Protodroid DeLTA Review – Dash-Jumping and Brass Bashing

Protodroid DeLTA is a game that’ll fool you on bootup. At least, if you’re anything like me, you’re going to be a bit confused about what you’re getting into at first. It took me a full level and a half and a lot more deaths than I’m proud of before understanding exactly what Protodroid DeLTA was offering, and it was then that I started to notice the genius behind the game’s design.

Protodroid DeLTA opens up reading as a 3D beat-em-up platformer-type game. The characters are cute, and the world you’re in is believable and interesting… if not for having a bit of a strange story. I mean, the game opens up talking about how the world is in a new age of abundant renewable energy and great prosperity, stating that humanity as a whole is prospering, then immediately goes on to say that many are being preyed upon by evil actors. It doesn’t really explain the motivation of these villains, who exist in what is seemingly the perfect world. The narrative is presented somewhat haphazardly with “Everything is great.. but it isn’t.”

That aside, you’re thrown pretty quickly into a tutorial level that plays smoothly, if not for one hiccup I find pretty annoying in every game I play. I do not like when games pause what you’re doing to give you a popup explaining a mechanic, especially when that popup is about three words long. The game also does this with dialogue, and I wish it didn’t, but it was more of a pet peeve than anything else.

Popups aside, the tutorial pretty fluidly explains the game’s basic movement and combat mechanics and starts to paint a picture of what you’re in store for moving forward. Again, if you’re anything like me, don’t trust this picture, because it’s going to totally mislead you into thinking Protodroid DeLTA is an action title. I was expecting Ratchet and Clank with cuter characters as I loaded into the first level.

The truth is, Protodroid DeLTA is exclusively a platforming puzzle game, and a phenomenal one at that. The waves of stationary, turret-like robots initially registered to me as boring enemy designs, until I realized how they interacted with the platforming stages around me.

See, combat in Protodroid DeLTA isn’t really the focus at all. Enemies are not intelligent, and as I said are pretty static for the most part. They exist to mix up your comfort as you traverse the platforming puzzles. Each robot enemy spawns in suddenly and without warning, and has an attack that will push you in some way, often off the edge of a platform and into death.

The intuitiveness of Protodroid DeLTA’s game design began to make itself clear to me at this point. The game’s puzzles are unique, presenting a new and interesting challenge each time you encountered one. As you’re in the middle of learning these challenges, additional hazards in the form of the game’s enemies will spawn in, presenting new obstacles to mess up your platforming. You’re forced in the moment to make a judgment call, whether you want to expend the time and effort to clear these hazards or just keep moving, and with the momentum of the platforming you’re given very little time to make this decision.

In this way, Protodroid DeLTA creates a tense atmosphere that you don’t predict coming with how relaxed and cute the entrance to each world is. The somewhat bubbly, brightly colored game design pairs well with the vibe of the game and the level design, even if I wish there was a bit more to look at in each level. The look of the game reminded me a lot of Mega Man.

The whole thing feels like a love letter to Mega Man, really. The inspiration runs pretty deep, and are displayed pretty proudly. You play as a super-powered android, firing laser blasts from her hand-canon, and you defeat a collection of bosses to make use of their unique weapons and power ups. The game even opens with a bonafide Mega Man X Zero moment.

The world the game presents is bright and hopeful, which sort of leads to one of my biggest flaws with the game. Presentation-wise, the game could use some work. The story doesn’t make any sense, at least not early on. As I pointed out, the opening cutscene goes from “the world is perfect and everyone is prosperous” to “many people are suffering” in the same breath.

The game also has kind of a mixed sense of speed that threw me off. At times, the game will have you rushing at light speed through a level, or will seemingly want you to be, just to suddenly drop hazards in your way that are super slow. The generous health pool and healing the game offers means you’ll at times get stuck on these hazards for a while, knocked back but not out of a level and forced to sort of linger in an area longer than it feels fun.

I won’t pretend, however, that I’m not the best player to criticize this game. Platforming isn’t my strongest skill, and I most certainly had more than my fair share of deaths in my time with Protodroid DeLTA. I’m willing to accept that my issues with the game’s speed may, at times, have been my own fault.

Either way, Protodroid DeLTA won’t make a hard-level overstay its welcome. The game has a handful of stages, each with about 5 levels. and you can take them on at any time and in any order you please. If you’re stuck in a certain level, you can leave and come back to it later, and the game will drop you right back at the last checkpoint you reached. You can even quit a level half way through and come back later with new abilities, making mince-meat of any problems you were facing before.

Try Hard Guides was provided with a PC review copy of this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles in the Game Reviews section of our website! Protodroid DeLTA is available on Steam and Humble Games.