Boti: Byteland Overclocked (PC)
Boti: Byteland Overclocked takes place inside a computer whose owner’s shifting focus towards gaming has caused their computer to be sluggish, and the irony inherent in this premise is the demanding technical requirements this simple colorful 3D platformer asks of the player. Today’s high end is tomorrow’s standard though and a surge of updates plus future console ports lessen how demanding this game might be, but it is a bit amusing to hear the talking programs in this game’s world bemoaning the impact of computer games on the performance of the PC they find themselves in when you might also find your system working hard to realize this game world.
Boti: Byteland Overclocked begins when a new data courier robot called Boti is delivered to Kernel, the elder program being the de facto leader of Byteland since he is actually the computer’s kernel program. This singular computer’s operations and hardware are represented all throughout Byteland, with adorable characters making benches out of computer chips while compact discs serve as floating platforms, but it’s not a totally pervasive visual aesthetic. The worlds of Byteland are locations you’d find in an actual PC like the GPU, but a place like the Network Adaptor has a seaside aesthetic for unclear reasons and repeated object designs tends to make levels stand apart each other more due to color temperature than distinct architecture. There are memorable locations to be found in how they play and there are some rare impressive sights, but don’t expect things on the level of Astro’s Playroom where the console hardware aesthetic had a more material impact on the layout and design of a space.
Your adventure through Byteland kicks off as Boti looks to make an impression by overclocking the computer to help it run better, only for things to quickly go south. While Byteland ends up filled with living glitches and other issues, Boti does soon learn there is more going on than the overclocking backfiring, setting out to find the truth with the help of two partners. Since Boti can’t express themselves save for emotion-filled beeps, their floating companions Zero and One pick up the slack, talking through plot points and commenting on your actions throughout the adventures. One’s hyperactive energy and chipper attitude pairs well with the more down to earth Zero, and while they can sometimes have their dialogue trigger a bit too often or they’ll even comment on things like fights or collectibles when you can’t even see them nearby, they do prove amusing enough that they can grow on you. The story will introduce other characters that usually give a stretch of levels a little more of a through line, but Zero and One are an appreciated consistent presence and while the game sometimes dives a bit too deep into tech talk, they can pull it back to something more accessible with their banter.
Playable either solo or cooperatively with one other player, Boti: Byteland Overclocked’s 3D platforming is focused primarily around the collection of data. Data can be found inside destructible objects, as a reward for defeating enemies, or just floating out in the air, and because you’ll find areas that require sets amount of data to make new level geometry appear to continue, Boti: Byteland Overclocked actually ends up a bit of a collect-a-thon but with a priority towards the must abundant collectible. Levels do contain other things to find like treasure chests that serve as hearty data caches, collectible outfits, audio logs from Kernel, and Botcoins that all encourage going off the beaten path a bit or clearing a small platforming challenge that is usually a tiny bit tougher than the main road, but progress depends on having enough data to continue. Luckily it is incredibly abundant, and while levels track your available data separately, you also get to spend remaining data in a hub area to add simple new areas to mess around in as well as buy small and not very impactful upgrades to Boti like more health or a wider range for your scanner that shows nearby objects of interest. There’s even a cosmetics lottery to play for more outfits or furnishings for your house, Botcoins also going towards some of these extra goodies. One odd thing about having data have this secondary purpose though is the gates to progress are often fairly forgiving seemingly to prevent it from stinging that you need to spend it, low amounts often required while there are many opportunities to grab data within a level.
Data collection seems to be an important part of the experience as the game’s eight levels can be cleared fairly quickly if you don’t search around for it and the other collectibles. Scour around for every byte and a level can end up nearly an hour long, but when you’re not searching for something new to break open for goodies, the levels themselves can feel fairly simple. Boti’s abilities are pretty accommodating, the robot already packing a double jump, mid-air dash, and glide by the time your adventuring begins and rarely does the level design aim to strain your movement options. A lot of the times it can feel like you’re moving forward unimpeded if you weren’t stopping to sniff out data, but Boti: Byteland Overclocked doesn’t save all its danger and challenges for optional collectibles. There aren’t a lot of true puzzles though, often things like reaching switches that open doors, and eventually some abilities like a magnetic pull at least ask you to move things around or launch yourself about by reversing polarities. The game doesn’t introduce much in the way of new mechanics though, and even some things like temporary power-ups like a stronger glide don’t really do much besides let you cross a larger gap.
One reason the main challenges of a level can feel a touch plain though is the game’s struggle to impede you. A lot of spaces are open for exploration but don’t demand much or present many risks. A little bit of hopping around will get you whatever you want nearby, and while this exploration is a bit interesting on its own because Botcoins and data caches are rarely just presented to you for easy grabbing, the combat in Boti: Byteland Overclocked is pretty much a non-factor. Enemies barely pose a threat, often unintelligent and easily smacked around without much thought. Healing opportunities are too plentiful and checkpoints don’t hurt to reappear at if you do die, but even without health upgrades the enemies are often too basic and flimsy to present a threat. You smack them and move along and if some areas weren’t blocked until all nearby enemies were destroyed you could probably just ignore them entirely. The few boss battles at least have some ideas with varying degrees of success, the final one perhaps the closest to a well-honed idea since you juggle a few things to survive while the second boss feels imprecise and the battle against a Trojan virus is straightforward once you understand it.
One concept Boti: Byteland Overclocked does well despite what seems like an issue are its slides. Each level has a slide segment where you try to hit colored marks as you slide down the length of it, the player only needing to concern themselves with the lane they’re in and when to jump as far as controls. You gain speed and need to make sure not to jump frivolously if you want to hit everything, and while sometimes you see the color marks with almost no time to adjust your movement to touch them, this at least means it’s something worth trying again so you can get a perfect score and earn a trophy. It is purely optional but also serves as an area in the game where it feels like some reflexes and reactivity really is necessary if you want to clear it with top marks. Few levels really roll out new gimmicks to engage with after the magnetism power is folded into your standard skill set, even the hover cart sections just becoming a repeated idea that’s made a bit tougher each time rather than really iterated upon. Boti: Byteland Overclocked does at least tend to make things a bit more involved as they make repeat performances though so they don’t grow too old before you’ve cleared its eight mostly linear worlds.
THE VERDICT: Boti: Byteland Overclocked tries to build its experience around the simple joy of collecting the abundant data found all around its linear levels while having a few little collectibles hidden behind minor platforming challenges to the side, but iteration is not its strong suit. Concepts often appear and present essentially all they will ever involve, the light alteration to things like the magnet power and cart driving feeling just marginally tougher rather than really testing your problem solving or navigation skills. There’s still a lot to uncover and frequent rewards help buoy some straightforward platforming, but with almost negligible combat and stages lacking strong identities due to unambitious world design, Boti: Byteland Overclocked probably ends up more of an approachable 3D platformer for young players than something that will be beloved by the people with PCs powerful enough to run it well.
And so, I give Boti: Byteland Overclocked for PC…
An OKAY rating. Boti: Byteland Overclocked was getting constantly updated as I played it for this review, things like ground that I fell through being properly solid in the time between play sessions, so it’s hard to really point at some of the technical problems as legitimate issues. Sometimes enemies don’t approach you at all making them sitting ducks when you fight them, but already the battles were lacking in anything worthwhile beyond being a way to grab more easy data so it’s not like this issue holds the game back. Some hazards literally didn’t appear but could still hurt the player, but health is barely a concern so you can just soldier on after taking unexplained damage. So long as no truly disastrous bugs remain in the game (beyond the ones that exist for story reasons), Boti: Byteland Overclocked will end up settling into a middle of the road design that lacks much to captivate the player. The basic movement options are too helpful and new skills and mechanics don’t get put through their paces or interact with new gimmicks often enough, but things are mostly sound so you can go out and explore a space filled with many types of collectibles to hunt down. Zero and One are enjoyable companions but the game world itself embraces its setting concept too lightly, the player easily able to forget which part of the computer they’re meant to be in since so often it feels like the programs and areas are just robots living in a world with things that sometimes coincidentally evoke computer parts.
Boti: Byteland Overclocked doesn’t need to measure up to the thematic excellence of Astro’s Playroom, but some of the highlight moments are when the game puts in the effort of realizing a computer term in a way that the player can interact with. If the game in general had a stronger aesthetic then you could at least be drawn in by that, but Boti: Byteland Overclocked did need some standout element if it was going to settle into platforming play that doesn’t really evolve enough to be exciting on its own. The focus on how much there is to find at least means the traversal of the game’s eight levels doesn’t feel hollow and it makes it a bit easier to look past the very light shifts in level design and mechanics at play, but overall the game doesn’t feel like it delves deep enough into any of its features that there could be a reason to pick this up in particular. Boti: Byteland Overclocked does decent work with providing a place to collect things in, but this PC game feels like it needs quite an upgrade before it could do more than merely keep a collecting-focused mind busy.