McDroid - Review

McDroid is simply delightful!

Blending old rock music, cell shaded graphics, kwerky humour and fresh take on old tower defence mechanics; it's a gem of a game many can enjoy.

In it you're a little rover returning home with your rather silly shuttle, only to find your once beautiful planet has been ruined and its spirit silent. As the two of you set out on a quest to not only find out what's happened, but to restore the planet to its once beautiful self.

This is done planting trees, and of course lasers, along with varied other weapons.

The planet has been fracked, and its resources drained. Leaving it barren and its fauna and flare horribly mutated. The game might be rather linear in its story, but it lends itself to it very well and never having a boring spot.

The shuttle is the voice of reason; to some extent. Telling what to do, how to do it and why. It's you're job to save the world, and protect not only the shuttle but yourself. As a little rover you can mount any item you can make, whether that's a little bonsai tree, a robotic repair arm, or a set of lasers!

During the missions, aliens, and mutants are hell bent on stopping you. They've become rather accustomed to the horrible lava filled and corrupted world. This is where the tower defence mechanics come in, although you simply do not drop a turret and leave. Oh no, the creatures will happily destroy them on their path towards the shuttle, and you have a lot of micro managing to do. Running around repairing turrets, upgrading them, planting trees, and harvesting strawberries and diamonds.

The two things that you depends on your fuel, and research. During the hectic battles you still need to try and harvest as many strawberries as possible. They are they currency with which you buy much needed items, and weapons. Take to long and they either disappear, get eaten, or the dreaded Strawberry DRM kicks in. Each mission has an undisclosed countdown, to when the DRM kicks in. Effectively turning the strawberry plants into crystals and halting your supplies.

This makes the game quite hectic as you have do all this, your objectives, and fend of hordes of mutants.

Adding to this is the collection of diamonds, which are used to research newer weapons, and items, along with upgrades for current ones. Not only this but they're also used to buy special items that can only be used during missions. These are vitally important. Especially for the later missions that feel almost impossibly difficult.

My biggest complaint is the severe upgrade cost for items. Some need 1000 diamonds, and they're already hard to get and keep. As once you've used them for a mission item you need to earn new ones. This is done through the various arenas and challenge missions, although they can be even more difficult than the last missions.

This forces you to have a nasty grind in the quest to get diamonds, especially since the early challenge missions only reward you with around 25-30 if you do very well.

Also you can only pick up and carry a set amount of diamonds and strawberries, and they all go into the same pouch. Meaning that in a rather difficult fight you need to try and pick up the correct ones, while managing your defences.

Overall the game blends all these things extremely well, and it's a very addictive game. I simply could not stop playing, even despite the bit of a diamond grind. I would easily recommend this game to people that just want a good fun game, with some weird humour, and lots of lasers.