If I’m not looking for the next roguelite or bullet heaven to sink a ton of time into, I have a penchant for platformers of the 3D variety. Hearkening back to the most nostalgic genre for me, I just love collecting everything in sight, completing a checklist in my head as I talk with charming characters and explore in the truest sense of the word. When I first saw Boti: Byteland Overclocked, I instantly thought of Astro’s Playroom‘s aesthetic, the robotic welcome to my PS5. Can this title set itself apart from that robo platformer, much less land on its level of high quality?

In Boti: Byteland Overclocked, your premise is that you’re… a cute robot within a computer. That already makes it hard to escape the shadow of Astro’s Playroom as that’s just about a carbon copy. Since this 3D platformer has a much longer runtime though, we get more PC puns and level length to work with. The platforming is easy to grasp and won’t take too much thinking to navigate its puzzles. The toughest points come in the slide and grind sections. I felt dejected to not get the target score and to keep falling like I did in the screenshot above due to finicky targeting as opposed to user error.

Boti: Byteland Overclocked‘s worst offense, though, is how downright frustrating your robot companions (One and Zero) are. This is the first time in gaming that I’ve completely turned off the audio for voices. I could deal with how grating One’s delivery was, but what sealed the deal is that some audio lines are played every minute or two. This is inexcusable and even seeing them as subtitles became annoying as I read duplicate lines to a demoralizing extent. The other characters were fine, but probably only because I only saw them a few times as opposed to every few seconds.

The nail in the coffin for me was the game-breaking bug I experienced (pictured above). Getting a progression blocker in the second hour of gameplay was frustrating and based on Steam reviews, I am not the only one still feeling the effects of an unpolished launch. Luckily, the developers provided a known bugs list ahead of launch. They have already made multiple patches within the game’s first week, so these issues are less likely to appear should you want to pick up the game a little down the road when everything is ironed out. Give it a few months and performance will be a non-issue.

I have a relatively low standard for 3D platformers since the formula is so basic and easy to pull off (see Toree 3D and Super Kiwi 64). While Boti: Byteland Overclocked has platforming and environments on lock, its less-than-stellar presentation and polish make it a challenge to recommend ahead of patches forthcoming. Something tells me this will be in a bundle sooner than later, so it would be worth it in that package deal. For now, approach Boti: Byteland Overclocked with caution.

A PC Review copy of Boti: Byteland Overclocked was provided by Untold Tales for this review.

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Boti: Byteland Overclocked

$19.99 USD

5

Score

5.0/10

Pros

• Visually Appealing Environments
• Satisfactory Nostalgic Platforming
• Great Mechanics

Cons

• Game-Breaking Bugs
• Extremely Annoying Voice Acting
• Rough Grind/Slide Sections