Reviews

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  YunaNoire

  Nov 2, 2021

  This was a lot of fun! A retro styled shooter with some REALLY challenging game play. The kind of game that'll make your fingers sore lol. Worth a shot if you're into this sort of thing!
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  Level 0NE

  Oct 13, 2022

  The dev has moved on to new projects, so I'm leaving a review in hope that they'll produce a more polished sequel someday. The game was enjoyable, but at times, it was also very frustrating. The lock-on mechanic, instead of targeting the goon in front of my face, would sometimes target a different one who's further away or behind covers. I managed to ace all the stages on normal difficulty, but i don't think I will subject my sanity to 100% all achievements. Overall, I still recommend the game because it offers fun shooting, varied enemies/bosses, and 50 stages to clear. Bot Vice is also one of extremely few gallery shooting games I've seen on Steam. PS: If you play this on a steam deck, I recommend forcing the game through proton, so you get steam cloud save and achievements.
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  五十嵐 双葉

  Oct 20, 2022

  Fun little shooting gallery game. A good choice if you have a thing for 90s games.
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  Garlic Jr.

  Aug 9, 2016

  Very fun and challenging arcade style, fast paced shooter, presented in a 90's SNES visual style. Bot Vice contains about 25 stages. Each level plays out on a single screen where you battle waves of robots until you reach the mini-boss battle at the end. Eventually leading up to the main story boss battles that progress the story line of the game. Some of the more hilarious bosses include parodies of Bebop and Rocksteady, as a bit of a TMNT fan tribute. The game also now features easy and hard mode. With the main difference being you receive health item drops while playing on easy difficulty. The game can be a bit tough at times but with a bit of practice it's possible to overcome. You're not only trying to just complete each stage but also race to obtain the best time possible. In order to stop the plot you're only given a set amount of time to complete the game. It becomes fairly important to keep your level completion times as low as possible. The voice acting and long winded villain speeches add a bit of charm, as a loving reference to all the awesome and silly arcade sounds of old. The music is not bad and it contains some decent sound effects and a few silly voice lines. Music wise nothing incredible. It works well for what it's meant to be at least. The controls are very responsive, although the lock on system can be a little tricky at times. The power ups can also be a little tricky to cycle through. Theoretically the game is fairly short. But it still took me about 3-4 hours of actual playtime on easy mode to finally complete the game. It also gives you alot of achievements to shoot for which adds some replay-ability. I would say you're probably looking at 3-6 hours of playtime if you're as bad as I am at shooters, plus maybe another 1-2 hours if you're going for all the achievements. To sum it up, I really enjoyed playing this game and felt a real sense of accomplishment and excitement after finally kicking the final boss in his arse! If you're looking for some classic arcade action that offers a good challenge at a fairly cheap price I'd highly recommend giving Bot Vice a try.
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  Zeebrax the Astral Lifejacket

  Jan 22, 2017

  This white-knuckled indie is more intense, more tightly designed than any gallery shooter you've ever played -- I guarantee it! It seems so deceptively simple: you move right and left, you shoot, you roll (with temporary invulnerability), you duck behind destructible cover. You've probably done it before. It seems simple, but take warning: this game will completely own your sweating hams if you don't have your fly-catching lizard brain up and running, and that's all on you, buddy! This is [u]not[/u] a game to relax with before you go to bed. DYA caught my attention with the outstanding puzzle SHMUP [i]Super Star Path[/i], but now they've gone and blown my mind with their level of game-making skill! What's next?
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  EstellaLumireis

  Mar 18, 2017

  The more I play this game, the more I enjoy it. Make no mistake, this is old school gaming at its core. Meaning no mercy. You learn through your many mistakes. And somehow you get better. You finally beat the game. But you look back and think you can do better. So you play it again, hoping to get even better. For the love of god, use a controller. Friends don't let friends use keyboard for this game. That being said, the controls take some time getting used to. You will probably be spending a good amount of time stumbling with the controls before it feels right, however long it takes. Targetting will always feel somewhat off, but somehow, like everything else in the game, it somehow works out. I strongly recommend starting on Easy. Even then the game can be very challenging and may take you some time to get through all the levels. If you are feeling adventerous, you could always start on Normal. But you are going to rely on the health pickups a lot. Maybe you want to do the extra stuff later. And maybe you can take on Hard mode when you get get skilled enough. That being said, I have been enjoying this game a ton. It feels nice to be able to jump into a game without any handholding so I can shoot a lot of things and blow them up. Taking on waves of enemies is always a thrill, and the boss fights really make you work hard to win. It's the sort of hardcore gaming fix I needed. Enough for me to start speedrunning it. As a speedrun, this game has been downright amazing. Being forced to play against the clock and learning to be efficient with your weapons makes this game so great to play at a high skill level. Even not speedrunning it, just getting good at the game feels rewarding. Have I mentioned how much I love the soundtrack for this game? These tracks are so freaken good. Also I'm digging the visual style for this game. The story and dialogue are forgettable, but I didn't really pay much attention to either. I was too busy dodge rolling and shooting. I'm glad I came across this game on Steam and would recommend playing it.
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  Deafina

  Jun 28, 2017

  Gameplay - Amazing Soundtrack - Amazing Voice acting - amazing Art - amazing Controller - Amazing This game is very good, is pretty fun and art style is reminder SNES 90s Pretty good.
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  Adepta Sororita

  Oct 31, 2017

  All the positive reviews are telling the truth. Hidden gem. Devs, please make more games like this one.
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  FobTi

  Oct 31, 2017

  Hidden gem! A little bit hard (i played it on Normal) but with an awesome playability! Graphics are really cute, i love this SNES style and the game is very addictive. "Just one more stage and i’m going to bed, just one more stage..." :D If you love good retro games i highly recommended this title.
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  flymetothemoon

  Nov 1, 2017

  I simply LOVE this game, everything in it - Visuals, Music, Sound fx, Animations, Sprites, Gameplay, how all of them blend together, Controller Support. Literally everything in it is AMAZING. DYA Games delivers a 10/10 game.
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  AbyssalSoul

  Nov 9, 2017

  Fantastic SNES styled corridor shoot 'em up. Or would it be considered a caravan style? Either way, the stages can be played in very short bursts and won't last more than a minute or so but boy those minutes get very, very intense. Even at full price the game is packed with a whole set of much harder llevels outside of the (already quite lenghty) campaign to crown a great old school (for real) experience. There are a few concessions like the lack of a real scoring system but you'll still be pursuing the A ranks and 4 hearts goals, as well as a lot of challenging feats in the shape of achievements. Special mention to the graphics and music, the former being almost a cal back to Sparkster/Rocket Knight Adventures but with a cool biomechanical style of its own, combined with awesome synths worthy of the early PSX Capcom and SEGA eras. By adding a more modern touch with the voice acting (which turns out to be fairly good actually, with each character having a distinct voice), the presentation is very sleek. Very recommended and if you see this on sale, don't hesitate to pick it up! Just beware, it's tough as nails and you'll be crushed a lot under the pressure of the timer or the bullets. Simply use cover and return fire with extreme prejudice and firepower!
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  gougeaway

  Nov 13, 2017

  After only some minutes of playing: Super Hard! Super fun! That game is really good! I like the story, the scenes, the pixelart, the easy controls and the really hard enemies! i just reached stage 4 now and i had to make ~20 runs to reach it. but its okay, because one stage is 1 to 2 minutes long. and surviving is not so easy ^^ only buy, if you have a controller!
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  Tineard

  Dec 2, 2017

  Nice and short arcade. At first it appears very difficult, but after you master the controls in ~2-3h, it gets a lot easier. It's actually very short game - 50 stages, but at the same time it's pretty cheap, so in my opinion it's worth it's price even without discount. So, pros: 1) Difficulty is alright, you have to dodge and hide plenty, altho i'd wish for something more challenging like "only HandGun mode". 2) Enemies are diverse, and what's more important, are satisfying to kill. Bosses included ofc. 3) Art is very nice, 16-bit atmoshpere is there for sure. 4) Price is exactly right, not like with many other indie games, which either sell crap for such price, or selling same quality as this game for 3-5x the price. Sounds and music are good, voices and story are there for the check. It doesn't matter, really, game is not about the story, it's about gameplay. Also, don't believe that "controller is strongly recommended" sign, I presonally play all games with k/b - and it's totally fine. And the only con that I can think about - game it too short. 50 stages, half of which you don't even have to complete good, just finish them and you're done. So in the end, game is good, especialyl for it's price, altho it could be made a lot more harder and challenging. But for new to the genre people - it's hard enough for sure.
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  InsanityS

  Jan 1, 2018

  Bot Vice is a nice straightforward arcade shooter. Your character is limited to horizontal movement along the bottom of the screen while enemies pour in above and rain down attacks aimed in your direction. To aid in your survival are two things - a dodge roll that makes you invulnerable while doing it and various pieces of cover you can duck behind. That cover will eventually be destroyed by enemy gunfire though which encourages players to constantly move around and find opportunities to fire back. The default weapon you begin every stage with is the infinite use handgun, but shooting the yellow droid dishes out ammo for the bigger guns. Whether it's the spread gun for spewing out multiple bullets at once or the rocket launcher designed for high impact damage there's plenty to play around with and easily switchable at the tap of a button. Knowing when to start using up your ammo reserves is key to getting through the stages, especially when the harder enemies start swarming in. Bot Vice serves up fast short bursts of entertainment with its 50 levels. Each level can be completed in a couple of minutes when played well but replayability is boosted by aiming to finish missions with full health and/or higher letter ranks for time taken. That and it's just kinda fun to drop into a level and blast all the enemies to pieces. The game also offers a sizeable challenge with various difficulty settings. The campaign also puts you on an overall timer on anything higher than easy for that extra push. This is an area the game does stumble on a bit though, as even on the easy setting some missions can be rather brutal. The boss of the final campaign mission especially feels cheap, almost turning the experience into a bullet hell scenario. Fortunately this is not frequent enough to spoil an otherwise fun game.
• 

  Kaede

  Jan 7, 2018

  This is one of the finest retro action games on Steam, no less. As you could see by watching the store gameplay videos, this game comes with top-notch pixel art and FM-like synth music, all in fair amounts: the base 25 stages (1 stage is supposed to run about 1 minute if you don't die) all have distinct scenery and music, I believe. The game comes with 35 extra stages (which do reuse assets and music). The gameplay is equally good imho. This is a "simple" cover-based gallery shooter. What can be less obvious is that: - you can move slowly behind the covers - ennemies can damage and eventually destroy the covers that you overuse - there is a very useful dash move that provides invincibility frames (from start to end, this might sound like it is too much but abusing it is risky) - you can *seamlessly* switch between cover and dash - you can cancel out bullets by hitting in front of you (with what looks like a sword but is Erin's arm I think ?), also very useful - ennemies come with all kind of attacks. Most will simply shoot towards you, but a few will reach you above your cover, set the ground on fire, etc. etc. - you can shoot in front of you or lock to the nearest ennemy (no analog in this game). You can keep locking an ennemy far away on purpose or re-lock to the nearest ennemy. The lock system works pretty overall, it is simple enough not to distract you from dodging / covering. - there are additionnal weapons (they use limited ammo), you can switch weapons back and forth anytime. Overall, the moveset feels pretty good and work well with the game, ennemies and bullets patterns. Each stage comes with its own mini-boss(es). Most (all ?) of them are unique. The only negative to me would be: - it is really, really hard to "accurately" switch between weapons, even after the update that added the ability to switch weapons 2-way (using 2 buttons). I think there may still be more ways to make it a bit easier. Anyway, it is no big deal because the game almost never *requires* you to switch very fast to a specific weapon at a specific moment - the time constraint may not be severe enough. I had plenty of time left even in hard mode. To be honest, I think this is because I play too risky. - the game could track progress a bit better (by difficulty settings). There is a reason for that: initially the game did not feature difficulty modes. Since many people found the game too hard, the devs eventually set three difficulty modes (current hard mode is like previous default). Hard is perfectly manageable if you are into arcadey difficulty though, I have beaten games that I think are much harder (namely Dustforce and Cloudbuilt). - as you can see, only very minor "issues" (I can think only of one or two more). Everything else is perfect !
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  Kai Yang

  Mar 7, 2018

  I bought it because it reminds me of old retro games. I didn't expect much but got addicted, achieving 100% completion. Overall, one more caution should be added that "you can lose your controller". Now my controller's button and trigger are sticking after playing this. Though it was really hard game, it's worth playing. Just try it.
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  Reishadowen

  Apr 12, 2018

  I recommend it. I'd give it probably 5 out of 5, as it feels like this game accomplishes what it set out to do, stays pretty focused, and doesn't overstay its welcome. [u]Playtime:[/u] It doesn't take more than a few hours to beat the main campaign, but I'd honestly recommend only playing a few stages at a time between breaks (to give your hands a breather). Each stage is meant to be completed in about only one to two minutes apiece, but are packed with a lot of action, and you'll likely have to retry each level a few times to beat it. Dying & having to restart the stage is pretty fast, and even if you get to the end of a stage and then have to restart, you're only set back about one or two minutes of progress at most. [u]Game Mechanic(s):[/u] Speaking of minutes, you only have 30 of them to complete the game. Don't worry though, the time only counts down when you're in a level, not on the menu or in cutscenes or anything. You can also retry stages for faster times, and it adds that time back to the countdown. (Fortunately, it only keeps your fastest time for each stage. Yay!) If you take 2 minutes and 10 seconds to finish the first level, you have 27:50 left. If you go back and beat it in only 1:50, the timer has 28:10 left. I don't know what happens if this timer runs out, but it's probably bad. :/ [u]Difficulty & Gameplay:[/u] The game scales up its difficulty pretty well, introducing new enemy types that come back in later stages, but each level tends to get its own unique "level gimmick" to make it stand out a little more. And by gimmick, I mean hazard (for most levels). While some elements seem a bit overwhelming at first, the game feels natural at gradually getting your feet wet. You start off just holding the lock-on button and dodge-rolling at anything that looks like it might even come close to hitting you, then you start to get a feel for, and an instinct for dodging shots without even having to actively think about it. (well, I did anyways...) Then, the game introduces a new enemy, and or a new element, that forces you slightly out of your comfort zone again, and makes you learn how to take cover at end of your dodge, or shuffle around in cover to avoid a guy standing right over you, or change targets for the lock-on because your current target is behind a wall, or use the special weapons you've gotten 50 bajillion of, and haven't used them because that requires fumbling with the "switch weapons" buttons in the middle of a bullet-filled screen. Maybe it's the rapid-pace of how quickly & often you go through a stage, but if you stick with it, learning the game feels pretty fast to match it. Well, except for the beam-saber. [u]My Complaints:[/u] Probably my only real complaint with this game is that everything else is naturally taught to the player except how to use the beam saber well. It only hits enemies that are pressed right up against the wall, and if they just slightly step back, it misses them. And then they shoot you in the face. Every. Time. Thanks, but I think I'll stick to my guns. *pun totally intended*
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  JeramZ

  Jul 1, 2018

  This game can be very punishing. Especially if you plan on completing all achivements. It is frustratingly addictive, but every aced level is satisfying. The voice acting is nothing to write home about, but it's a good addition, considering the small size of the game. A good game for those looking for the challenge. Remember the good ol NES days where games tend to be extremely difficult in an attempt to extend playtime, but this is one of the good ones. :)
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  Cuban Pete

  Jul 6, 2018

  A cheap little indie game that's a blast to play. Great music and pixel art, although the voice acting for the bosses can be a bit irritating. Still worth playing if you are up for a challenging shooter.
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  gurtos

  Sep 1, 2018

  It's a shame Steam allows only "yes" or "no" as an score, because neither does this game justice. However after bit thinking I decided everything the game does wrong is just too crucial, considering it genere. I like skill based games, including difficult ones and Bot Vice can actually be really enjoyable at times, but when it's not, it almost makes me want to harm its creators. So, basically everything comes to most fundamental rule when making difficult games – make sure controls are good, because when controls are not good and game is hard, its gonna constantly punish player for your fuck ups. And punishing someone for your own mistakes doesn't make for great user experience. Most problematic part is auto-aim. Playing without it is impossible, but at the same time it constantly targets enemies you don't want to target, often when it's a matter of win or lose. Some might say, but it's impossible to know who player wants to target – so don't make your game rely so heavily on a mechanics, that can't be done right. I kind wish this game was much worse, because I could just move on and forget about it. Unfortunately Bot Vice, has a lot of good in it, which makes me want to play it, but I know if I do, it just gonna make me mad.