Akimbot Review – Quite the Rachet
During the early 2000s, new styles of 3D platforming were established. While many like Vexx or Ty continued the Super Mario 64 style of platformer in new ways, others like the Ratchet & Clank and Jak & Daxter franchises melded 3D platforming with gunplay and more grounded tones.
Developer Evil Raptor, composed of a small team, created a loving homage to this era of 3D platformer with Akimbot, out now across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series consoles, and PC. But has this blast from the past evolved the shoot-and-jump formula Ratchet & Clank established? Or is this robot in need of an oil change? Despite some loose screws in need of tightening, this bot is locked and loaded for adventure.
Developer & Publisher // Evil Raptor, PLAION
Platforms // Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC
MSRP & Release Date // $19.99, August 29th, 2024
Reviewed On // PC
The Tale of Two Bots – Narrative
Waking up crash-landed on a beach, an assassin robot for hire, Exe, is thrust on an adventure spanning past and present, working with the talkative robot, Shipset, to defeat the insane Evilware to save the world.
The set-up is nothing to write home about, but the purpose of it is for Exe and Shipset to become friends across the eight-or-so-hour adventure. Not unlike the original Ratchet & Clank, the duo have differing wants and can get on each other’s nerves. You see this right when the game begins, with Shipset only wanting to use Exe’s skills to survive and showboating his ‘skills’, despite his unintentional partner doing all the heavy lifting.
This dynamic between the two leads is an interesting combination of Ratchet’s arc during the PS2 era games for Exe, matched with the cocky sidekick personality that Daxter had in the Jak & Daxter series. The result allows for enjoyable character development.
I genuinely laughed out loud at moments mid-way through the narrative, seeing Shipset continue to get annoyed at Exe simply brushing off his complaints and putting the mission first. But seeing Shipset gradually grow into a more companion character to Exe as the game progresses, was enjoyable to witness. I would be lying if Shipset didn’t get on my nerves early on, but it plays into his character arc and the payoff was worth it.
The other noteworthy characters are the stern Ambastor and the unhinged Evilware. In some ways, they are dark mirrors of our lead characters, with that aspect of their character coming to an enjoyable climax in the game’s final act.
Helping the enjoyable narrative is solid voice acting, with the stand-out ones being Exe’s for helping sell his Ratchet-esc personality. In addition, I enjoyed the pure unhinged factor of Evilware’s voice acting when he spoke his lines.
Quite the Renegade – Platforming
The core gameplay of Akimbot features Exe doing what any iconic platforming hero does, running and jumping through levels across time and space. His jump is responsive, being able to double jump and do a mid-air spin not unlike Jak from Jak & Daxter to get additional height. In addition, you can later get a grappling hook to get across long distances and can wall run across specific areas.
These actions are rapidly used in later levels, with the early ones typically focusing on one element. An example of this is the very first level, taking place on a beach. Exe is simply jumping and air-dashing across platforms, with specific areas set up for the gunplay. Meanwhile, later in the game, it’s not uncommon to have to manage your platforming while shooting air-borne enemies. You sometimes even need to shoot objects right when finishing a wall run to continue the wall run on a different object.
Later in the game when all the mechanics come together and test what the player has learned, it felt fair. There is also the frequent checkpoint system, ensuring even if you die at a tough platforming challenge, you respawn right where you died.
In addition to all the platforming mechanics, minor hacking is present as well, cycling through three different mini-games (picking the right square out of three, a ‘Snake’ mini-game, and a clicker mini-game where you move a cursor and press the A button). This also plays a factor in exploration, with a handful of sections involving you surveying a portion of a level to find symbols to figure out a number combination. The game usually is clear about what you need to look for, but sometimes it can get cryptic.
One particular time I had to look up the answer was one of the final levels, where I was unsure where the ‘answer’ was in an icy cave, with the symbols in the area blending in too well in the area. Otherwise, the minor puzzle-solving is rewarding and complements the core platforming.
Up Your Arsenal – Combat
The platforming action is frequently mixed up with combat encounters, playing very similar to Ratchet Deadlocked. Exe automatically strafes, allowing him to aim his shots. His arsenal isn’t nearly as expansive as Ratchet’s, having more standard weaponry. Starting with an assault rifle and gradually getting a sniper rifle, rocket launcher, and even a machine gun, each weapon has its specific use case.
The rocket launcher can destroy shields, letting you get faster shots in with the assault rifle or machine gun. Or, you can use the sniper rifle to pick off enemies and objects far away. Using the four weapon combinations is quite enjoyable, helping avoid the sometimes mindless shooting in the Ratchet games.
Helping this is the ‘special’ weapons that you can buy from vendors across each level. You only have four special weapons to use and they function less as ‘extensions’ to your core arsenal and more so as your ace in the hole when things get too chaotic.
A side effect of this approach is that I never changed the Plasma Rifle, which can take out enemies far away or clusters of them in one shot, for the other three weapons. For the sake of this review, I did equip the Akimbos, a set of dual pistols, and they functioned somewhat similar to the Plasma Rifle in use at the tail-end of my adventure.
While the special weapons have three levels you can upgrade, using currency collected, the main guns never upgrade across the campaign. This helps with the difficulty balancing, but by the final levels, I wished I could get some additional effects or weapon mods for my main guns. An example of this would’ve been upgrading the rocket launcher to have multiple rockets for each shot or the sniper rifle having an acid effect that slowly chips away damage after the initial shot.
Clock Busters – Gameplay Variety
Core platforming and shooting aren’t the only things Exe and Shipset experience in Akimbot, as the game frequently mixes things up. These variations could include something as simple, as using a turret for a minute or two, full-on riding a robotic T-Rex, and charging your way through hordes of enemies.
The genre mix-ups can get quite wild, though the most in-depth mix-ups are the various vehicles. One of them involves you driving a buggy, not unlike Jak 3’s desert driving. The controls for driving are responsive, with steering working well, jumping feeling good, and the auto-lock on shooting making everything come together.
Some other vehicles Exe can ride are spaceships, each controlling similar but having minor changes to keep things fresh. Feeling similar to games like Star Fox and the space sections in Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, I enjoyed them. They felt like grand rewards through surviving tough combat encounters and tight platforming challenges.
The game’s final set of levels honors these gameplay mix-ups in a way I genuinely did not expect, capping off the adventure in a grand fashion. Making all these gameplay ‘diversions’ work is that none of them take away from the core experience, something 3D platformers can struggle with.
A Deadlock of Champions – Presentation
The visuals of Akimbot present quite a striking 3D platformer. Spanning across various planets, and even time itself, seeing how varied each biome can get was a treat for the eyes.
Each level popped off my screen, utilizing bold colors that leveraged my computer’s HDR display. From bright sunny beach shores, to ravaged war-torn battlefields, and more, I enjoyed every location I visited.
My favorite level has to be a sand planet set in the past, where Exe and Shipset must get their Jak 3 on and explore a massive desert, completing platforming challenges to help a stranded robot get his car repaired, among other side missions. The way sand blows in the distance, making things hard to see but not too hard to make out the platforms needed to jump across, worked so well visually.
Another stand-out level was a trippy level where Exe, without his companion Shipset, must jump and fight through something lifted right out of Psychonauts. The enemies you fight are quite different from standard enemies, adding visual variety to the experience.
Character design is something I want to highlight. Taking advantage of that the core cast are robots, every major character has fantastic character design, with Exe’s design being a personal favorite. He looks like one of the armor sets Ratchet would wear in Deadlocked, with Shipset’s design complementing Exe’s. His single arm, attached to his done-like body shape, helps make him stand out as he follows you around most levels.
Locked & Loaded – Soundtrack/Sound Design
This aspect of Akimbot was noticeable, as someone loves remembers the PS2 era Ratchet & Clank titles. The scores in those releases were catchy, added to the combat encounters, and added a sense of haunting emotion to specific planets that stuck with you.
Every major level offers a score that channels that similar spirit, with some highlights being the charming beach-level theme. Having a nice melody that complements the warmer colors in the level, it is very nostalgic, while having its unique qualities.
One of the best examples of the game’s musical score coming together is the major space-ship level at the mid-way point of the game. Exe and Shipset are fighting literal waves of robots, chasing down a massive ship nearly out of reach, with this track playing. This track utilizes the game’s core theme in several styles, eating an already catchy tune into something that will stick with you long after the credits roll.
Regarding overall sound design, it complements the already strong score with good audio-mixing and every sound effect having an impact. I particularly enjoy the sound that plays whenever Exe dashes, having nice robotic sound effects that fit the green flames escaping his thrusts and his expressive forward spin animation.
Might Need the Wrench – Performance
During my time playing on my PC, which was a Lenovo Gaming Laptop, containing an AMD Ryzen 9 6000 Series CPU, AMD Radeon 6850M XT GPU, and 32 GB of RAM, Akimbot ran well most of the time. I frequently was getting well above 60FPS at 1050p-1200p in most cases. I was mainly using a mixture of medium and high settings. However, some specific levels had an impact on performance. In addition, the game had a few crashes, typically happening when loading to a new level.
Thankfully, the game’s checkpoint system is very generous, making continuing my progress when this happened a non-issue. But it is still worth noting on lower-end PCs, the game might struggle. On console, the game does run at 60FPS on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, but there is noticeable screen tearing. As of this writing, the game has been out for nearly a month, meaning the issue might have been addressed.
Closing Thoughts
As a fan of 3D platformers, it was a treat playing through Evil Raptors Akimbot. Despite minor performance woes and a lack of weapon variety, my experience playing Exe and Shipset’s big adventure was enjoyable.
Polished 3D platforming mixed with good gunplay, an enjoyable narrative, and a ton of polished gameplay variety, Akimbot is a platformer anyone who loves the PS2 era Ratchet or Jak games should not miss. I hope that Exe and Shipset can take off on another adventure in the future.
This review was played on PC, using a review copy provided by the publisher.
Overall Score – 8 out of 10
Pros:
- Great Presentation
- Enjoyable Soundtrack
- Engaging and Funny Narrative
- Solid Platforming & Level Variety
- Gunplay Enjoyable
- Mostly Stable Performance
Cons:
- Shipset can be annoying early on
- The arsenal of weapons could be more varied
- Minor Performance Issues in Later Levels
- Crashing Issues on PC