Tetrobot and Co. released all the way back in 2013, at the tail end of the first wave of the indie game boom. That means that, like many of indie releases of the time (Gateways anyone?), it's been buried under the many, many games that dropped in the bigger indie game boom of the mid 2010s - and that sucks, because Tetrobot is a strong puzzle game, with mechanics I haven't seen anywhere else in genre and a generous amount of high-quality content.
In Tetrobot, you play as Psychobot, a nanomachine that goes into Tetrobots to repair them. It's technically the second game in the Tetrobot Cinematic Universe, after Blocks That Matter; well, the Blocks may Matter, but the plot here, while fine and cute, thankfully does not, and you don't need to have played the previous game to either follow or ignore the story here (Blocks That Matter is a good game though, btw).
I don't usually summarize a game's story or conceit (that's what the store page is for) but, I bring it up here because, even if you're familiar with the puzzle genre, which is absolutely larded with good games these days, it can be hard to figure out what kind of puzzle game Tetrobot is; and the fact is, it really doesn't fit into any of the standard puzzle formats; even the big genre-advancing puzzlers like Stephen's Sausage Roll or Baba is You extrapolate from recognizable puzzle tropes, whereas, from the beginning, Tetrobot is doing its own thing.
Loosely, very loosely, you could call it a side-on block sliding game. Each 'World' you enter is a broken Tetrobot themed around a new mechanic, with six stages each; each stage consists of multiple rooms, with multiple puzzles. The goal is to get to the warp at the end of each level, and to do so you will have to solve the 'basic' puzzles in the stage. But there are also three golden memory blocks in each level; you need to collect some of these to open up new worlds, but the real joy and meat of Tetrobot, for the puzzle enthusiast, is getting all three in every level. From the very first World you have to do some serious lateral thinking to get them; I would say that 75% of my time in Tetrobot has been spent on these optional, but seriously delightful, puzzles.
All the puzzles in Tetrobot revolve around manipulating blocks of different materials, each with their own properties; sand blocks turn to glass when exposed to heat, whereas wood ones burn; steel blocks conduct electricity and are magnetic, etc.; if you've played video games, or worked with large blocks in real life, these properties won't surprise you; it's their implementation in a puzzle game that makes Tetrobot so unique.
Well, that and the controls. You click around the screen, and your little Psychobot moves where you click; you can putter freely around the levels, moving back and forth between the rooms, bringing blocks from one place to another, figuring out efficiencies and tricks as you go.
It's unique! But, er, you'll have to take my word for it (?) Reading back over this review, I see I haven't quite conveyed the holistic feel of Tetrobot, but I'll say this: I passed over this game multiple times, convinced it wasn't a "pure" enough puzzle game for my tastes (some of my faves are Magicube, SSR, Recursed, etc.); but I got it cheap, and, within minutes, I was hooked, sold, enthralled. All these elements come together in a way that defies easy summary but makes perfect sense when you have the thing in your hands. (Speaking of Recursed, Portponky himself recommends the game in his own review, so you know it's good.)
The controls can be a little wonky, it's true. Input-wise they're sound enough and, while the game recommends a mouse, controller works fine (the game runs very well on the Steam Deck). But Psychobot's pathfinding is not good, and you're going to send him where you don't want him a fair bit, into laser beams and the like. It's not a big deal as there is a rewind feature, but it will happen, so be prepared for a little friction there.
A bigger deal would be the bug(s) that seems to specifically revolve around that rewind feature. Every so often, when I hit the rewind, instead of taking me back one move as it should've, it would reset the entire level for me. Looking at the FAQ it seems like the devs know the rewind is buggy, but I don't think they're going to fix this particular issue if they haven't by now. It's a shame, and a definite annoyance when you're in the midst of the longer later levels but, once you know what to do, it's usually painless and quick to get back to where you were after a bugged rewind.
One semi-complaint, too: if you're interested in memory block procurement, know that it is possible you may have to replay the levels, and do things in a specific order, to get them all; you need to be cognizant of which blocks you can take where, and may find yourself at the exit having expended blocks in a latter part of the stage when you needed to use them first earlier on. Once you get into the groove of the game this too isn't a huge deal, but it's worth noting.
Tetrobot came out of nowhere, immediately engrossing me with a mechanical suite that I haven't seen in any other puzzle game, ever, and I've been playing a lot of them lately. No puzzle has been unfair, every new mechanic has been fun and explored in really cool ways, and, even if the story is easy to ignore, I appreciate the general slickness/cuteness/niceness of the visual and aural presentation here. If you like any of the games I mentioned throughout this review, you should do yourself a favor and get Tetrobot. It's a real gem.
Thanks for reading this far. I run a Steam Group and Curator page called Selected Works, devoted to high quality written reviews of independent video games. I've linked it below. If this review helped you at all, I would greatly appreciate a follow. Thanks for your time and consideration!
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44858736/
