Review: Yorbie: Episode 1 – Payback’s A Bolt

Play as Yorbie and fight your way through an all-out bot onslaught with boss battles in this fast-paced 3d action adventure. Upgrade your weapons and enhance them with stacking bonuses to suit your playing style. Try out as many combinations as you like with the ability to re-customize weapons at any time in the weapon store. Scavenge components and bonuses from enemy bots, or even steal them from other players when they’re not looking. Hey, who said life was fair?

Yorbie Episode One Pros:

• Big bright graphics.
• 4.38GB download size. 
• 12 trophies to unlock. 
• Works on Playstation 5. 
• Volume sliders for sound, and music. 
• Character action shooter  gameplay.
• Tutorial pop ups as you play. 
• 4 player offline Co op support. 
• Captions/subtitles can be turned on and off. 
• 4 characters to choose from.
• Easy to learn controls and you can easily jump in and get going. 
• Two game difficulties – Normal and insane. 
• Uses the DS4 speaker with sound effects and is well implemented and this works when using the PlayStation 5 controller. 
• 5 levels to battle through and once you complete them you get a level select. 
• Collect cogs to buy and upgrade guns.
• Shop located through the game and here is where you can buy new guns,  Upgrade existing guns and sell upgrades if needed.
• Kill enemies and break crates for cogs.
• Health bar system and you pick up health bits to replenish it. 
• The game has a cool down meter for shooting to stop you spamming it. 
• Aside from shooting you do have a melee button. 
• Boss battles and mid level encounters. 
• Instant respawn and it puts you where you died. 
• In game cutscenes and character interactions. 
• The voice work is alright and does the job. 
• Constant checkpoints.
• Infinite lives on the lower difficulty. 
• A Game that is aimed more at the younger gamer as it does set them up with the knowledge of the genre. 
• I found it’s a game you can just chill with for the most part and just get a quick game completion. 

Yorbie Episode One Cons:

• Long loading times.
• Shooting feels horrible, the aiming is nigh on non existent and you can literally be stood toe to toe with an enemy and not hit them. 
• A lot of slowdown happens even when nothing is around and this is me playing it on a Playstation 5 console. 
• None of the characters you choose get a name or description of their weapons. 
• You cannot remap the controls. 
• The music is repetitive and mundane. 
• Enemies can shoot you off screen.
• The camera angle is pre set and can cause issues in certain parts and make it hard to see enemies or drops. 
• Very generic gameplay.
• Short game.
• Every level plays out the same with the same loop over and over. 
• No replay ability unless you are chasing trophies. 

in Summary, Its a game that suits casual gamers and kids more than the hardcore masses.  Levels are the same layout over and over. It’s slow and tedious in places. That said it does shine through in local co op but it is a weak glimmer of hope. It has potential to be great and all it needs is more level variety,  Ammo is in short demand and needs tweaking. it is the first part of a series so it could fit in depending on the next game. I cannot honestly say it’s a terrible game and you must avoid,  it’s just it’s a casual game for casual gamers and if you have kids,  this is a perfect game to play with them. In short it’s flawed but fun can be found.