Akimbot

I’m not going to lie, I went into Akimbot not expecting a whole lot. It looked like a pretty blatant clone of Ratchet & Clank and was coming from a fairly new developer. Couple that with some rough performance issues and I went into this game figuring that, at best, it might be a passable action/platformer that didn’t stray too far from the tried-and-true formula. Boy was I wrong, because Akimbot really surprised me. Yes, it’s a blatant Ratchet & Clank clone, there’s no getting around that, but for a second-time developer, Evil Raptor threw every idea they had at the wall to see what would stick. And, let me tell you, a lot of it sticks. See why I was both shocked and awed when I review Akimbot.

Instead of Ratchet & Clank, Akimbot introduces us to Exe and Shipset, an unlikely pair of outlaw robots who reluctantly team-up after barely surviving a daring escape from the police. Exe wants to be left alone, but Shipset has the skills they need to get off the planet and escape the mob, who is in hot pursuit. Through a crazy set of circumstances, the duo finds themselves stuck in the middle of a war between regular robots and dinosaur robots, with both sides hoping to get their hands on a powerful artifact that could end the conflict once and for all. It’s up to Exe and Shipset to survive the battlefield and, if all goes well, bring peace back to the solar system.

Of course, that’s easier said than done. Akimbot is the kind of game where our outlaw heroes can’t catch a break. Exe doesn’t want anything to do with this, yet he’s stuck with a Claptrap-wannabe who won’t shut-up and keeps getting the duo in deeper and deeper trouble. Every time it looks like they may finally get a win, they crash land on a new planet or get sucked through a dimensional portal. Throw in a few unexpected twists and turns and you have yourself a pretty thrilling adventure filled with colorful robot characters that are bursting at the bolts with personality.

Let’s take a moment to state the obvious – Akimbot shares a lot in common with Ratchet & Clank. There are some differences in the characters and world, but the basic gameplay is practically identical. This is a third-person platformer with a heavy emphasis on guns. Exe can double jump, dash, spin in the air and smack the robot baddies around with melee weapons. He also has a floating sidekick who gets to have his own adventures, however briefly. If you’re a fan of the Ratchet & Clank series, then a lot of Akimbot is going to look familiar.

Unfortunately, when you so blatantly lift from a popular franchise, it means that we have to compare the two. And, in at least one crucial way, Akimbot comes up way short. The big disappointment here is the selection of guns, which are nowhere near as fun as what was in Sony’s popular series. We have a choice of four fairly standard guns, including a sniper, a rocket launcher and a machine gun. You don’t get to turn your foes into sheep or reduce them to pixels, because this takes a much more serious view of future weapons. That’s disappointing.

Thankfully, the game’s level designs are exciting enough that you’ll quickly forget about the bland firepower. Although this is the developer’s sophomore release, they have clearly been studying Ratchet & Clank and 3D platformers in general. The stages are large and full of cool enemies to shoot and varied obstacles to overcome. They also offer secret paths and every kind of platform you could possibly want to jump on.

Had this been nothing more than a fun platformer with third-person shooting, then I could see myself having a good time, but ultimately being letdown by the way-too-familiar gameplay. However, Akimbot has a lot more going on than double jumping to floating platforms. What elevates this game above being just another clone is how much variety there is to the action. This is a great example of a developer not taking the easy route and instead taking the time to break-up the action with a wide variety of activities.

For example, there are multiple space battles that will immediately remind you of StarFox. There are also a bunch of racing and driving sequences scattered throughout the levels, including one involving a tank. And did I mention that you can ride a robo Tyrannosaurus Rex? Still not sold? Then maybe the one-on-one 2D fighting mini-game will do something for you. The point is, there are a lot of fun activities to do along the way.

And it’s not just in the ships you fly or dinosaurs you ride, because there’s also a lot of variety in the actual stages. A great example of that are the ice levels, which are so cold that Exe will need to dash from one fire to the next in order to stay warm (and alive). This is followed by timed stages that are all about running through the obstacle course as fast as possible, ignoring most of the enemies and items that litter the path. It’s rare for there to be a “straight-forward” level, which keeps the action fresh and exciting.

As much as I want to commend the developers for putting in the extra work to incorporate racing missions and outer space dogfights, I can’t overlook some of the game’s more glaring problems. The big one is the performance, which can best be described as rough. I played through the game on the PlayStation 5 and it often felt like the game was being held together by nothing more than duct tape and a prayer. The frame rate is inconsistent and the checkpoints will abruptly pause the action at some truly awful moments. There’s also bad screen tearing early in the game and I ran into some dubious collision detection in the last act. Even the cinemas have problems keeping up with the action, as there’s some weird artifact interference whenever it cuts from one character to another. Akimbot is the kind of game that feels like it probably needed a few more months of polish to get right, and I have a hunch that some of the jankiness will turn off many gamers before they get to the good stuff.

It’s also worth mentioning that not all of the activities are fun. Driving the tank, for example, is an absolute nightmare. Moving the beast around is bad enough, but also targeting the army of robot dinosaurs coming after you can be downright frustrating. And no, it doesn’t help that we’re expected to drive this massive tank through a narrow passage filled with objects to get stuck on. Throw in some real tragic camera problems and you have a section that stalls the fun dead in its tracks.

Thankfully, the game is able to recover from its terrible tank troubles. That said, it does eventually run out of ideas and it probably goes on an hour too long. You’ll eventually come back around to where you started, thinking that Akimbot is a blatant Ratchet & Clank clone. Even with the variety and missions and everything else, you’ll never be able to shake the fact that you’ve been here and done this before. And, no matter how much I ended up liking this game, Ratchet & Clank’s recent outings have been better. That leaves us with a really good action/platformer that excels at variety, but fails when it comes to originality.