Autonauts

Autonauts is a game where you create robots and then they go off to create a world. How is this game? Is this something everyone should check out? Here is our review of Autonauts for the Nintendo Switch!

Autonauts is a game about creating automated worlds. The game has no story at all but there are three modes to explore.

In Settlement mode, you start off as a robot who lands on a new world and then creates other robots. From there, you build up the world bit by bit using blueprints that you unlock along the way. This mode is super restrictive. Crafting is the order of the day. Everything you do requires you to collect items to create things. You will need several robots to help you create a settlement too. So you have to create each robot one by one. Doesn’t sound too bad right? Well, after the robot is created, you have to go into each of their menus individually to set up programming. The menu for this is complicated and cumbersome to use.  There is no touch screen controls at all in this game. Touch screen use would’ve made the menus easier to navigate for sure.

There is a tutorial that tries to teach you how to create robots and navigate their menu for programming but it’s a messy process that only hardcore game creation fans might enjoy. For everyone else, doing the same thing over and over in Settlement mode just gets repetitive and boring.

With free mode, all of the game’s blueprints are available right away and you can get started faster on the settlement. Though it has the same restrictive creating each robot and navigating menus problem as Settlement mode.

Creative mode, however, is less restrictive then both modes. This mode is all about play and it gives you objects that you can place wherever you want to create whatever you want. This mode is more for those who just want to be free of making and programming robots. It’s a neat mode but without a clear goal, only those who want to create art will find it interesting. None of the modes are perfect and its not just the controls or cumbersome gameplay that get in Autonauts way.

When you first go into Autonauts without pressing start, you are hit with a long load time right away. This isn’t a good sign. Though you would think “Ok, maybe I’m getting the world loading out of the way now”. You are wrong. There is a load time for starting a world or continuing to play a world too. The load times in this game make an already messy experience even worse.

So you might be wondering, “Is there anything good about Autonauts?” Yes there is. The game has very cute, colorful graphics. And despite its issues, I do believe that fans of world building and game creation will find something to enjoy here. They will need patience and time, but there is an interesting game hiding in Autonauts.

Autonauts gets a 6.0 out of 10.

A digital code was provided for this review. Autonauts is now available on the Nintendo Switch eshop!