It seems like there’s been a glut of indie 3D platformers crossing onto my radar lately. The very good Pilfer: Story of Light a few weeks ago, the not-so-good Kaku: Ancient Seal a few weeks before that – and now, Boti: Byteland Overclocked, which falls somewhere in between those two in terms of quality.
It’s definitely closer to the “good” end of the spectrum, though. It’s about a trio of robots trying to rid Byteland – otherwise known as the inside of a computer – of bugs, glitches, and viruses, and they inhabit a world that’s as bright and colourful as you could hope for a 3D platformer to be. There aren’t too many levels, but the ones that are here are enormous, taking about an hour or so apiece to finish. Thankfully there are also fairly generous checkpoints so you never need to worry too much about losing progress – though for the most part the game never gets that difficult, so that shouldn’t be too much of a concern.
The gameplay is pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a collectathon 3D platformer – which is to say you have all the usual assortment of double-jumps and attacks. There’s nothing all that surprising in Boti: Byteland Overclocked, but it’s charming enough that it should still win you over all the same.
Or, at least, it should if you don’t get too put off by the bugs – and not the ones that are enemies in the game, but the bugs that plague the actual game. While I only had one moment where the game froze and I had to quit completely (which is probably one more than you’d want to see), I definitely experienced plenty of points where proceedings slowed to a crawl for a few moments. And yes, there’s definitely some irony in the fact that a game about squashing computer bugs clearly its more than its fair share.
But as far as I’m concerned, even with the so-so performance, Boti: Byteland Overclocked is still worth playing if you’re a fan of 3D platformers. It’s got fun characters, a vibrant aesthetic, and gameplay that’ll feel comfortable to anyone who’s ever played one of these games in the past few decades. There may be some flaws, but the overall package is solid enough that it’s worth overlooking them.
Untold Tales provided us with a Boti: Byteland Overclocked PC code for review purposes.
We're curious to find out what the conversion rate is when the dust has settled.
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