Robots at Midnight Review
Robots at Midnight is a retro-futuristic sci-fi souls-lite with a low barrier to entry.
Robots at Midnight. Credit: Finish Line Games / Snail Games
Robots at Midnight from Finish Line Games is a stylish, streamlined entry point into the soulslike genre that pursues a broader appeal. I'd call it a “souls-lite,” a term to describe how the game distills the genre's core mechanics into something more digestible and accessible.
Robots at Midnight. Credit: Finish Line Games / Snail Games
You play as Zoe, who awakens from 20 years of cryosleep when her escape pod crash-lands on the luxury planet Yob, to find it overrun by hostile robots following a catastrophic event. Her father, who also escaped in a pod, is missing. She's armed with the MITT, a powerful gauntlet that also acts as a life support system. The story is straightforward but effective, painting a compelling picture of corporate commodification and gentrification gone wrong in this ruined future world. Zoe makes for an endearing protagonist, and the supporting cast of quirky robots like Doug, who just wants to be left alone to fish and watch TV, adds a lot of charm.
Robots at Midnight. Credit: Finish Line Games / Snail Games
Combat centers around familiar soulslike rhythms of light and heavy attacks, parrying, blocking, and dodging, enhanced by powerful MITT abilities gated behind cooldowns. However, the variety is limited as the combat doesn’t mix things up very much, and all the upgradable weapons behave the same way. You'll encounter only a handful of enemy types, and many bosses feel recycled, though the core feel of smacking robots remains consistently satisfying thanks to the physics and sound design.
The MITT adds momentum-based traversal; launching off enemies or dashing through the air is fluid and feels great. However, its cooldown is frustratingly long, especially during platforming sections. I understand the length of the cooldown for the MITT combat abilities, but it shouldn’t have been applied identically to the dash, because it grinds platforming momentum to a halt. Also, regarding the platforming: the lack of fall damage is welcome, but falling into water means restarting from the last save point bonfire, which feels unnecessarily harsh for this game.
Robots at Midnight. Credit: Finish Line Games / Snail Games
The game offers two difficulty options at the start. Hero Mode—the default—provides a story-focused experience that's a little too easy, while Master Mode delivers more challenging combat. I wish there was a middle ground that was somewhere in the middle, as I wanted a bit more resistance, but didn’t care enough to throw myself into the deeper challenge because the simplicity of the combat didn’t make the higher difficulty compelling.
The game's visual design is genuinely beautiful, featuring painterly environments with soft colors that create a vibrant retro-futuristic aesthetic. Wind effects in the pastel-shaded tall grass and swaying trees often made me stop just to appreciate the scenery. Enemy and NPC designs stand out, of both the goofier and more monstrous robots. I especially loved Teddy and Freddy, the “cool” and “cooler” robot twins with their yakuza swagger, and how many of the basic robot enemies dotting the world are chilling out in a delinquent squat pose. It was too bad that the final boss’s design wasn’t nearly as interesting as many of the things you fight earlier on.
Robots at Midnight. Credit: Finish Line Games / Snail Games
Robots at Midnight wraps up in about 5 hours, which works for its scope and prevents the limited combat mechanics from overstaying their welcome. It's the perfect length for this polished, if modest, souls-lite experience.
Robots at Midnight is available now on Steam, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.
Overall Score: 7/10
Played on: PS5
