Fixforce Review (PC)

Surgent Studios are not ones to rest on their laurels; three games down (inside of three years) in Tales of Kenzara: Zau, and Dead Take so far, and now Fixforce, coming out of early access on Steam and releasing day and date on Xbox and Game Pass. The variety from the team is excellent so far, but can this co-op fix-em-up extraction-type affair keep up their high standards?

Well, I’d be lying if I said I was sold from minute one. Fixforce requires a fair bit of patience to start out with. The mechanics are simple to grasp but the implementation of them can be a bit overwhelming, and when we had three of us running around trying to figure out what was going on – and failing – it can be a bit demoralising. Stick with it though, and Fixforce opens up into a frenetic co-op affair that can be an absolute blast – whether it goes our way or not.

We play as a member of the titular Fixforce, a crew of robotic fixers sent to clean up and repair certain structures across a three act run. Up to six players can team up, and pthe levels are clearly designed to accommodate this player count which can sometimes make it feel a bit daunting with three or even two players in a round.

We get 25 minutes per round to find items to repair two pylons, and these are randomly assigned each time. One may need a grate, a bin, and a toaster, while the other a drain cover, backpack, and steel girder. The aim then is to find said items and bring them back to the pylon before escaping on the van that drops in with five minutes remaining.

This sounds simple, but of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Levels are wide and vertical, full of traps and enemies, and pitfalls that will kill us in a heartbeat. The pylon may be on the third floor, but one of the items is on the ground floor. Getting it back up there is an exercise in patience and skill – and teamwork.  Occasionally we’ll be gifted something like a lift or stairs, but most of the time we need to build our own way up and down.

We can pick up a plethora of objects in addition to the ones we need, and placing them down within close vicinity to a solid object means we can suspend it. Trail a selection of these in a row and we can build a makeshift bridge or ramp – just don’t take a supporting one, lest the whole thing come crashing down. Objects can be rotated to fit whatever angle we need, and we can use anything we can pick up, though a road cone isn’t quite as sturdy a pathay as a table top, so beware. 

So it’s a simple premise, but the execution can get the pulse racing. The 25 minute time limit melts away, and all it takes is one mistake to really hamper an attempt. Team mates can revive us by retrieving both our robotic body and our head, or we can spend a valuable life to respawn if we’re too hard to retrieve. There are multiple versions of objects we need in a level, but I found that finding the smaller ones especially was really tough as they could be hidden anywhere, and sometimes even behind smaller optional puzzles like locked doors or areas that are up and out of the way.

As I said up top, it can be a frustrating experience to start with. My first game with Graham and Ian was a disaster as we failed to complete even on pylon of the six we attempted across the three rounds. I have since played more with Ian and we did at least complete a few across our games, but it definitely feels skewed more towards the bigger player numbers to really have much of a chance. And we were playing on the default easier mode, with the harder mode having more enemies to contend with (and even the small ones can prove a pain the ass).

But, once we got into the swing of things, there’s no doubt there’s something rather fun to be found here. It’s the sort of game to encourage one more go, despite a full round lasting over an hour. Once I got my head around the physics and mechanics of building, it reminded me of something like Overcooked, where each player needs to have assigned roles like building, scavenging, or helping others with items and planning. Which again leans into the ideal that we play with a full squad of six to get the most out of Fixforce. 

Once we complete a few jobs we can spend some in game cash in the lobby to take a few helpful items into a run, and these will help though we’re still at the mercy of the RNG when it comes to our chances of success. And that RNG is one other factor in how well a run will go. There’s a strong feeling that some runs can be almost doomed from the off if an item is ltoo far down a level, and we encountered a few glitches that meant trying to transport a large item up a lift for example would see if clip through and fall underneath, making it all but impossible to finish. Obviously this is all pre-1.0, so we’re hoping the final balance and technical aspect will address some of these issues.

Conclusion

Overall though, there’s a lot of charm to Fixforce. It can be frustrating, and the RNG can feel like it’s working against us at times, but get a few friends in for an evening and the co-op building/collecting can be a blast once we get into the swing of things.

This game was tested and reviewed on PC (via Steam). All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by the publisher.