocraft's prime, in my opinion. The teams were made up of (and I'm going by memory here) roughly 10-20 people on each side. This allowed for a great deal of chaos and creativity as the developers added new types of weapons, armor, and gadgets for you to deck your machine out with.
Then, the devs began adding... Questionable mechanics. The way you bought gadgets and blocks for your machines shifted from a simple store (with free, earned currency and a section for cosmetics with bought currency) to a sort of loot box system where you'd have to play matches and get lucky if you wanted a specific gadget. Thankfully, I had most of the stuff I wanted when it happened, so I sort of shrugged it off but was still a bit disappointed for the newer players. Plus, on occasion there was a certain block or what-have-you that I couldn't easily attain.
There was also a pre-built store. A bunch of already crafted bots you could buy with real money to use in matches. This isn't that bad on the surface, but in practice it greatly reduced the amount of personalization you'd see on the battlefield.
But that was the little stuff. The big, huge, game-ruining update was the one that removed the objectives and lowered the teams to about 3 on each side for deathmatch, "competitive" style gameplay. The playerbase was already dropping steadily, but this change basically killed the game. It was such a moronic decision on all levels. Why not just add a new mode for people who want that instead of replacing the already working and great foundation? I suppose they were worried about splitting up the playerbase too much, but they just sort of drove everyone off instead.
Anyway, I don't normally make long-winded reviews but this game was very near and dear to my heart back in the day. All the cool robots people made (whether or not they were useful), the unlimited creative designs people came up with, all of that is gone now except for screenshots and old videos.
When I first played Robocraft, the idea behind the game was simple. Two teams would have their own custom built tank/plane/monstrosity and duke it out. This formula was great, though there were no real objectives other than "fight to the death."
Eventually, they added some towers owned by each team that you'd have to destroy/capture to win the game. This was Robocraft's prime, in my opinion. The teams were made up of (and I'm going by memory here) roughly 10-20 people on each side. This allowed for a great deal of chaos and creativity as the developers added new types of weapons, armor, and gadgets for you to deck your machine out with.
Then, the devs began adding... Questionable mechanics. The way you bought gadgets and blocks for your machines shifted from a simple store (with free, earned currency and a section for cosmetics with bought currency) to a sort of loot box system where you'd have to play matches and get lucky if you wanted a specific gadget. Thankfully, I had most of the stuff I wanted when it happened, so I sort of shrugged it off but was still a bit disappointed for the newer players. Plus, on occasion there was a certain block or what-have-you that I couldn't easily attain.
There was also a pre-built store. A bunch of already crafted bots you could buy with real money to use in matches. This isn't that bad on the surface, but in practice it greatly reduced the amount of personalization you'd see on the battlefield.
But that was the little stuff. The big, huge, game-ruining update was the one that removed the objectives and lowered the teams to about 3 on each side for deathmatch, "competitive" style gameplay. The playerbase was already dropping steadily, but this change basically killed the game. It was such a moronic decision on all levels. Why not just add a new mode for people who want that instead of replacing the already working and great foundation? I suppose they were worried about splitting up the playerbase too much, but they just sort of drove everyone off instead.
Anyway, I don't normally make long-winded reviews but this game was very near and dear to my heart back in the day. All the cool robots people made (whether or not they were useful), the unlimited creative designs people came up with, all of that is gone now except for screenshots and old videos.