As anyone who has followed this channel for quite some time can attest, I’ve unfortunately come to be pretty skeptical of the staying power of indie games that rely on online play. Far too many titles with those features have had their communities dry up within weeks of launch, and it has felt like quite a number of them never even got started. While I do try to look at each game based on its merits, even when they’re a pretty good time I struggle with heartily recommending them, since a few months or even a year down the road what made them good may no longer remain. 

Bandit Trap is at least clever, and promises a sort of loose and wacky style that can be fun with family and friends, which can be further enhanced by support for GameChat and the Switch 2 camera, so I do appreciate the effort. If you’re not familiar with the concept of an asymmetrical multiplayer game, the gist of it is that you’ll have a team of 3 bandits on one side, trying to loot a house, and a lone robotic protector on the other, though you at least have a wide variety of gadgets to help yourself out. Each match will allow you a little time to set up, hopefully positioning some traps near choke points and getting a rough idea for your defensive plans… but once the bandits get in it’s pretty well all chaos from that point on.

Given that you have strength in numbers, understanding and playing the bandit side of the equation tends to be a little easier. If nothing else, if you can merely stay alive and keep the robot protector occupied, your teammates may have an easier time finding and then grabbing the loot hidden in different locations. You’ll need to learn which equipment suits your style, working with some tech to help locate loot, a tool for getting through pesky locked doors and things, and another that will help you extract gems from different household objects. On the protector side it tends to be a little more overwhelming at first, getting the hang of how the various traps at your disposal work, and how best to utilize them. If you set them up in a choke point they can trigger on their own, but you’ll also have the ability to commandeer control if you’d like in order to maximize effectiveness. You’ll also be able to animate household objects to attack more directly if you’re bold, just be aware that the bandits can counter-attack if you’re not careful, so it’s a balancing act of risk and reward. 

If you’re down with the chaos, laughs, and goofy fun of it you’ll probably get the best results with family and friends online, but here’s to hoping it is able to coalesce a lasting online community as well. If nothing else bots can fill in, should there be a lack of availability, but whether or not that would remain interesting longer-term would be a fair question. While it can take some time to get your arms around it all, there is fun to be had here, just keep in mind that longevity may end up being an issue since indie online gaming communities tend to be fickle at best.