Thank you indie.io for the review code!

AI.VI combines the very idle nature of tower defense games with the heavily active nature of first-person shooters. Though you could say it does this by simply making the towers too weak to kill the enemies, you could also argue that it makes the player more engaged and clever. Different traps can be used to apply elemental afflictions to the enemies and can be combined to do loads of damage, leaving only a hint of cleanup for the player afterwards. This is only one strategy out of the many you can use and come up with in AI.VI; I think it’d be worthwhile for you to try them all.

In AI.VI, you play as a robot who goes by the same name. A former war machine forced out of his comfortable life as a miner, he’s the one for the task of taking down the P.A.S.C.A.L. That villainous group is an intergalactic corporation trying to claim your planet and everything in it for their own gain. You must counter their immense arsenal of tough robots with your array of weapons, traps, towers, and elemental abilities to save your people. You work alongside two other robots, TCP and IP, to get information about missions and upgrades to your gear.

There are 12 total missions in the game, and they cover various different settings. The tracks and styles vary quite a lot, and a few of them have their own gimmick. One might have several enemy entrances, but one gate for you to defend, or vice versa. I like the ones with a lot of stage hazards, as you can force the enemies to fall into them in some way. The variance of the available traps allows for a lot of different styles of play, such as destroying them by dealing damage or by knocking them off of the track.

Something that bugs me a little is the difficulty progression of the missions. For some reason, the fifth mission took me more tries than any other, even ones after it. With a fairly limited arsenal at this point in the game, you are expected to juggle two different paths that are not connected to each other by solid ground. This level took far too many attempts, and it was rather discouraging that the song for it wasn’t very good and got old fast.

I do really like the wide arsenal within the game. With several playstyles available, I personally prefer using the weapons that deal area damage. The teddy bear launcher is my favorite, enabling you to launch explosive toy bears to hit several enemies at once for a decent amount of damage. All weapons also have a secondary fire, with the aforementioned one's being to create a black hole that can suck enemies in, granting opportunities to toss enemies off of the track to quickly take care of the ones you don’t like fighting. Other than this one, there are many other weapons with unique mechanics and silly names and ideas. For example, you could use a shotgun that looks like an old photography camera and makes accordion sounds when you squeeze it, or even dual pistols that shoot fireworks.

As I mentioned, the ways to destroy your enemies also reach into the realm of traps and towers, letting you damage enemies without being there to do it yourself. There are quite a lot of traps to choose from, but you must select 6 different ones to use in each level. They can be used in parity with one another for powerful synergies, as most of them deal elemental damage. If an enemy gets hit by an elemental attack, they get a status effect for a few seconds. If they receive a different elemental affliction while already under one, the two elements will combine and produce a special effect. For example, if an enemy on fire then steps onto a lightning trap, they will receive the “overloaded” affliction, dealing a ton of damage up front. Combining fire and acid, though, will inflict “burn,” making them take more damage over time. For this reason, combining many different traps and elements is heavily encouraged and makes for interesting setups.

The enemies you need to take care of have a lot of variance as well, ranging from basic officers to giant beefy war machines that can take an impressive amount of hits. There are some that can ignore certain elements, requiring you to mix up which towers you use beyond the bare minimum. The “elite” enemies are immune to knockback and have a ton of health, which means that you’ll often times have to ditch the main horde and sink a ton of your own bullets into them.

In between missions, you have the opportunity to buy and upgrade weapons and traps. You obtain currency to do so by playing missions, so you can go back and upgrade even if you fail. I find it worthwhile to max out the weapons and traps that you use the most, as I feel that some of the traps have a very niche use case. You can reset upgrades and sell items for full cashback, meaning that you could theoretically buy and refund traps and weapons a bunch of times to use them for different missions.

The story itself is decent, but the dialogue, while silly, might be a little cliché at times. Other than that, I do recall seeing at least one grammar error in a dialogue cutscene, but it wasn’t anything to break the immersion too much. AI.VI’s graphics make up for a lot, as they take on a cartoony cel-shaded aesthetic with comic book-like visual effects. The music is a mix of various electronic genres, and fits the game well enough. Sound design is pretty good, however, with each weapon making fitting sounds and some characters having voice lines. I experienced game crashes, and found that enemies will sometimes wander aimlessly along the track or get stuck at the exit. The controls feel nice to play.

AI.VI is pretty clearly geared towards a younger audience, so the moral issues are for the most part lacking. The violence is very non-graphic, with the extent being that robot parts will fly off when you blow them up. The game takes place in a mecha-western world, so there is some emphasis on saloons, but alcohol is portrayed very non-seriously.

Other than some bumps, AI.VI is a pretty good game. I think it’s fairly priced, and would recommend it if you want to try something new but stay true to the staple genres that FPS and tower defense both are.