With parking cones few and far between, this means it's often necessary to park a short distance away from the actual destination and hoof it both to and from the cone. At that point, they must walk to the agency, enter, select a job, exit, re-enter the Trot, and then walk to the person who's actually "offering" the job elsewhere in the city.Ībout half of these job-giving people can be spoken to from the Trot, but for the other half it's required to again find a parking cone, exit the robot, and then walk inside a building to confirm the job. However, instead of letting players get on and off of the Trotmobile at will, they must first find a "parking cone" and exit. In order to get a job at the local agency, the player must leave their Trotmobile and actually enter the building. However, this core aspect of the Steambot Chronicles experience is totally botched by making the player put up with a horrifically cumbersome system of mobility. It sounds simple enough, and it should be. In order to make any progress, players must earn money and "fame"-two commodities granted by completing jobs offered at a local employment agency. Minor irritants aside, how the player uses the robot (called a Trotmobile) to navigate the city is the most endlessly annoying way Steambot Chronicles Battle Tournament stumbles over itself. Tedious in every aspect, I found it trying my patience thanks to the amount of time wasted on things that shouldn't even be an issue-things like the robot's sluggish walking speed, an overlong cut-scene before a boss that can't be skipped, and a dozen other irksome things in need of polish. Taking a global view, the game as a whole suffers from being incredibly clunky, slow, and completely failing to provide the player with a smooth and intelligent experience. Main character uses robot to occasionally fight in arena. Main character earns money via insipid tasks to upgrade robot. Vaguely similar to the larger-in-scale PlayStation 2 RPG that inspired it, Steambot Chronicles Battle Tournament can be boiled down to: Main character pilots robot. No, it's difficult because I really wanted to like it, but there's so much wrong here it's as though the game is actively trying to push me away. It's not difficult in the sense that it taxes my skills as a critic or that it's a complex project requiring research or meditation on what the developers intended. Reviewing a game like Steambot Chronicles Battle Tournament is tough. WTF How did the Crayola-level character art make it into the final product? LOW How often the player has to sit through clunky, unnecessary bother. HIGH Customizing combat robots is always a good time.
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