Real Steel Review for Windows Phone

Real Steel is a movie tie-in game developed by Reliance Games. Although the movie was released on October 7th, the game made it’s way to Windows Phone 3 months later. Similar to the movie, human boxers are replaced by robots so don’t expect Micromax’s brand ambassador Hugh Jackman as a playable character.

Gameplay

Real Steel is a robotic fighting game similar to Street Fighter & Mortal Kombat. The controls are fairly basic with two buttons dedicated to attack, lower button to block and top button dedicated to special moves and ripping off opponents. Although you can move your robot, you can’t jump or slide. Combos can be pulled off by mashing attack & SP button consecutively or just punching repeatedly, once you time the attacks properly your robot will pull off the combo in an automated manner. When the opponent’s health is low, the SP button is replaced by RIP where you can rip off the opponent’s robot into pieces.

The game has 4 modes- Tag Team, Tournament, Free Sparring (Practice) and Survival mode. Tag Team is not a 2 player versus multiplayer mode, you just play with 2 robots but not at the same time. Each mode unlocks different rewards like robot parts which can be used to build your own unique robot. The robots from the movie like “Ambush” , “Atom” , “Metro” etc. are available in the game. The game has a solid roster of 27 robots of which 9 are available at the start, some are unlocked after completing specific requirements while others could be bought by real money via In App purchasing. There is no Multiplayer mode in the game.

The controls are buggy, the responsiveness of the virtual buttons is quite erratic which makes evading attacks and moving your robot very difficult. At times my robot was stuck on the battlefield unable to move. Even blocking attacks and pulling off combos could become a pain in the arse. Such basic bugs in gameplay breaks away the immersion into the game. You won’t feel any difficulty in completing easier modes but the bugs become imminent during ‘Hard’ mode.

Each robot has different stats comprising of Armor, Power and Speed which make them unique and balanced (theoretically). Practically, Armor and Speed stats are pretty useless. Robots like Metro and Midas which have high Power stats have an upper hand in battle, you won’t face any difficulty to win ‘Hard’ mode with them while other robots will get trashed into pieces even at ‘Medium’ mode.

Graphics & Performance

Compared to the iOS version, the developer has managed to degrade the graphics in every possible way. The robots are rendered at a lower resolution with prominent jaggies seen. The Environment is lifeless with no spectators, the shadows are replaced by a black dots which gives an illusion that robot is floating on the ground. Metallic robots feel like plastic robots as sparks which are seen when metals collide are replaced by orange lights.
The game doesn’t perform well in ‘Performance’ department either. Frame rate is low at times and lag is quite prominent. What’s worse is that there are constant crashes especially in the Tournament mode which causes loss of progress even after you have completed that match. It is quite prominent that Windows Phone version is a dumb’d down iPhone version where many graphical features are missing.

Build Your Own Robot

Apart from the strong roster, you can also make your own unique robots. Different parts of the robot can either be unlocked by completing missions or bought via In App Purchasing. There are 11 Arenas of which 6 are available while 5 could be bought via IAP. Even Combo packs, boosters and buffs are available for purchase. All the In App Purchasing stuff is just an extra visual customization which is more of an accessory than need, you could play the game without buying any stuff. Buying high spec robot like ‘Nitro’ will make your job easier.

Wrap Up

The game had huge potential but the end product is pretty mediocre. Movie tie-in games are expected to be mediocre because they are rushed out to promote the movie, but as the Windows Phone version was released 3 months after the movie’s launch date there is no reason for not fixing the bugs. With sub par graphics compared to the iOS version and buggy, less responsive controls breaking away the immersion into the game it’s better to avoid buying the game unless you are a huge fan of this movie. I hope developer addresses those bugs.