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A fun little Gungeon-inspired roguelite - Bibots Quick Review

4K View2023-08-31

Bibots

8.5

ActionBullet HellAdventureSingleplayer

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SHOULD I PLAY BIBOTS?

Play it if you’re looking for an Enter the Gungeon-style roguelite for your mobile device. Bibots is a simple but demanding little top-down shooter, and if you’ve ever gotten hooked on games like The Binding of Isaac, the format will be instantly familiar.

TIME PLAYED

I’ve played about an hour and a half of the Android version of Bibots, but I’m still learning my way around the first biome. Like I mentioned before, it’s a pretty demanding game, and I’m still getting used to the touch controls, which felt a bit too slippery for the kind of precision movement I needed to pull off in rooms that had more than a couple of enemies in them. There’s plenty to unlock, but so far I’ve leveled my first character up to level four.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT BIBOTS?

• Cute looks, stiff challenge. Bibots takes inspiration from Enter the Gungeon in more ways than one: It’s hard. I’ve played as many roguelike shooters as I can get my hands on, and this one kept me on my toes. Even early enemies put plenty of pressure on me: there were weird little slug guys that would dash toward me while I was trying to avoid bullet patterns from soldier-type bots that could teleport around the room, all while another enemy was sending out an expanding circle of bullets that crept toward the edges of the room.

• Fun mods to find. I found new weapons during each run, but I also found new chips to slot into them that altered their behavior in interesting ways. One chip split my bullets into two, which would then spin around each other as they continued traveling, while another type added a poison effect. I was always free to swap these in and out in the middle of runs, too, so I never had to worry about wasting a chip or weapon.

• Lots to unlock. There are several characters to unlock, and each one can be leveled up individually once they’re available to take into the dungeon. There are also special crystals found at the end of each area that opened up new modification slots for my bibots. Even whenI didn’t find any of these, I’d always end a run with at least a bit of experience that went toward leveling up my current character, so none of my runs ever felt like a total waste.

WHAT SUCKS ABOUT BIBOTS?

• Slippery touch controls. This is my biggest issue with the mobile version of Bibots: the controls just don’t feel tight at all, especially not for a game that demands pretty accurate aim and precision dodging. Part of the problem is the way characters move across the screen in a kind of wobbly pattern, which I found difficult to track. I wound up caught on walls or room decorations, or moving slightly off from the direction I intended. Furthermore, the grenade, ability, and ultimate buttons are all in unintuitive locations that forced me to move my thumbs off the movement and aiming controls, stopping dead in my tracks whenever I wanted to perform one of these actions. That’s bad news in a game that’s constantly putting pressure on the player to keep running and gunning!

• Lackluster guns. While the weapon mods help keep things somewhat interesting, the guns I found were all pretty boring. There were a couple pistols, a rifle, a sniper, and some shotguns, and each one was exactly what I expected, no real surprises at all. That’s a disappointment after the wild weapons I remember finding in Enter the Gungeon.

💬Will you be jumping into the roguelite action of Bibots, or do the control scheme issues have you thinking more along the lines of “Bye, bots”? Let me know in the comments!

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Bibots

8.5

ActionBullet HellAdventureSingleplayer

Get

Comments

Devo

just out of curiosity, does this game support controller play? I saw your comment about the touch controls and as much as I'd love this game, I just can't with the dual touch joysticks anymore :(

2023-09-03

Discover more discussions on TapTap

Fair or unfair, this roguelite shooter certainly presents a formidable challenge | Review - Bibots

Bibots is a roguelite dungeon crawler shooter where players take on the role of a warrior that can pilot mech armors called Bibots. As Tayar, you are the only one left standing (literally) and the only savior of his world. 🟩Pros +Pleasing HD visuals +Intense bullet-hell action +Variety of weapons and upgrades to experiment with +Procedurally generated levels and easy traversal mechanics 🟥Cons -The touch controls are floaty and clunky -The titular Bibots are underutilized as a gameplay concept -Persistent progression is a bit grindy, even for a roguelite

lyndonguitar2K2023-08-25