Hearkening back to the paranoia of arcade classics like Berzerk and Defender, where everything that touches you kills you, Puppy Games brings us Droid Assault for the Mac. If you were wondering at all about the specific usage of the term "droid", this has nothing to do with the Star Wars license, but there are Star Wars droid-like sounds involved. Virtually nothing else resembles that franchise, however, right down to the color palette and furious action.

Right up front: Droid Assault will make you a twitchy, nervous wreck. Unless you were weaned on Robotron 2084 and consider the later levels of Smash TV a walk in the park, you will dream of this game at night and see its automatons roaming the streets of your town while you're awake. Why? Read on!

Droid Assault has you controlling a small bare-bones robot wandering around a factory floor with other out of control, murderous droid. Movement is accomplished with the WASD keys, and the mouse button fires your weapon. Being the lowest rung of the droid hierarchy, your default robot has only the one weak blaster and minimal armor. The chief mechanic present here is your ability to commandeer these other robots and add them to your army.

To hijack a robot requires the use of transfer points -- each robot has a score above its head that tells you how many points it will take to capture it. Earlier robots take fewer points to grab them; later robots take more. To begin the transfer process, simply click and hold the right mouse button or hold the space key, once your robot's cursor is over the desired droid. A successful transfer immediately puts you in control of that droid, while your previous droid wanders around aimlessly until you choose to take control of it by using either the Page Up and Page Down keys, or the mouse wheel. While not under your direct control, your discarded droids are still part of your army, and your "consciousness" will transfer to one of them if your current droid is destroyed. You will receive a new transfer point with each 1,000 points, and there is a multiplier bonus for multiple kills.

One of the more annoying difficulties with Droid Assault is that your droids are subject to friendly fire and frequently blunder into your way when you're trying to pursue other robots. It's also very easy to forget that you have them to fall back on, as the general pace of the game is so frenetic. To pursue other robots requires paying attention to the radar ring that surrounds your droid; your next target is indicated by an arrow that shows its direction, and a rangefinder that displays how far away it is. Movement of the targeting reticle is controlled by the mouse, but there is a radius around your droid that also moves with the reticle, which can be disconcerting. It's possible to move the mouse cursor around quite quickly, resulting in slight motion illness; fortunately, this sensitivity can be managed in the Options screen.

Firing at other droids depletes your droid's battery life, which recharges at a regular rate. Once depleted, your shots come much less frequently until you've allowed the battery to recharge. This becomes quite important with certain droids, as their rates of fire vary, and make it easy to deplete the battery quickly.

Droid Assault

Size:31MB
Droid Assault [Mac]
Size:17MB