Should you give this robot a chance?
Tyler: Model 005 is an action platformer that I had high hopes for when I first saw the trailer. The game follows a robot called Tyler who has to navigate through an abandoned house and find parts to create a time machine to rewrite history. Tyler is quite small, which makes navigating through the house somewhat of a pain…
Tyler has to fight off spiders, wasps, ants and the infernal controls. Tyler rarely knows if he wants to jump, wall-run or climb up objects, it seems more random than anything. There’s also the frustrating survival mechanic of finding light sources within the house to keep Tyler powered up, which almost punishes players for wanting to explore the house for collectibles and solutions to the game’s puzzles.
Combat is also a mess with Tyler having to tap Y to get out his blade and the triggers to swing them, he can also drop cherry bombs that will take out a good few enemies, but the combat is clunky and not enjoyable at all. You eventually get a short rewind ability, but I honestly kept forgetting about it and only used it a few times, it just didn’t see necessary for anything other than falling off a ledge or something.
The story itself is touching, but it isn’t presented well and the voice-acting isn’t great, neither is the audio quality of said voice-acting. I was also pretty confused by the ending which ends on a cliffhanger, since I can’t really see a sequel happening unless it decides what sort of game it wants to be and fixes the jump/climb/combat mechanics.
I love platformers and really wanted to enjoy Tyler, but it instantly becomes this frustrating and at times, glitchy mess that made me wish for the end, which luckily came quickly. Visually, the game looks fairly good…but the framerate suffers heavy drops during combat and the load times are on the long side. The music is average and like I said, the audio quality is poor.
The Verdict
Tyler: Model 005 has the potential to be a fun and enjoyable platformer, but instead it doesn’t know what sort of game it wants to be by mixing in combat and survival mechanics that don’t fit. Add in jump and climbing issues that make you want to throw your controller at the wall and you have a platformer that is not enjoyable at all. If there is to be a sequel or add-on, they really need to fix a lot.