Akimbot Review

I randomly heard about this game when seeing a trailer for it on the Playstation Youtube channel a few months ago and it was marketed as a game "like" Ratchet and Clank and since that series is going to be on ice for a while. I decided to play this but what I also didn't know that the game was also being sold for $20 and for a price that is surprisingly under $50 and for a game that is charged at the former price, I'm going to be a bit softer on it as a result. Also if you are one of those people who don't want to pay full price for a game that is around 10-13 hours and don't want to wait for a sale, here is something to look into.

Anyways, Akimbot is marketed as a game like Ratchet and Clank but really it's not so much like Ratchet all though it can somewhat bare a resemblance, it has more of an emphasis on 3D platforming with some shooting and some mini games thrown in for good measure unlike a game like Smurfs 2 Prisoner of Greenstone, I'd say Akimbot does a better job at differentiating itself from the Ratchet series where Smurfs was just a knock off of Rift Apart.

Before I describe the gameplay the first thing I will mention is that the main characters Exe and Chipset are not really like Ratchet and Clank, they are more like how Jak and Daxter are in the sequels. Exe's voice actor in particular feels like he is channeling Mike Erwin's performance in Jaks 2 and 3 than feeling like any version of Ratchet. Chipset is more talkative than Clank is and speaks, acts hyperactive, and jokes around as much Daxter does.

The story overall is decent but nothing really going to make you change your mind on platformer stories, it's moderately engaging enough for the kind of story that it is, even if Exe and Chipset still feel like they don't get along that much even by the end of the game.

The gameplay like I mentioned before is a combination of 3D platforming, shooting and mini games. The platforming in Akimbot and the game in general can be much more challenging than the Ratchet games, and there's much more platforming in it by comparison. There's lots of lasers to dodge, moving platforms, lots of wall running segments that has more challenge than Rift Apart's does(this game even requires you to shoot targets to activate wall run platforms which is something I don't think RA does), there's much more stage hazards like water and lava, and even some sections that require you to avoid camaers and lasers while jumping, which Ratchet doesn't really make you engage with.

The shooting and combat is also much more challenging than R&C too where you don't get XP to level up health and weapons. Exe's health remains the same throughout and he only gets 5 weapons, 1 of which you can choose from 4 and have to stick with since upgrading those weapons are rare. Enemies even in smaller waves can rip Exe's health to shreds within seconds and they don't drop health either, you need to shoot down health picks ups that are around the battlefield. There are also some enemies specific to rocket launchers and chaingun in order to kill.

However what prevents this game from being overly frustrating is that the game checkpoints pretty frequently and there's never a moment in the game that overly wastes your time in terms of redoing content upon failure, and load times to respawn are quick so the game as a whole can be challenging but I'd say it's "fair".

With all that said, there are things that Akimbot does worse than Ratchet particularly the weapons, Ratchet gives you lots of wacky over the top and crazy weapons to use where Akimbot you can choose between 4 main guns and a special wacky weapon. I only stuck with the laser since upgrading one gun requires lots of resources and the assault rifle becomes useless once you get the chaingun, I mainly used the rockets to disable shields so the guns I often used where the sniper and chaingun, the sniper was main for it's long range and aim assist when aiming down sights.

Then there is other aspect of the game like how some parts of the game can feel padded and drawn out like when you were with the Processor and had to go on multiple fetch quests, Chipset makes jokes about it but it's still pretty obnoxious. The dream sequence in Exe's head can be cut out entirely since they don't add much to the game.

Some of the mini games can be a little overbearing, like the car and space ship shoot em up sections go on for a little too long for my liking since I prefer these parts to be 5-8 minutes at the most but they seem to go on for 20.

Lastly, the final section of the game is way too drawn out, you do so many mini games and smaller sections before you get to the end. You stuff like a Flappy Bird clone, a fighting game, a laser dino turret section, a racing game and by the shoot em up section that lasted over 20 minutes, I just wanted the game to end and get to the final boss. It was testing my patience at times.

Overall, for a $20 game, it's a pretty good value even if it can be padded