War Robots

Gameplay

War Robots features a real-time multiplayer system. Upon choosing to battle, the game automatically searches for other players to fight. Upon entering the battle, two teams of 6 players are spawned on both sides of the map. The player gets 15 seconds to choose a robot before the 10-minute-long game begins (You can have up to five bots to choose from if you bought the extra slots with in game gold).

The main objective is to capture/hold beacons, of which there are five located in key locations on the map. Players must move their robot close to a beacon in order to capture it, but if there is an enemy near the beacon, progress capturing the beacon will be stopped. Displayed at the top of the screen next to the timer are both teams' bars which will deplete slowly; the team with fewer beacons will see its bar diminish at a quicker rate. There are three ways to win a battle. Players can deplete the enemy team's bar to zero by capturing/holding more beacons, have a longer bar than the enemy team by the time the 10 minutes is up, or by destroying all of the opposing teams' robots before their bar or timer runs out.

During battle, players can either shoot all of their weapons at once using the red central fire button at the bottom-right of the screen, or they can choose to fire individual weapons by holding down its corresponding icon (bordering the red button). However, some weapons, such as the AT Spiral, can only be fired if the enemy is in a certain range from the player. All weapons have a certain range from 200m up to 1,500m or more depending on the weapon. There are three types of weapons, light, medium, and heavy, and some of them function differently than others. When the player's robot is pointed at an enemy, a red target borders the enemy robot, enabling the player to fire at and hit the enemy. Upon being destroyed, players have the option to spectate, leave the battle, or choose another robot that they have bought. However, if your robot is destroyed and you still have more robots, you are not forced to spawn in again but it will most likely cost you and your teammates (Tip: if the enemy has a lot of bots with long ranged weapons and you can't even get close, capture 3 out of the 5 beacons and do not spawn in again, you will only feed them damage. It might take a while for the match to end but it will be a victory if the enemy does not ditch their current bot and jump into action). You can also choose to destroy your own robot to pick another one even if it still has health, if you choose to do so, but you cannot use it again for the remainder of the battle.

Users can own any number of robots. However, in order to deploy it in a battle, each equipped robot requires a hangar slot, which is purchasable with gold, which a robot can then be equipped to. There are three categories of robots: light, medium and heavy, with light robots generally being the smallest and fastest while being inexpensive, but also having weaker armament and fewest hitpoints, while heavy robots are the opposite, and medium robots are somewhat in-between. Some robots have special abilities, such as Jump or Assault Mode, which can be used to give the player an advantage, but have a cooldown before they can be used again. There are three types of weapon hardpoints: light, medium, and heavy, and each type of hardpoint can only equip certain weapons. Projectile weapons include miniguns, machine guns, tank guns, rockets, and guided missiles. Energy weapons include plasma pulses, beam lasers and lightning. Certain robots have or can equip a physical shield or an energy shield to augment the robots' hitpoints. Players can own an unlimited number of weapons.

As players play the game, they can earn experience points. Leveling up unlocks new weapons and robots for the player to use. There are three types of currency: Silver, Gold, and Workshop Points. Silver and Gold can be earned through battles, though Gold requires players to have done three things: been in the top 3 of the winning team, won a battle with a friend, or have captured the most beacons in the winning team. The game allows you to purchase Premium or VIP, which will allow you to earn experience and Silver 50% faster, although this upgrade is not permanent. Gold and Workshop Points can also be earned by completing objectives (i.e. destroying a number of enemy robots or capturing a number of beacons). Once the player reaches level 20, they can earn Workshop Points or purchase them with Silver or Gold. Silver can be used to buy and upgrade most robots and weapons. However, certain robots and weapons can only be bought/unlocked with Gold or Workshop Points. Players can only upgrade one robot or weapon at a time, although the process can be speeded up with Gold, and the amount of Silver and time required for an upgrade increases exponentially for each subsequent level. Silver and Gold can also be purchased through the in-app purchases provided; Gold can be bought with money, while Silver can only be bought using Gold.

Leagues

War Robots has a league system implemented, and is based on your performance in-game. If you do a large amount of damage, capture beacons, and destroy other robots, your rating will go up, but if you do very little in game, your rating will go down. It is not necessary to win a battle for your rating to go up; contributing largely to the team can bring your rating up even if your team loses, and not doing anything will bring your rating down even if your team wins. After you have completed your training matches, you will start at 400 trophies, and you can climb through many leagues. The major leagues are listed below. Starting at Bronze league, there are three sub-leagues for each league, III, II, and I.

As you advance through each league, you will receive Gold as a reward for doing so, with the exception of the Legend League, where there is no reward for becoming the top 50.

Reviews

Engadget gave War Robots a mostly positive review, criticizing it for lacking the ability to respawn and for making it very difficult to purchase better robots without making microtransactions, but overall stated that it was a "fun online multiplayer zone capture game with energetic robot battles". Android Police reviewed the work, writing "Walking War Robots isn't exactly original - it's borrowing quite a lot from the MechWarrior series, with a third-person perspective and mobile controls thrown on. But as a high-end, team-based online multiplayer mech game on Android, it's also fairly unique to the platform." Droid Gamers was also mostly positive, noting that the "graphics could be a tiny bit more polished but then again you have 12 players on the field which is a no small feat and the details that they have included like smoke trails from missiles and the audio are immersive."

148apps.com gave an extremely favourable review for War Robots, stating that "it's an interesting game that feels serious enough to be realistic. That's no small feat." A review by TechRadar stated that it was... "Fun and enjoyable. But needs more robots, weapons and a better reward system. App Spy also praised the game, writing that "The engine powering the game is impressive, even if some of the UI elements are a bit old hat, and the feeling of being part of a squad taking on another team is palpable."

War Robots recently reached its two-year anniversary in 2016, and has celebrated two million downloads across all platforms. As a result of these achievements, a huge number of new features are coming to the game, including, new squad systems, new themes and colours for several robots, new weapons and robots, and a possible new map.