izigame.me

Excellent, high-quality update of a largely forgotten (but historically important) arcade classic. I, Robot was always an utterly unique game, difficult to categorize. It mixes elements of traversal-based level clearing (e.g. Pac-Man), with shooting elements, stealth, and wholly unique mechanics that I haven't seen before or since. After clearing all of the tiles on a stage, gameplay switches to forward scrolling shooter, as you traverse to each new level.
Llamasoft's re-imagining preserves the foundation of the original perfectly, adding to it with new enemies and mechanics, without fundamentally altering the original formula. Throughout the 55 levels, you'll find a steady flow of creative new challenges and mechanics. There's an almost puzzle-like experimentation aspect to the game, and it's clear a lot of care was put into the level design. You can continue from any level you've reached, allowing less experienced players to grind their way to the end, but serious high score runs start with Level 0 and are a battle for survival.
Visually, this is Llamasoft's most polished and visually appealing game to date, integrating psychadelic "light synth" backgrounds with pulsating, color-shifting polygons in the fore. It's sensory overload by design, which won't be everyone's cup of tea, but is sure to please long time fans of Jeff Minter's ouvre, and sits nicely alongside Tempest 4000, etc. An option for boring star field backgrounds can be found in the options, for those who need to rein in psychedelia.
Despite the busy visual language, this isn't really as much of a "zone" game in the way that many Llamasoft titles are. The shooter bits offer flashes of that, but the main levels are more methodical and require careful gameplay rather than twitch reflexes. That might be a disappointment for those looking for that transcendental, face-melting experience, but that simply isn't the sort of game I, Robot is. I'm also very disappointed that there is no VR support on offer here on Steam, when we have it on PlayStation, and we have had it on Llamasoft Steam releases in the past.
The game does have a few issues that might frustrate players, especially as they learn the game. Certain levels have tiles that are obscured, but need to be cleared anyway, leading to occasional situations where a level looks cleared, but you need to retrace obscured regions to find the missing tile. There's also no tutorial or explanation of controls, and new mechanics are explained using minimalist text at the start of levels. I played through most of the game before realizing I could use the shoulder buttons to change firing modes in the shooter parts. These aren't big issues on repeated plays, but they can be frustrating as you learn.
Overall I think it's an excellent treatment of an obscure classic that I have always liked. It's packed with creative ideas and insane over-the-top visuals, and I thoroughly enjoyed working through the campaign.