In cases where they're around a blind corner waiting in ambush (not behind those secret doors), it's often possible to sort of preempt them by shooting lasers so that the bolt(s) on one side just barely go around the corner. Since the lasers go from the edge of the screen towards the middle, you can shoot into a place behind a corner that you can't see.
Since getting hit makes the robots lose their ability to shoot (or move) for a brief, sub-second moment, you can use that to kill them without getting hit yourself despite their ridiculously quick aim and hitscan weapon.
Even if you don't know exactly where they are (or whether there even is anything behind the corner), you can start shooting that way around a corner preemptively and slowly and progressively slide around the corner until you'll be actually hitting them or seeing that there wasn't anything there.
Of course if you don't know where they are, you'll have to be doing that preemptively at lots of corners just in case, spending energy which can also be in short supply on higher difficulties. It also means you basically have to creep carefully around corners a lot. And it doesn't help in other kinds of cases.
I agree that those robots were frustrating when I played through the game again after years some time ago. Interestingly, I don't think there are hitscan robots in Descent 2.
Since getting hit makes the robots lose their ability to shoot (or move) for a brief, sub-second moment, you can use that to kill them without getting hit yourself despite their ridiculously quick aim and hitscan weapon.
Even if you don't know exactly where they are (or whether there even is anything behind the corner), you can start shooting that way around a corner preemptively and slowly and progressively slide around the corner until you'll be actually hitting them or seeing that there wasn't anything there.
Of course if you don't know where they are, you'll have to be doing that preemptively at lots of corners just in case, spending energy which can also be in short supply on higher difficulties. It also means you basically have to creep carefully around corners a lot. And it doesn't help in other kinds of cases.
I agree that those robots were frustrating when I played through the game again after years some time ago. Interestingly, I don't think there are hitscan robots in Descent 2.