Autonauts Vs Pirate Bots

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Arabella Kochanski

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Aug 3, 2024, 5:09:02 PM8/3/24

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Autonauts, the BAFTA award-winning automation, strategy and create-em-up game from Denki, and the crew of s-Curve-y dogs (sorry) is receiving a major update with the announcement that pirates aaaarrrrrrrr coming to the game.

Autonauts vs Piratebots is a whole new game of automation and strategy for novices and veterans alike. Ye be the captain of your own destiny in this swashbuckling simulation that boasts an in-depth campaign across procedurally-generated worlds. Players will need to use crafting, world-building and realtime strategy (RTS) thinking to reclaim Autonauts settlements from marauding Piratebots, all while honing their Bot coding skills.

Although the game is ostensibly about protecting your Autonaut settlement from being pillaged by Piratebots, doing so involves setting up automated production and defenses which teaches players the very basics of coding. Teachers in the UK already use the prequel Autonauts to teach computer logic, so Denki thought of giving away the sequel to help kids learn to code.

As for the game itself, it looks like an adorable little simulation game. Players first automate their production lines before creating defenses against Piratebot incursions. Piratebots are all obviously pirate themed, but Autonaut warriors can look like knights, samurai, or little cannon-firing UFOs. Boss battles have excellent names like Long Bot Silver, Botbeard, and Botbarossa, with the game culminating in defeating the Dread Pirate Robot's stronghold on the other side of the planet.

This time around, a bit of Tower Defence-style gameplay is thrown in for good measure. As before, Autonauts is a factory game with bots that you program to do the work, but this time, there are Pirates marauding.

All is peaceful on planet Rigel VII in the Denki quadrant; Autonaut Kyo has a thriving settlement underway until Piratebots savagely attack it, wiping out the base camp and taking control of the working outposts and industries.

Exploring the map, you will soon discover a pirate outpost you must take down and reclaim. To do so, you build an army of bots and arm each with a sword. Then you and your little army of bots advance on the pirates, and battle commences. This is the fun portion of the game; I loved battling the pirates. I developed a technique of running around in tight circles while my army bots followed me and took out any pirates at an outpost.

In addition to all of this, I found myself wanting to build a large army of them as it is pretty addictive wanting just one more bot fighter. The only real issues I had were some pacing problems when my production lines of bots as they inevitably ground to a halt from running out of items. It can be a bit of a grind to make robots fix these minor problems.

Autonauts vs Piratebots was initially planned as a DLC for Autonauts. However, when developing the DLC, the add-on grew so big that Denki decided to make a new game. Of course, that took longer than initially planned, spanning a two-year development. I think it was worth the wait as the game is packed with new stuff and enjoyable.