Life of Delta

22 September, 2024 - 11:56 am by Joseph Whitfield
About 8 mins to read
Reviewed on: PS5

It’s widely accepted that humans will be the first to go when AI takes over the world. What’s unclear is what happens after the dust settles and the nuclear fallout eases, likely due to humanity not being around to enjoy it. That’s not stopped Airo Games from theorising what could happen after the great Skynet vs Humanity war with the Life of Delta. The result isn’t your typical fight for survival in a Terminator-esq environment, but a more decidedly chill point-and-click adventure about a cute robot looking for his best mate.

When it comes down to the epic mankind vs machine robots, everyone assumes these are the only two parties with a stake in the fight, but in the opening moments of Life of Delta, we’re told we should have been looking at the reptiles. The radiation from the nuclear war brought back the dinosaurs who quickly reclaimed Earth, thankfully stopping before Godzilla arrived, that would make Life of Delta a concise game indeed. As humanity has fallen, the lizards managed to sneak in and overthrow the robots, creating a brutalist utopia in which anything mechanical is treated much like how we treat a broken toaster.

In Life of Delta, I was thrust into the position of Delta, a not-as-cute-as-Wall-E robot who lives on the outskirts of a megacity formally known as Japan. A day in the life of this robot consists of chilling with its friend Joe, another service bot who is just trying to survive the harsh environment. Joe is unceremoniously taken away from his home by the lizard people, and rather than letting this happen, Delta decides to set out on a quest to rescue its best mate.

At a Glance

Positives	Negatives
+ Adorable robots + Great visuals + Relaxed approach to gameplay	– Some unclear puzzle solutions – Experienced point-and-clickers may find it too easy – Can be beaten in a few hours
Available on:	Nintendo Switch PC (Steam) PlayStation Xbox
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Before Delta can set off on its adventure, the first thing is to charge the little guy’s battery, which cleverly acts as a faux tutorial. To do this, I explored Delta’s apartment looking for the charger then having to find the item that activates it, before solving the puzzle to juice the robot back to life. Life of Delta does this by giving slight hints of what to do without holding my hand and guiding me through each step. Naturally, as the game progresses things do become tougher, but never to the point of overwhelming me to the point I put the controller down.

Once Delta is juiced, it’s off to explore the wide world, and to do this is as easy as moving the cursor to where you want the robot to go. Pressing the action button and watching the little machine trundle across the screen never got old thanks to the stunning world in which Delta exists. The 28 hand-painted levels of post-apocalyptic joy that make up Life of Delta are wonderfully crafted, each with its distinct areas that bring to life a Japan savaged by time. As I moved through the sandy wastes of the vibrant city, I was impressed by how well Airo Games blended the unrelenting grounds of Mother Nature with the grimy machine parts that made up the city.

A colourful cast of characters populates the landscapes and to Airo Games’ testament, each one has its distinct personality. A particular favourite was an angry mutated Rhinoceros that treads the fine line between paying homage to Rocksteady from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a class-action lawsuit. Importantly, each NPC was there for a purpose as they either gave nuggets of information to help progression, or they were the key to solving one of the many puzzles I encountered.

These little conundrums pop up regularly throughout Life of Delta and are used to segway into the next part of the story. Much like the “tutorial,” each puzzle is built up through the scenario, with hints being spread through the scene culminating in that eureka moment when you piece everything together. Typically this is straightforward, such as using a sequence of items in the right order, but sporadically, Life of Delta will challenge you to think laterally to find a solution. One of the very few times this happened, there were no clues or prompts that led me to the solution. It was only by dumb luck did I stumble on what had to be done, leaving me feeling utterly redfaced.

Thankfully this only happened once during my time with Life of Delta. If I was getting stuck at every puzzle, the handful of hours I spent on the game could’ve spun out to a frustrating time. Other than the one stumbling block Life of Delta doesn’t provide too much of a challenge to get to the end. If you’re really stuck, you can tap the shoulder buttons to highlight every object that can be interacted with and work out what to do from there. For point-and-click purists, highlighting what can be played with might feel like a cop-out but I felt Life of Delta was more of an introduction to the genre rather than its magnum opus.

The gameplay and puzzle solving might not be to everyone’s tastes but the overall atmosphere does a lot of heavy lifting in Life of Delta. Airo Games does a great job of keeping the focus firmly on Delta’s quest for its buddy while making a relaxing and chilled point-and-click experience. While we’re not talking about a game that presents Elden Ring levels of lore, Life of Delta’s story still manages to throw some interesting obstacles during its short runtime. I’m not sure of a game that takes time out of its important story so that a robot can hire me to play keyboards in a band, but somehow it works.

During its 4-hour playtime, I realised that Life of Delta is perfect for those looking to make their start in the point-and-click genre. Some puzzles are decidedly unclear, which could frustrate newbies, but those who’ve tackled this type of game before might find the game easy when it comes to gameplay. For me, the biggest selling point is Life of Delta’s whimsical approach to a world post-humanity. The subject matter could’ve easily been a heavy science-fiction piece akin to The Matrix or Terminator, but the easy-breezy presentation and unpressured gameplay left me with a warm and fuzzy feeling that I wasn’t expecting as the credits rolled.