Hiding from glowing police-drones in a sci-fi, futuristic city, where you are simply out to complete a series of missions as to amp up your score — Cyber Stealth challenges you to make it out alive.
You are a recently reprogrammed and refitted service robot which has gone rogue. Your new ‘job’ is to complete missions and deliver goods to various buildings around the city without getting caught. It becomes quickly apparent that people are not meant to roam the streets anymore — instead other robots travel around. These robots are not like you, instead they are on a patrol to keep the quiet streets safe — safe from people like you, it seems. If they see you moving, clearly not on a patrol route, they will come after you in an attempt to stun and deactivate you.
As part of the reprogramming and refitting, you have been given a defense against such patrol robots. You can zap them which causes them to malfunction. However, doing so uses up a chunk of your energy, which is an extremely valuable resource. Your energy is almost always at risk of running out (shown by a bar at the bottom of the screen above your health), so you will need to complete missions quickly as to gain more power as well as points. Hiding, watching the other robots on your mini-map, and making calculated decisions is what it takes to be a rogue robot in this world. Cars, lights, and buildings all make for a good places to crouch behind while waiting for the ever-vigilant patrol robots to pass.
I had the chance to play a very early development build of Cyber Stealth at Insomnia62. The build was the first level — three missions which needed to be bested without running out of power or being caught too many times. Once you are found by a patrol robot, for whatever reason, the world goes from bright blue lights to bright red lights. The patrol robots are also lit in red — so seeing them because almost impossible if you have died once.
Other than this minor detail — and the fact that I suck at being patient and hiding from other robots — the game already feels like it is off to a good start. Movement works well, the mini-map is readable and useful, and the space inside the city feels well laid out. While it is still rough around the edges at the moment a lot of the core is already in place for what could turn out to be a really good game.
If you’d like to follow the development of Cyber Stealth, you can follow @GolemGamesHud on Twitter, check out their Facebook Page, or their website.
