14 DAY TRIAL // Mayan Death Robots is probably one of the year's best contenders at the "greatest game name" category. The title is currently in beta testing ahead of its debut later this year on PC, and it aims at blending together elements from classic franchises like Worms or Tanks, with a distinct twist in the form of deadly robots that battle across Mayan environments.
The title already caused quite a stir at PAX East last weekend and now its beta version is available so we've taken it for a spin to see if it can live up to the pretty awesome name. Does it manage to do that or should it be sacrificed to the gods? Let's have a quick look.
Does it live up to its awesome name?
The Mayan Death Robots beta doesn't have an AI system to compete against, so if you want to play it solo, you'll have to use a controller and a keyboard at the same time to effectively play against yourself.
The competitive experience spawns two robots in a Mayan environment, each with their own tribe and core on their side of the map. The objective is to select from your weapons and actions in a short amount of time, aim them, and then cause as much destruction as possible in the enemy side.
The main goal, most of the times, is to destroy the opponent's core, but in the campaign mode there are plenty of other objectives scattered throughout its rounds, such as destroying villagers, totems, and other such things. Causing destruction in turn grants bonuses to your own explosions, and results in a vicious yet highly enjoyable circle. There are even some cooperative goals, as robots need to work together to destroy actual Mayan Gods that aren't too happy about all the destruction.
Many robots and maps are included
You can pick between quite a few different robots, each with different abilities and weapons. Mastering them takes a bit of time, as some perform better than others when it comes to certain environments. There are quite a few varied maps available right now, and you can also play a quick match, not to mention short (best of three) or long (best of five) tournaments.
The action is a bit awkward, at first, but soon you'll start to easily maneuver the weapons, not to mention the two common abilities for each robot. These include a jump, which moves your character to where the target is, and a construct one, which allows you to build new obstacles and, hopefully, protect your core from enemy shots.
The visuals look quite good and the soundtrack is interesting, so in terms of beta status, the game is quite polished.
Check out a gameplay video with a few different campaign matches from the beta below. You can download the Mayan Death Robots beta demo right now via Softpedia.
