This sci-fi FPS looks like Borderlands, but its robot is cool instead of annoying

Roboquest sounds like the title of a mid-'90s children's show about robots struggling to save humanity from a climate-change-induced apocalypse. It's actually a new FPS roguelite that's now available in Early Access on Steam—about a robot struggling to save humanity from a climate-change-induced apocalypse.

The year is 2700 and humanity is on the brink (as usual), but things start to look up when a scavenger named Max discovers and reactivates an old Guardian robot, who then helps her scavenge the surrounding canyons and caves—and by "helps her," I mean, does all the work while she waits back at the van.

It looks quite a bit like Borderlands, but the randomly-generated levels are smaller and more linear: Your job is simply to battle from one end of a level to another (although there are branching paths in some), collecting all the guns and upgrades you can as you go. When you get to the end, you return to the van to repair and recharge, and then it's back into the fight against more, tougher enemies. Despite the Borderlands look it actually reminds me of Devolver's Heavy Bullets, but much more action-oriented and with unlimited ammo.

The Early Access release "features most of the final core systems of the game, with a few cinematic and story-elements," and developer RyseUp Studios expect it will remain in EA for 8-10 months, although it could run longer depending on how it all goes. 

titleRoboquest is a fast FPS roguelite about a young woman and a robot in the year 2700quest is a fast FPS roguelite about a young woman and a robot in the year 2700quest is a fast FPS roguelite about a young woman and a robot in the year 2700hat preliminary state, though, it's quite a lot of fun. I expected to take a quick look last night, and ended up putting a couple hours into it, just rattling around in canyons and the occasional techno-cave, blasting away with dual Uzis, crossbows, electro-shotguns, and more. I didn't get very far with it (this sort of shooter isn't really my forte) but it's the sort of thing that's very easy to pick up and put down as time allows. It supports co-op play as well, if you're in the mood for grouping up.

Roboquest is available for $18 on Steam in Early Access, and is expected to go up to $20 at full launch. You can take a look at the development roadmap down below, and find out more about the game at roboquest.com.