Developer: Ninja Robot Dinosaur
Publisher: Ninja Robot Dinosaur
Rrp: £10.99 (Steam) and £11.51 (Humblebundle)
Released: 28th May 2018
Available on: Steam, and Humblebundle
Played Using: Mouse and Keyboard
Approximate game length: 12 Hours
Bunker Punks is a fast paced 2.5D rogue-light set in a post-apocalyptic current year. The aim of the game is to work your way through the Corporate Governments various bunkers and buildings until you reach their HQ and raid it. That’s pretty much it, there isn’t exactly an intricate plot woven into this game, sure you can find some story elements about but that’s in loading screens between levels and even then its a meagre snip-it. Beyond that most of the plot is told to you in a short text crawl at the beginning of the game.
As I briefly alluded to before the point of this game is to raid the Corporate Governments buildings and bunkers to gather resources which are used to improve your own bunker as well as bring them down.
Assuming you survive the raid you can spend the Creds (the currency of this game) you’ve accrued improving your bunker, buying equipment and healing your punks. The improvements you make to the bunker provide benefits to your punks depending on what you’ve built. For example building a firing range improves the damage a rifle can do where as the pharmacy allows punks that aren’t on a raid to heal a bit. Most of these improvements can be levelled up to grant greater benefits but, of course, each level costs more than the last.
While raiding you’ll also occasionally get the chance to pick up Tech which is used to unlock new rooms, equipment and punks. However these unlocks only become available to purchase once your last punk dies.
The faster you get through a floor the higher your bonus Creds are. However there’s also a bonus for clearing the floor too. However I found that the standard run speed in this game was damned quick. In fact I was surprised to find that you could buff the speed and go even quicker because I honestly couldn’t see the need.
Killing enemies fills up a bar (seen on the bottom left of the screen) which is your Chi. Once a specific area of your bunker is unlocked you can use this Chi to perform special and ultimate techniques. These can range from putting up a shield to causing extreme damage to an enemy.
Depending on which punk you choose to play as your gameplay style has to adapt to their strengths and abilities. This becomes especially true once the Chi
abilities are made available.
When a punk dies it isn’t all done and gloom as they bestow a passive buff to the others that remain (assuming you have any left) and all the items they were carrying when they died are in your shared inventory. All the Creds and tech they gathered on the raid are lost though.
I like this game but it does have limited replay value, unless you fancy going for the harder settings. Personally I found it a challenge to complete the game on the ‘normal’ difficulty and the game didn’t engage me enough to want to play through it all again. It has to be said though, I’ve played much worse rogue-lite games before and this one is quite fun, even if it is a little short lived.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
