Welcome Time Wasters!
This week I turned to my phone to find a game to pass my time with. At first I downloaded Wind-up Knight 2, but unfortunately the game glitched out really bad on me to the point it was unplayable. I’m going to try downloading it again and maybe it will be the Time Waster next week. Luckily, I did find a replacement in RunBot.
RunBot is a free-to-play game that is part of the endless running genre. I’ve reviewed games from this genre in the past, such as Subway Surfers, and have found that it takes a really good game for me to like this genre.
Luckily, RunBot is a great game.
The story in RunBot is simple. You play as a robot that has escaped from its creators and is using all of its parkour skills to keep it that way.
Controls in RunBot are fairly simple. Players swipe left,right, up and down to perform actions and dodge obstacles. This is pretty standard for the endless running genre, but RunBot takes it one step further.
While playing RunBot, the player can pick up jetpacks and jump off buildings for falling levels. These levels aren’t controlled by swipes, but rather by tilting the phone in different directions. This took a little bit to get use to, but once I mastered it I found it to be a really interesting element that helped keep the game fresh.
RunBot also has some combat elements to it. Drones and walls will appear that will try to stop the player’s progress. These can be blasted away with a hand laser. The player activates this laser by tapping on the screen. It may not be a refined system, but this added element makes it so that players can’t just breeze through areas without paying attention.
I have had a couple of glitches occur while playing RunBot, but none of them were major and they were rare. One such glitch had my character fall from a landing only to become half stuck in the ground. It ruined that run, but there isn’t any kind of recharge time before being able to run again, so I wasn’t worried about it.
Being that RunBot is a smartphone game, it doesn’t come as a surprise that it is fueled by micro transactions. I am not a fan of micro transactions and probably never will be. However, one thing I did like about RunBot is that almost everything in the game can be earned with hard work and perseverance. There are a few buffs that can only be bought with real money, but the core items of the game –upgrades, armor and skins– can all be bought with in-game money. Also, items weren’t so expensive that they felt out of reach. This was one of the major problems I had with Subway Surfers.
Graphics is RunBot are amazing. I’m not use to seeing good 3-D graphics on a phone. I’m also not use to them running well. Granted, I am using an LG Lucid, which is a two-year-old phone. Despite this, the game played wonderfully and instances of lag were few and far between.
Audio in RunBot is half and half. On one end, the sound effects in the game are really good. On the other end, the music is really boring and generic.
Overall, I really liked RunBot. If I had to pick an endless running game to keep on my phone when I get bored, it would be RunBot. The game has some really solid gameplay that brings fresh new ideas to the genre. It also has amazing graphics that I couldn’t believe were on my phone. The game’s music leave something to b desired, but it also has some good sound effects.
RunBot races its way to 4.5 GiN Gems out of 5!