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Review: 3089 – an “RPG Roguelike Shooter” by Indie Dev Phr00t

3089 screenshot 3
Review: 3089 – an “RPG Roguelike Shooter” by Indie Dev Phr00t
3.5

Platforms: Windows PC, Mac, Linux

Game Name: 3089

Developer: Phr00t

Genre: Action, RPG, Roguelike

Release Date: October 30th, 2013 (v0.115b)

Developer Summary

3089 is a futuristic action role-playing game, featuring randomly generated terrain, quests, robots, enemies, items, buildings and more. Items and weapons can be customized and broken down into parts — find the rarest parts and put them together to make an amazing gun or set of armor! Hop from tree to tree with a grappling hook, or teleport between cover while being stealthy with a special blade…

3089 – What We Think

Developer Phr00t has been delivering procedurally-generated worlds combined with a healthy dose of RPG for a while now. His projects 3079 and Gentrieve 2 both merged randomly generated terrain and RPG elements with noteworthy success. This time Phr00t is expanding on his ideas from 3079 and setting out to create a less blocky but still randomly generated world in the sequel, 3089.

3089 is an action RPG with a heavy emphasis on random generation of both terrain and quests. The game opens by dropping you into a safe zone and base that will act as your home for the early parts of your adventure. The complex gameplay can be daunting at first but a short list of tips and a more comprehensive guide in the main menu provide the necessary information to get started.

All Hail The Overlord

The story has a force known only as the Overlord dispatching you to the planet Xax as part of its tests. On this world armies of robots battle against one another in a seemingly endless conflict that serves as a grand experiment for the Overlord. You are placed in a red zone with friendly robots but beyond the walls of your starting fortress the blue robots are everywhere and they aren’t as welcoming. Another faction is also waiting to be discovered but I’ll avoid giving away too many details here.

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The gameplay of 3089 is deep and varied but it all channels into a classic first person interface with combat revolving around either shooting or melee. Allocation of skill points will determine where your strengths lie; skills include stamina (health), agility (movement and carrying capacity), guns (ranged weapon damage), piloting (your ability to pilot more advanced craft) stealth and more. You start with some skill points and more are earned by completing quests.

A Need to Node Basis

Quests are delivered through nodes placed in the randomly generated buildings around the world. There will be a handful of these nodes in your starting area and each node presents around 9 randomly generated quests. A quest will usually involve a number of tasks ranging from destroying a group or robots to picking up a disc and taking to a friendly robot.

Additional parameters can be applied to a task such as not being detected or not killing anything other than the target. The stealth oriented parameters can be frustrating if you’ve built your robot with a combat focus but thankfully the wide variety of quest choices allows you to avoid them if you choose to.

Loot is dropped by most enemies and you’re also rewarded with money for completing missions which can be spent at various shopping terminals. The items available range from ammo based guns to swords, armor and energy weapons (which use up your onboard energy supply instead of ammo). You can also purchase or find some interesting tools such as grappling hooks and hover boards which can dramatically improve your mobility.

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Items can also be created by combining found parts; by choosing these parts wisely high level tools can be forged. All items feature randomly chosen stats which not only determine the capabilities of the item, but also improve your skills. The loot system is generally well designed and I quickly found myself seeking out the best way to optimize my chosen skills with stat boosting items.

Been Here. Done This

The action itself is a tad repetitive, even with the changing quest parameters. The different weapon types add some variety, and the ability to slow time with the “time ripping” power helps to keep things interesting. Exploring the randomly-generated world created by the game ensures that there’s always something new to do; the terrain is surprisingly dynamic with vast canyons, sprawling deserts and monolithic superstructures dotted about. The first time I saw one of the towering blue bases I was particularly impressed.

In addition to combat players can also use tools to build structures. The building system is very easy to get started with and you can use it to construct walls, floors and bridges with relative ease. You can also use building resources to create practical structures such as teleporters and turrets. While the options are fairly limited at this time it’s a great addition to the game that allows you to build your own defences rather than rely on pre-existing structures.

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In the Eye of the Rifle-holder

Aesthetically, 3089 is going to divide players. The enormous landscape and towering structures have a beauty of their own but generally this is a title that relies on its gameplay rather than graphics.

If you can look past the somewhat limited visuals then 3089 is definitely worth your time; the combination of RPG gameplay, randomly-generated terrain and building capabilities has come together to form an interesting chimera of a game that provides a particularly unique experience.

Get 3089 – Free Demo at the Official Site

Vote for 3089 on Steam Greenlight

[xrr rating=”3.5/5″]

One thought on “Review: 3089 – an “RPG Roguelike Shooter” by Indie Dev Phr00t

  1. Thank you for the review!

    Keep in mind this game is still in active development. There already has been a few updates since this review & we are at v0.119b at the time of this comment. I’ve added classes you can pick from at the start of the game, making it easier for the player to get started and try different combat mechanics.

    Also, I’m definitely open to suggestions over on the website & official forum to improve the game. Thank everyone for your support!

    – Phr00t

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