Every gamer in some shape or form has experienced bugs at some point in their lives. Whether it’s a glitch that sends you through the map or a bug that allows you to duplicate the game’s riches, we’ve all had something happen to us.

BitNine Studio and WhisperGames thought that it would be a good idea to make a game centered around these pesky types of bugs and more in tERRORbane, where the name of the game is to find all of the bugs strewn throughout and make them right. Though its comedy is charming and its homages smile-inducing, this title just didn’t have enough meat on its bones to keep the good times rolling too far.

Story

The game revolves around you, the Terrorbane; a warrior that is set out to rid the world of bugs and destroy the evil forces at play. The game has the usual RPG themes such as various companions you’ll meet along the way, with each one more colorful than the last. You also have a unique setting akin to some of the most popular titles in the genre.

You have a town filled with mustached dwellers, dinosaur/human hybrids, and even a man who was once a barrel. It’s a pretty interesting world but I never felt like it ever went deep enough. The game is pretty short and really just gives us surface-level stuff.

Gameplay

One really cool thing about tERRORbane is that its gameplay really jumps around the spectrum of playstyles. Though the one that sticks around is its turn-based mechanics, you’ll also find some side-scrolling, old-school first-person RPG dungeon crawling, and even a card game. It really does its best to shake things up so that nothing is ever the same. It moves at a mile a minute but I think that could have been its weakness.

Because the game is so short and approaches its gameplay in a quick manner as well, it really makes it feel like a rapid-fire barrage of craziness. While I love the craziness, I just think it could’ve been executed with better pacing. It felt as if some stretches were better than others and those low moments really seemed to hang to the ground.

I also really wasn’t that much a fan of how its gameplay is actually handled. You really get a sense that the game truly is on a predetermined track and you can’t deviate from it. There’s always just one way to execute something and you can’t do anything else but that. It took the fun out of a lot of the scenarios that I’d find myself in.

Audio and Visuals

Both the visual and audio presentations are really done well. The characters are great to look at and the music really fits with every new track being introduced. There are some really cool filters and even sound options that come into play later in the game.

Replayability

Because of its brief length, you could say that this title offers a bit of replay value. This is mostly due in part to the fact that the game is broken up a bit and you probably won’t get to experience every area the game offers on your first try. It really does warrant trial and error gameplay but sometimes playing the same scenarios did get a bit monotonous.

What It Could Have Done Better

As I said, the game just fires on all cylinders a bit too much here and there which can make its pacing a bit off. I also wasn’t a fan of how its RPG elements were handled at all. Though I understand why it was done this way, I wish that I had felt more in control.

Verdict

tERRORbane really manages to hit its comedy and homages right on the head, offering some really gleeful moments in a sarcastically-crafted world. Though I love those aspects of the game, there are a lot of bits and pieces that didn’t really come together for me by the end. If you’re looking for more of an on-rails narratively driven title that pokes fun at bugs, developers, and your favorite games, then this is for you. Just don’t go in expecting something with deep gameplay.