Blocks, guns and wheels, the making of a chaotic and diverse world where the only 2 things in your way are imagination and pesky enemies.
- Developer: Payload Studios
- Publisher: Payload Studios
- Genre:
- Release Date:
- Platforms: Windows, Steam
- Reviewed on: PC – i7 3.6, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GTX1070 8GB
- Game Supplied by: Premier Comms
Preview Note: The game is currently Early Access V0.8.2 (read the current details in the link)
https://steamcommunity.com/games/285920/announcements/detail/1693799618717066263
Blocks I hear you say, no it’s not minecraft, Wheels, no it’s not Forza, Guns, No it’s not Call of Duty but it combines all 3 in an exploration full of missions, battles and for me most importantly the creativity.
In essence you take the blocks, add wheels and guns (but there are loads more add ons for your vehicles) as you head out to battle, steal their blocks to add to your own vehicle and collect resources in various forms to earn BB (the game currency) to purchase better upgrades as your level increases.
The thing is, there is so much to do and I loved how the campaign started me with 4 wheels, a gun, and a waypoint and step by step tutorial guided me but at the same time giving a decent enough challenge (including a couple of hiccups by myself resulting in death) to realise that you’ve got to think outside the box in TerraTech to create the most agile, strong and destructive robots possible. I saw a comment from 1 person likening it to Robot Wars (a BBC TV show where Robots fight) and I suppose they’re right, the great thing is they don’t take months to create, a couple of minutes depending on if your starting from scratch or just adding components and you’re away.
As you’ve no doubt spotted vehicles can vary from land or air and their form of travel is also varied between wheels, tracks and so forth. Creations can be really individual but never forgetting the objectives you need to achieve.
Adding to this is the ability to save your blueprints so you can instantly retrieve a vehicle from one of the trading stations so specific vehicles can be created for the different tasks and missions you will be doing.
I instantly found issues with my turning circle and realised that his smaller, less destructive robot was kicking my arse from behind almost literally because I didn’t place any firepower there. With my vehicle destroyed and limited cash I soon learnt that losing your Robot can be fatal when you don’t have enough cash to replace it and you’re left with a basic Tech level robot in its place.
The great part about it is that you don’t just battle every minute or two during travelling or at the mission goal you need to grab some resources by using the drills and capturing them then dropping them off at a station for your hard earned BB.
But no, that’s not all, the vehicles need repairing after battles and during them, so you need to harness the solar energy to charge batteries that repair your robots so as not to lose to an inferior robot just because he shot you at the critical point when you were not just exposed but out of power! This is a lot to think about and that’s what makes it such a fun game to play, I died 3 times in and around the same point but kept going back with different attack approaches and vehicles till I blew them all away and it was so satisfying to do so.
Earn rewards from doing missions by way of BB credit and also Company tech level to earn better rewards in the future and TerraTech has you busy non stop. Keep control of your inventory as well, because if you do get blown up but have resources in your Trading depots then you’re in a position to hang onto that cash you earnt and rebuild instead of buying new.
And after hours of campaign game time I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface especially as I’ve seen some of the amazing creation in the creative mode where you can build but also have enemies turned on to test your combat skills and robot durability and destructive power.
Visually it’s a bit of a mixed bag right now however it’s still early doors for this game so who knows where it will end up. For now it’s really bright and colourful with simple but effective scenery that is destructible (due to collecting the resources) yet when you get up close to your robots there is a much greater level of detail there and when creating the robot (which is simple by the way practically drag and drop parts onto your blocks)
Due to its simplicity despite having loads of guns firing on both sides there is no frame drops or graphical issues which I love. Perhaps more detail will come.
And I’m yet to try out the multiplayer beta, so who knows where this little gem could end up.
In addition to this there is a R&D test chamber where you can play with all the newest experimental blocks only downside is things may go wrong but great to have a keen eye on what’s coming to help expand your growing robotic empire.
And then there is Sumo, no prizes for guessing what happens here, push your opponent out or just destroy them but the up close and personal combat requires a whole different type of robot to win.
And finally never forgetting there’s more wheels on offer than a car garage the Gauntlet, test your skills on the track avoiding obstacles and vicious enemies, but will you make it to the end? Currently there are 2 tracks on offer but i can see this as a growing area that could offer all sorts of future possibilities. Just try not to add a rocket jet engine to your small car!
What I love even more about this game is that console editions are in the works as well and after the fun I had on PC I can only imagine the fun in a Xbox Live party building and destroying for hours
SUMMARY
No doubt TerraTech has the potential to really grab imaginations with so many elements that I have not even covered like production lines with your resources and more as I unlock throughout the campaign but for now, my advice is to go and check this out and let your imagination run wild.