Yeah... wanted to like this, I did, but I'm not impressed. Hexage have a real problem with setting difficulty. Do I believe it's possible to finish the game without buying anything? Sure. Do I believe the majority of players will manage it? Christ, no.
I appreciate it's very difficult both for a developer to program and for a player to fairly weigh up an AI using a random routine... I remember the number of people who insisted the AI in Puzzle Quest had to be cheating, no matter how often the developers said it used exactly the same maths to get its next pieces as the player did. So I won't pretend to know Robotek is dodgy - but at the same time, good God, does it ever feel wrong, wrong, wrong. Far too many times I've worn down the AI to nothing, then on the very next turn it dials up an elite unit, an Unmaker, a triple shock...
On which note the basic gameplay seems badly unbalanced in some ways. Why on earth can you keep getting extra turn after extra turn? Seriously, did no-one in QA think that would make it seem even more like the AI's cheating? And if you can't regularly roll 3 of a kind you're in real trouble - weak units are a liability given they're more of a threat to you than the enemy (because of the splash damage when they die versus the pitiful damage they do) and nine out of ten times repairing them does nothing (3 or 4 hp back is useless). Shock is staggeringly powerful given it damages a unit and always puts it out of action until you waste a turn repairing it - which isn't a guarantee. Hacking works far too well - I've lost count of the number of times I've seen the AI take over a level 3 unit with a level 1 hack, which feels like it should be pretty much impossible.
And while obviously it's Hexage's right to try and get paid for their work - plus they clearly have put in a lot of work - I'm not comfortable with the way the in-app purchases come uncomfortably close to punishing you for screwing up. Even if it is only 59p, you shouldn't be made to pay for doing badly. I've beaten all the 10s, 15s, most of the 20s and one or two 25s and I've simply run into a brick wall, almost out of power and about to fail - every AI now pulls out the last-minute reversals from nowhere and needs multiple attempts to take down. I'd rather be charged for the app to start with and have a fairer, more balanced game than have paying money as an 'out' because I'm not good enough for the developers.
Robotek looks and sounds very good, same as ever, and I applaud Hexage for trying very hard to make a 'random' system that you can still put some skill into. But it still just gets way, way too hard too soon, like their other games, it's poorly balanced and it's too repetitive to justify plugging away at forever. I can see that expert players with split-second reflexes and lots of patience will love it, but for most people, I'm pretty sure it's not going to seem that great.
EDIT: Oh, and if your players are constantly losing early on, no matter what they do, and have to level up considerably before they start having fun? There's probably - no, sorry, there is something wrong with your game. Again, it'd be considerably less of a problem if repeatedly losing didn't mean you have to start the whole process again. Dying repeatedly is fine if there's a point to it - if you've ever played Demon's Souls on PS3, you can't really 'fail' that game no matter how many times you get killed, but if you pay attention and realise what you're doing wrong you'll instantly start doing much better. Here, the only reason it feels as if I'm screwing up is because I'm not good enough at playing a slot machine and the AI's cheating. Saying that once I've finally been lucky enough to struggle through to the higher levels it gets better really isn't a good excuse.
