REVIEW: McDROID (PlayStation 4)

Sony has been known to be a huge supporter for Indie games and developers. Little Big Planet and Grow Home were both great examples of games that came out of no where, and were given the spotlight through the PlayStation. So when I learned about McDROID, I was very curious to see how it would play out, and where it would fit along-side those other Indie titles.

If you haven’t heard of it before, McDROID is a tower defense/action RTS style of game, developed by independent studio, Elefantopia. As the main character, a cute, little robot-fellow, McDROID, you find yourself crash-landed on the Planet M, and its your job to restore the planet, while taking down the waves of enemies that infest the area. To defeat these waves, you must defend yourself, while rebuilding your ship, setting up turrets, grow and harvest plants (you also collect strawberries, seeds and diamonds along the way), and basically prevent yourself from becoming overwhelmed by the alien-like enemies. Each wave becomes more complicated than the next, and it makes all the multi-tasking you have to do a lot more challenging.

One thing I liked about this title was the cell-shaded art style, which reminded me of the Borderlands series. Some of the cut scenes were kind of weird, but McDROID and some of the other characters had an interesting design, and the coloring simply popped; that, combined with a fun soundtrack! I’m not usually one for tower-defense style of games, and I think the only game in that genre that I put a lot of hours into was Plants vs. Zombies, but this one kept me entertained, and I enjoyed the gameplay for the most part. It was also helpful having the ability to upgrade my McDROID‘s armor, as well as my turrets and defenses, especially since the enemies’ difficulty did rise to the occasion. I could also see how each player would have a different gaming experience, whether they wanted to focus on resources, defense and attack or a combination of both… or neither!

That being said, I did find some of the mechanics were a bit frustrating, especially for the PlayStation 4, and I feel I would have enjoyed this title a bit more using my mouse and keyboard. Until I really got the timing down, it was a bit of a challenge having a lot of things going on at once, and having to keep up with it all. Some of the maps, as well as the entire screen, became overcrowded, and it was quite overwhelming to take over, and figure out what to do next without having to sacrifice any of my hard work. I also found that the time in between the harder waves were not long enough to rebuild my defenses and regain my footing. The voice acting was also something that needed improvement, and was probably the reason the cut scenes were so weird.

Overall, I enjoyed my experience with this title, despite some of those frustrations that come with it. If your looking for a fun RTS/tower defense style of game, or maybe your just a huge Indie supporter, than I would urge you to give McDROID a shot.