Hello, and welcome to the RCNT new technology demonstration. We've recently developed robots which exhibit some pretty impressive human abilities... or should I say, superhuman abilities. Now, if you'll all step up to the viewing windows, we've got quite an exciting presentation for you. Our engineer here will be controlling the robot unit as it makes its way through a set of challenges. Please, everyone, take a seat. You won't want to miss a minute of this.
Robots Can't Think, Z3lf's newest puzzle platformer, puts you in the shoes of an aforementioned engineer controlling an aforementioned robot through the aforementioned set of challenges. Use the [arrow] keys to move your mechanical friend around, pick up/drop/throw an object using [up] and [down], and [X] and [C] are for using the coveted space- and time-warping abilities, respectively. But that's not all, the robot can climb along walls and ceilings too!
While this may at first seem like a plain old platformer, what's special about it is the unique abilities you have, not to mention that when you die, the system will attempt to 'rewind' to a previous safe position (similar in nature to what you can do in Braid, just not under your control). Also, in a game that requires careful planning to finish each level, it's great that you can scan around you by clicking and holding the left mouse button.
Robots Can't Think isn't just a series of challenges, it's a challenge. So don't be surprised if you find yourself dying quite a bit... I mean, if you find yourself creating a pile of scrap metal.
Enjoyable game. I would have preferred more levels, which is a good sign for the rest of the game.
Was the ending and all the text (news messages and even the title) implying that it was, in reality, human test subjects being used?
This game reminds me of Portal.
The time-rewind mechanic was almost never useful. Most of the time, I made the level unwinnable by doing something wrong with my abilities, rather than dying. And when I messed up a jump (something you'd expect the undo to be useful for), most of the time I survived but activated a spike or laser which blocked my path, so rewind didn't help me there. And in the few cases where I messed up a jump and died and the rewind brought me to the correct spot, there was a good chance that I'd just mess up the jump twice and have to restart anyway. So there's no point to the rewinding mechanic. Maybe if the player had more control over how far they rewound time?
I found the rewind to be a useful mechanic. There were even times when I messed up what I needed to do, so I jumped on some spikes and rewinded out of it.
This is a pretty fun entry, some good take on the whole special manipulation/traversal in 2D platformers. The best thing about it, though, is that it made me remember "Fault Line" :D
Can someone please explain the story to me?
@Aegeus
Even though I can count on my hands the number of times where that mechanic is useful, it's still better to have it than not have it. It would be a lot more useful if we can set our own checkpoints/it rewinds more.
As for your complaint, you may have noticed a "safe mode on" text above the timer. After you get injured, the text goes away. If you wait a little, then it comes back.
It helps a lot to take breaks at safe locations to meticulously plan your following 30 seconds.
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