If you take out all of the human precision and care that goes into crafting a well-balanced tactical game and replace it all with procedurally generated hocus-pocus, you have Bionic Dues, a shining example of how NOT to do a game like this.

For the sake of this review, I'm going to pretend that there aren't people on Steam who will try to act tough and say that beating a game that generates everything completely at random is based on some sort of "skill" or "good judgment". There's the power of decision making, and then there's just plain ol' being outmatched by a robot that leveled up several times more than your randomly-generated loot chest equipment can possibly hope to combat.

No, there's good decision making, and then there's numbers. Tactical games have always been about numbers. They have always been about well-crafted maps with careful enemy placement as much as they have been about intelligent team setup supported by guaranteed available items in shops (because the game knows you will need them). Bionic Dues does none of this. Bionic Dues generates all of the maps and the enemies that are placed into them with a computer algorithm. It generates which combinations of enemies will be in a map with a computer algorithm. It generates what level those enemies will be with a computer algorithm. Need to outfit your team in order to survive? Too bad. Bionic Dues also generates the items available in the shop with a computer algorithm. Basically, EVERYTHING is generated almost entirely at random. And as much as I'd like to believe that the computer procedures used in the generation of everything in this game are as intelligent and discerning as a human being... they're not.

If you like to sit at a table and roll dice over and over again until you get a certain number, this game might be for you. Yeah, sure, delude yourself into thinking that there is some kind of decision you can make that will mystically cause your severely under-equipped robot to beat a hulking level 7 DoomBot - it seems to be what "roguelike" fans tend to do so they can convince themselves that everything they accomplished in a playthrough was totally the product of their skill. Is this game possible? Sure. I'm just so not afraid to say it straight: this game is absurdly random. It is a total crapshoot what items I will get, meaning it's a total crapshoot how powerful I will be, and it's a total crapshoot how the enemies will level up, meaning it's a total crapshoot whether or not I will beat them. The game is a total crapshoot. But like I said, some people like sitting at a table rolling dice over and over again until they get a certain number. Some people like crap(s).

P.S. Please, really don't try to say that this review is because I can't handle the game. I've beaten the game 3 times on Expert and destroyed 100 enemies in a single shot. That is so not the issue. Only somebody extremely near-sighted bases their opinions on whether or not they can beat a game. This game is not good. It is an awful representation of tactical games. The tactical game genre should be ashamed of this game, it's giving the genre a bad name.

If you take out all of the human precision and care that goes into crafting a well-balanced tactical game and replace it all with procedurally generated hocus-pocus, you have Bionic Dues, a shining example of how NOT to do a game like this. For the sake of this review, I'm going to pretend that there aren't people on Steam who will try to act tough and say that beating a game that generates everything completely at random is based on some sort of "skill" or "good judgment". There's the power of decision making, and then there's just plain ol' being outmatched by a robot that leveled up several times more than your randomly-generated loot chest equipment can possibly hope to combat. No, there's good decision making, and then there's numbers. Tactical games have always been about numbers. They have always been about well-crafted maps with careful enemy placement as much as they have been about intelligent team setup supported by guaranteed available items in shops (because the game knows you will need them). Bionic Dues does none of this. Bionic Dues generates all of the maps and the enemies that are placed into them with a computer algorithm. It generates which combinations of enemies will be in a map with a computer algorithm. It generates [b]what level those enemies will be[/b] with a computer algorithm. Need to outfit your team in order to survive? Too bad. Bionic Dues also generates the items available [b]in the shop[/b] with a computer algorithm. Basically, EVERYTHING is generated almost entirely at random. And as much as I'd like to believe that the computer procedures used in the generation of everything in this game are as intelligent and discerning as a human being... they're not. If you like to sit at a table and roll dice over and over again until you get a certain number, this game might be for you. Yeah, sure, delude yourself into thinking that there is some kind of decision you can make that will mystically cause your severely under-equipped robot to beat a hulking level 7 DoomBot - it seems to be what "roguelike" fans tend to do so they can convince themselves that [b]everything[/b] they accomplished in a playthrough was totally the product of their [b]skill[/b]. Is this game possible? Sure. I'm just so not afraid to say it straight: this game is absurdly random. It is a total crapshoot what items I will get, meaning it's a total crapshoot how powerful I will be, and it's a total crapshoot how the enemies will level up, meaning it's a total crapshoot whether or not I will beat them. The game is a total crapshoot. But like I said, some people like sitting at a table rolling dice over and over again until they get a certain number. Some people like crap(s). P.S. Please, really don't try to say that this review is because I can't handle the game. I've beaten the game 3 times on Expert and destroyed 100 enemies in a single shot. That is so not the issue. Only somebody extremely near-sighted bases their opinions on whether or not they can beat a game. This game is not good. It is an awful representation of tactical games. The tactical game genre should be ashamed of this game, it's giving the genre a bad name.