Assault of the Robots

I want to advocate for underdogs. That is genuinely my thing on this team. So when I sat down with Assault of the Robots, a quietly priced 2D shooter from A Nostru, I was ready to find the hidden gem. I did not find one. What you get here is a side-scrolling, twin-stick-adjacent shooter where a paper-doll soldier sprite moves across mission maps set in locations like Germany and Great Britain, shooting at robot enemies. The premise is thin but that alone is not a dealbreaker. Plenty of small-budget action games earn their place through tight controls, readable enemy patterns, or a satisfying weapon selection. Assault of the Robots advertises a choice of weapons and adjustable difficulty, which could form the skeleton of something functional. The reality, reported consistently by players who left reviews on Steam, is that the mouse aiming does not work correctly. For a shooter, that is not a small bug. That is the whole game. The developer, A Nostru, has attracted serious scrutiny from the Steam community. Multiple reviewers have documented that several titles under the My Way Games publishing label appear to be Unity asset store packages released with minimal or no original work added on top. In the case of Assault of the Robots, players have specifically called out that the mobile-oriented control scheme was never properly adapted for PC, leaving the aiming input in a state where it is either unresponsive or misdirected. A game can survive lo-fi 2D graphics. It cannot survive controls that prevent you from shooting accurately in a shooting game. There is nothing here that speaks to intentional craft, considered pacing, or a soundscape worth lingering in. The mission structure, different countries and different robot types, could have carried a modest loop if the fundamentals held together. They do not. The positive reviews on Steam are a slim 34-review pool marked mostly positive at 73%, and that positive slice is itself disputed by reviewers who allege artificial inflation. I cannot recommend spending time or money on this one, even at the lowest possible price tier. Some games deserve patience. This one has not done the work to earn it.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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