This past weekend, at Summer Game Fest: Play Days in Los Angeles, the good people at Evil Raptor and Plaion Games gave me some time to play the third-person sci-fi action game Akimbot, which will be released August 29th for PlayStation 5, Xbox X|S, and PC.
What follows are my impressions of my brief time with the game.
Starting at what seemed…
to be the beginning of the game, the Akimbot demo opened with a sentient robot, Exe, and a similarly self-aware drone, Chipset, in the back of a prisoner transport vehicle. Except that the driver didn’t work for the Department Of Corrections, but instead for some mobsters.
Which explains why Chipset was so eager to escape that he was willing to distract the driver, causing the ship to crash.
Fortunately for them, the ship crashes on a planet populated by robots, most of whom seem friendly. Or at least indifferent to Exe and Chipset.
Unfortunately, the planet they landed on is covered in water, a substance harmful to robots. Hence why the natives live on a series of conveniently close together islands.
Which is why…
I spent most of my time with Akimbot jumping, double jumping, and double jumping then mid-air dashing from one piece of dry land or a floating platform to another.
(It’s also why, in a rather clever and welcome movie, Akimbot‘s soundtrack is mostly Caribbean-sounding during this part, and not the typical techo / EDM you’d expect from a game with robots.)
Of course, not all of the robots who live in this island paradise are as laid back as you’d expect someone living in the tropics to be. Good thing Exe came with a laser sword as standard equipment, and that said sword can be used to bash boxes of coins, which he then spends on guns that have unlimited ammo.
It was at this point, when Akimbot got combative, that I noticed something less than ideal (though easily corrected): the camera controls, which seemed a bit loose. It’s why, with the default setting, the game worked better as a hack & slash one than a shooter.
Though, as I said,
this is easily corrected, as the options include ones for control sensitivity. At least that should work; with only 30 minutes to play, I didn’t want to spend my time adjusting the controls.
Besides which, when I opted to shoot other ‘bots instead of smacking them, Akimbot was still engaging. This, coupled with the platforming, made it feel a bit like Ratchet & Clank, albeit with weapons that aren’t as weird or sadistic.
There were also hints that the platforming in Akimbot was going to get more elaborate. Just before my time ended, I got to a section where there was no dry land or platforms between where I was and where I needed to be.
Thankfully,
there were some helicopter-looking things hovering over the area, as well as an assault rifle that Chipset just happened to find. So, I used the gun to knock down the choppers, then used the floating wreckage to jump, double jump, and yeah, double jump and then mid-air dash to safety.
But while this was the end of my time with Akimbot, it was clearly not all there was to this game. As you can see from the trailer (which you can see here), there’s also some wall-running, some spacial combat, some driving, and at least one part where you man a turret.
It also seems like you go a lot of places that aren’t as tropical, which is too bad; Exe really needs to work on his tan.
How well this will alL tie together, though,
will have to wait until Akimbot is released for PlayStation 5, Xbox X|S, Switch, and PC on August 29th.
