Tag: Review

  • Review: CONSCRIPT (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: CONSCRIPT (Nintendo Switch)

    CONSCRIPT is a gruelling reminder that war is hell and being too committed to old-school design is always a risk. Even as a fan of classic survival-horror, playing through CONSCRIPT on the default settings – the third of four difficulties, no checkpoint saves, no infinite saves – made me realise just how meticulously balanced the best games in the genre are, and how fine a line there is between challenge and frustration. That said, if you stick with it (or use the assists and abandon the unlikely prospect of an initial S-rank run), you’ll find CONSCRIPT a worthy and terrifying addition to the genre; one that combines elements of classic Resident Evil and Silent Hill with the more recent Signalis and Amnesia: The Bunker.

    You could be cynical and accuse CONSCRIPT of being too derivative, but it’s well-designed, polished, and almost shows reverence for games it draws inspiration from – rather than blatantly highlighting those connections to make up for the lack of a unique identity. With a lot of emphasis placed on the sombre tone, your actions when faced with a seemingly futile situation, and multiple endings, it’s a surprisingly low-key but relentless game that felt most similar to Silent Hill 2. A brooding atmosphere, gorgeously gruesome pixel art, unsettling ambience, and minimal spectacle all ensure the focus remains on a vulnerable protagonist trying to survive a hellish situation, while enduring trauma that forces them to question their own values, courage, and sanity.

    Over the course of six chapters – with brief interludes that reveal events leading up to his conscription – French soldier André finds himself part off one of the last major German offensives during the infamous Battle of Verdun; a 10-month period during which border forts, trench lines, and towns were changing hands almost daily, with staggering losses on both sides. His overarching goal is to find his injured brother Pierre, but video game logic dictates nothing can be straightforward, even less so in the survival-horror genre where every task is a succession of contrivances. Over the course of several days, he’ll witness the French frontline collapse; he’ll serve as a runner to gather reinforcements; he’ll retake a fort and storm no-man’s land to capture German lines; and explore a ruined town to try find a way into another besieged fort his brother was assigned to.

    Intentional or not, CONSCRIPT is a timely reminder of the innumerable lives destroyed through warmongering, with fallen Germans as likely to drop a family photo as they are ammunition. From a purely gameplay perspective, it’s mechanically familiar and rewarding. You explore room by room for key items and supplies, with little direct guidance, praying that you stumble upon a save room and item box to manage your limited inventory. You decide on whether to expend ammunition to clear safe routes, leg it or roll past enemies while hoping not to take too much damage, or engage in some rudimentary stealth that’ll test your patience and likely double your playtime. There’s a mysterious merchant that’ll trade cigarettes and upgrade your weapons with gun parts, and you can assist rare NPCs who reward you with consumables to boost health and stamina. Aside from the fluid twin-stick style controls and light progression elements, it all feels incredibly old-school and your first playthrough is going to be dominated by blind exploration and excessive backtracking. However, the longer you play, the easier it is to appreciate the depth of the mechanics and how they both reward and punish different playstyles.

    As an example, upgrading basic weapons and scavenging, crafting, or trading for ammunition will usually keep you ahead of the curve if you want to dispatch every German soldier you find; however, without patching damaged sections of barbed wire, more German troops can appear. More problematic is how fresh corpses results in rat swarms that can inflict a poison status that reduces your total health. For aggressive players, this makes it all but mandatory to burn bodies and toss grenades into rat nests in your most frequented areas. On the other hand, crude stealth, running like hell, and using rare opportunities to sit out battles make it easier to preserve supplies and avoid the rat threat, but it becomes a lot harder to complete several objectives and avoid taking damage – especially when dealing with firearm-wielding foes. Naturally, how you play, who you help, and how thoroughly you explore for clues and collectible items can dictate which of four endings you receive (with more hopeful and depressing variants available too).

    It all makes for a familiar but satisfying take on the genre – but CONSCRIPT has one notable flaw: questionable map layouts that makes backtracking frustrating, even if you’ve cleared a safe path through them. You traverse dozens of interconnected maps that encompass the ruined outskirts of St. Michel in the south, the frontline trenches and a fort near Souville, and the besieged Fort Vaux and adjacent town to the north. Each chapter tends to focus on thoroughly exploring one area – often above and below ground – and, initially, there’s a satisfying rhythm to finding key items and opening new routes back to rare safe rooms. However, from the third chapter onwards, you encounter more maps with winding routes between exits, large areas with few shortcuts, and no obvious reason why it should be that way other than to drag out the experience.

    Of course, this has always been a potential issue in classic survival-horror games, but CONSCRIPT features larger outdoor spaces that take far longer to traverse. It makes that contrived structure of key hunts and convoluted puzzles that much more obvious, illogical, and just annoying at times. As a consequence, even fans of the genre might find parts of CONSCRIPT tedious – but I would recommend you stick with it as it gets far more right than wrong. Also, despite the serious content matter and oppressively grim tone, it’s a rare treat to play a survival horror games devoid of zombies and secret laboratories.

    Pros:

    • Classic survival-horror gameplay
    • Evocative pixel-art visuals and moody ambience
    • An unusual setting for the genre
    • A relentlessly grim but topical reminder of war’s human cost

    Cons:

    • Map layouts can make puzzling and backtracking frustrating in some chapters

    Score: 8/10

    CONSCRIPT was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, and PS4/5.

  • Review: Crow Country (Xbox Series)

    Review: Crow Country (Xbox Series)

    Crow Country is an accessible retro-inspired survival-horror game that does an impressive job capturing the look and feel of early 3D isometric games that came out on the PS1 or SEGA Saturn during the late-‘90s. The structure and gameplay feel like Resident Evil with a hint of Parasite Eve II, while the environments feel like a mix of Silent Hill and any number of chunky JRPGs from that period. It’s a distinctly cute but creepy vibe. Viewed as a love letter to those classic games, it’s brilliant, but being dependent on those associations is also a mixed blessing. It’s smartly made and polished – but without that nostalgic hook, I’m not sure it has a unique identity like Lone Survivor or Signalis had.

    That said, Crow Country hits all the right notes as the opening leaves the player feeling vulnerable, unsettled, and confused. Mara – special agent Mara Forest apparently – is a capable but unreadable protagonist who is clearly keeping secrets from the player and the supporting cast. Arriving at the abandoned Crow Country amusement park, 2-years after an incident shut it down, she’s quick to shoot her way in through a padlocked gate; shrug off horrific encounters; wield a myriad of weapons; and solve convoluted puzzles that leave the other survivors stumped. Her connection to the park is unclear, and neither is the reason behind her pursuit of the missing owner, Edward Crow. She’s evasive in dialogue and even her comments on environmental details give only the slightest inkling of her personality and past.

    It’s not just Mara though, as many of cast were former staff and clearly complicit in the unfolding events. As a result, simply unravelling the mystery was a strong motivator to keep playing. What was the nature of the incident that shut down the park and drew the attention of a photojournalist and lawyer? Why have Edward Crow’s daughter, former colleagues, and a detective all arrived on this specific evening? What does an American amusement park have to do with a Brazilian gold mine? What are these bizarre creatures that the former staff refer to as “guests”? And who is Mara really? It’s a solid setup with some predictable and some unexpected twists. The environment changes over the course of the night, hinting more and more as to the nature of the threat – though the ending sequence is a bit of an exposition dump that expects you to read a note, midway through the final encounter, if you want all the details.

    After the narrative, it was the mandatory puzzles and over a dozen hidden secrets that hooked me. The amusement park setting, and an increasingly paranoid Edward Crow provide narrative context for the Resident Evil-style structure. As with that game, Crow Country gets a lot of mileage out of a small but dense location, so you’ll often know exactly where you’re trying to go – though you’ll only get there several hours later after jumping through an inordinate number of hoops. Thankfully, Crow Country has some great interconnected puzzles, rather than just hiding keys and data discs behind boss fights. They are present, I guess, but you can run away from everything (outside of the final encounter) and still make progress.

    In authentically classic fashion, you’ll be scouring the environment for key items, clues, and notes – with a handy map that marks the location of unsolved puzzles or points-of-interest to guide you. There are keypads and locks that just require the right code or key; there are logic puzzles that require entering the right sequence of events or the correct values; and there are arcade mini-games and plenty of weird use-item-on-object puzzles befitting the setting. The rest of the cast also have a role to play beyond storytelling as they sometimes provide you with clues or assist in a puzzle – though even if you completely ignore the few you aren’t forced to talk to, the ending variations are negligible.

    Of course, this is a survival-horror game and Mara is packing heat, so shooting your way through the park is a viable strategy if you’re methodical, tactical, and cautious. Sadly, while I love classic resource management, the combat is my least favourite element and goes hand-in-hand with the camera issues. The close isometric viewpoint is appropriately claustrophobic, but you’ve got to combine stand-and-aim shooting mechanics that use the left thumbstick, with camera rotation on the right thumbstick to track enemies. The system allows for precision targeting of item crates, weak-points, and environmental hazards well enough, but it snaps the camera in the direction Mara is facing, which is a real pain in the arse when you’re trying to clear some distance before turning around to shoot again. An option for classic tank controls provides a more reliable option for Mara’s movement, but my brain struggled to coordinate orienting by d-pad while simultaneously rotating the camera.

    Thankfully, Crow Country is not a particularly hard game, even if more monsters, traps, and even fake pick-ups appear as the night progresses – almost Parasite Eve II-style. There’s an “Exploration Mode” that keeps enemies passive, but even the ranked “Survival Horror” mode features an abundance of resources, easy to avoid enemies, and very few high-damage or insta-kill encounters. There are all the basics you would expect from the genre – useful shortcuts and smartly distributed safe rooms with soothing music and sources of fire that serve as manual save points – but you can also get hints from a fortune teller machine, refill pistol bullets from Mara’s car, rummage through dustbins and vending machines for supplies when you’re running low, and several secrets include overpowered weapons and upgrades. Playtime and the number of saves you make don’t affect the ranking score, so you can be super cautious and use the rewards from lower ranks to make subsequent runs much easier if you’re chasing an S+ rank or speed-running the game.

    Looping back to the start, Crow Country does a phenomenal job of emulating late-’90s survival-horror games, nailing the look, sound, and claustrophobic terror that those early 3D environments excelled at. It’s got an intriguing narrative and fantastic puzzles to keep you engaged during a brisk 5–6-hour initial run, though the wonky gunplay and camera control are more likely to frustrate than generate tension. As Crow Country can feel like a greatest hits collection of classic IP, it’ll most likely resonate with retro-gaming fans or those who grew up playing early survival-horror games – but given it’s so accessible, it might also be a good choice for those wanting just a taste of how classic survival-horror games played.

    Pros:

    • It does an great job capturing the look and feel of early 3D isometric games from the PS1 and Saturn era
    • The unravelling plot is intriguing and well-paced
    • The puzzles and secrets are smartly designed
    • It gets a lot of mileage out of a small but dense environment

    Cons:

    • The gunplay and camera are more likely to frustrate than generate tension
    • It can feel more like a homage to the classics than its own thing

    Score: 8/10

    Crow Country was played on Xbox Series S|X using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC and PS5.

  • Tech Review: Nacon Revolution X Limited Edition

    Tech Review: Nacon Revolution X Limited Edition

    The Nacon Revolution X (the Limited Edition Forest Camo variant seen below) is a “Pro Grade” controller for Xbox One and Series S|X consoles, and PC. As an official “Designed for Xbox” product, it offers a familiar layout, the basic functionality you’d expect, and then quite a bit more. With a price tag close to that of premium, third-party options from the likes of Razer and Thrustmaster, the Nacon Revolution X is a highly customisable and feature-rich choice – with a quality set of accessories, rear buttons, and easy-to-use software for tweaking – but it lacks the premium “feel” of its peers.

    Starting with the many positives, the Nacon Revolution X comes with a fantastic set of accessories. The sturdy carry case houses the controller snugly, along with a swappable weight and thumbstick kit, the braided cable, and a cleaning cloth. Aside from keeping all the components dust-free and together when stored, it’s useful if you’re planning to travel to an event or want to pack it alongside a gaming laptop.

    By default, I found the Nacon Revolution X too light for my tastes, but using the extra weights is as simple as sliding off the covers on the rear of each handgrip, inserting them, and clipping the covers back on. If you prefer convex thumbsticks, the default concave variants can be popped off and replaced quickly too.

    Unlike Nacon’s more budget-friendly gamepads, the Revolution X’s shape is much closer to that of original Microsoft hardware – albeit with some smart changes, like a more prominent groove below the triggers that guide your middle and ring fingers towards the additional back buttons. As a “Designed for Xbox” product, the basic thumbstick, button, bumper, and trigger designs are almost identical with similar spacing – aside from the Xbox button that’s been shifted downwards and the view and menu buttons slightly further apart.

    The face buttons and bumpers offer a familiar clicky feel, while the broad triggers offer a little more resistance but a similar range. Nacon thumbsticks remain a highlight – sturdy, responsive, and comfortable – with a raised rubber edge and texture that ensures your thumbs don’t slip. Only the 4-way d-pad is a little disappointing with a spongy feel and little feedback as you rotate through each position.

    The grips are lightly textured at the back and the detachable 3 m braided cord ensures you can store it easily with minimal twisting or tangling. On the top of the Revolution X you’ll find a recessed USB Type-C port for the cable; on the base a 3.5 mm port that supports Dolby Atmos if a headset is plugged in; and, on the rear, a button for cycling profiles and an “Advanced” toggle for enabling software programmable functions.

    Most significantly, you’ll find two prominent trigger-like buttons where your middle fingertips rest, and below them, two flatter buttons on the inside of the grip you can access with your fourth digit. They don’t have the same tactile feedback offered by paddles, but they are easier to use – albeit perhaps a little too easy depending on how tightly you grip. As someone who always finds it uncomfortable clicking down the thumbsticks while moving and aiming in action games, I bound the trigger-esque buttons to L3 and R3 respectively, then used the two smaller buttons for priority d-pad shortcuts.

    Talking of assigning inputs, the Revolution X uses the same simple and intuitive software you can find on Nacon’s budget models, just with an added layer of depth that allows more fine-tuning and completely custom presets. You get the expected full button-remapping; you can invert thumbsticks, adjust dead-zones, or tweak their response pattern curve inflection points precisely; you can adjust trigger activation ranges and dead-zones; control grip and trigger vibration intensity individually; and define the d-pad as a 4- or 8-way input depending on the game.

    The default presets all provide a demonstration panel to reflect the impact of each adjustment, but you can tweak parameters in the app and switch saved profiles on the fly – making it easy to test the results in-game where it counts most. More and more games offer similar functionality within their option menus, but it’s great to create a few genre-specific profiles and not have to do it on a per-game basis.

    The Revolution X has a single RGB ring around the right thumbstick, with quadrants you can individually customise by changing the colour and LED pattern. It provides some light visual customisation options, but it’s more useful for indicating which profile is active without going into the app.

    Also of interest is the Equaliser function when you’re using the headphone port, allowing you to enable a 3D audio effect (whether this is just Dolby Atmos or a discrete function is not clear); you can pick a preset for different genres that amplify certain frequencies; or adjust microphone gain and noise suppression if you’re in party chat. As I prefer system-level adjustments, I didn’t get much out of it, but it’s another nice-to-have option.

    Unfortunately, a smart form factor, extra inputs, and software programmable functions are only one part of the premium experience; the other is how the gamepad feels in action, in your hands. Despite decent build quality, the Revolution X feels incredibly plastic-ey. It’s hard, smooth, and slippery, to the point even the textured grips achieve little if your hands are dry.

    This might seem like a nitpick, but if you’re holding something for hours on end, properly textured and ideally rubberised grips are one of the major benefits of a premium gamepad – and it’s a feature several similarly priced pads offer. Nacon could benefit from releasing silicon grips or a protection kit for the Revolution X, as it’s something I’d consider an essential extra if the other features have convinced you to pick one up.

    The Nacon Revolution X also benefits from simple software use with unified features that work across last-gen Xbox One consoles, current-gen Xbox Series consoles, and PCs. It’s plug-and-play and, better still, the software app functions identically on all devices and syncs with your profile between them. Additionally, if you’re a fan of retro games, the wired Nacon Revolution X has far greater compatibility with older GOG and Steam PC games from the mid-2000s onwards, whereas they often bug out when using Bluetooth or a wireless adapter.

    So wrapping up, the Nacon Revolution X is an unexpectedly feature-rich controller given the price point. It’s highly customisable with swappable weights and thumbstick options; it has additional inputs, and easy-to-use software; and it comes with a fantastic accessory set and carry case. Unlike some of their cheaper gamepads, the form factor is great and smartly guides your fingers to the additional rear inputs. All that said, it lacks decent textured or rubberised grips to complete the package and give it that “premium feel”.

    Pros:

    • Decent build quality with a familiar layout and tactile feel similar to that of Microsoft gamepads
    • Well-situated rear inputs that are easy to use
    • Intuitive software allows you to tweak almost every part of the gamepad on a granular level
    • A fantastic accessory set is included
    • Quality braided cable that’ll survive handling and storage

    Cons:

    • It needs better textured or ideally rubberised grips for a more premium feel

    Score: 8/10

    A review sample of the Nacon Revolution X Limited Edition Camo was provided to gameblur by the manufacturer.

  • Tech Review: Nacon Colorlight Limited Edition

    Tech Review: Nacon Colorlight Limited Edition

    Providing a one-sentence review for the Nacon Colorlight Limited Edition is easy: It’s a transparent, “Designed for Xbox”, Pro Compact model, with six customisable colour zones, and many of the same pros and cons. As such, there’s plenty to like if you’re looking for a sturdy, easy-to-use, customisable wired gamepad – but its form factor and triggers can feel at odds with the benefits you get from the programmable software features.

    Despite the Pro Compact frame, the Colorlight is not much more compact than an original Xbox Series gamepad and weighs about as much one with the batteries removed. That said, it still feels robust in your hands, with thumbsticks, face buttons, and bumpers that all have a similar tactile feel. The grips are lightly textured and the braided cord, which is 3.5 m long and does not detach, ensures you can store it easily without twisting or tangling. What is notable, and presumably accounts for most of the size reduction, are the shorter hand grips. Your mileage may vary based on your hand size, but I found the Colorlight felt less secure during games that required rapid inputs (first-person shooters being a prime example).

    As a certified “Designed for Xbox” product, the Colorlight’s basic button and thumbstick configuration is identical to an original gamepad, and you get Dolby Atmos support if you have a headset plugged into the 3.5 mm jack on the base. The offset thumbsticks are a similar size and height, while the A/B/X/Y face buttons are slightly larger and, as a consequence, more cramped. Thankfully, they have the same “clicky” feel and a similar range of motion. The one design I don’t understand is why the menu, view, and share buttons were pushed towards the edge of the gamepad, instead of clustered around the central “Xbox” button.

    The thumbsticks are a highlight. They feel robust and have a raised rubber edge that ensures your thumbs don’t slip, even when applying only light pressure. In contrast, the d-pad feels a little spongy when depressed and rotated – lacking the “clicky” feedback of an official Xbox gamepad – but it functions as intended. So to do the bumpers, though they feel less prominent. Unfortunately, the somewhat squat triggers bring down the overall experience in any game genre that relies on them extensively – think first-person shooters or racing games. They feel more like the bumper-trigger hybrids on a Dualshock 4, rather than the well-defined curved triggers we’ve seen on every Xbox gamepad since the original “Duke”. They’re sturdy, they get the job done, but it always felt like my fingers were close to slipping off during hectic gaming sessions.

    With form factor out the way, the next element to discuss is the Colorlight’s programmable software and unique lighting options that you typically only see with premium-priced gamepads. Unsurprisingly, it uses the basic Pro Compact app – which is simple to use and offers excellent presets – just with extra settings to customise the RGB lighting. You get full button-remapping; you can invert the thumbsticks and tweak their dead-zones or response patterns; you can adjust the trigger activation ranges; and set the d-pad to a 4-way or 8-way input. You can mix and match to your liking, but each preset clearly demonstrates the impact of each adjustment and you can tweak it on the fly – making it easy to understand and test the results during gameplay.

    What is unique to the Colorlight is a tab dedicated to tweaking the colour and behaviour of the 6 LED lights. If you’re boring like me, you can just pick a single colour and brightness level, or you can tweak each LED individually to create a unique arrangement of colours with different behaviours. Six LEDs with a symmetrical split is not quite enough to create anything too elaborate, but it does allow you to create unique profiles for different users or, if you want two in the house for local coop, it’ll be easy to identify which controller belongs to whom. On the back of the gamepad, you’ll find one button to cycle a basic set of colour, while another toggle puts it into “advanced” mode to use the software interface.

    As a final point on the user experience, the Colorlight benefits from being simple to use with unified features. It works on last-gen Xbox One consoles, current-gen Xbox Series consoles, and PCs – just plug it in and you’re good to go. Better still, the customisation software app functions identically on all devices and syncs with your profile between them. Additionally, if you’re a fan of retro games, the wired Colorlight has far greater compatibility with older GOG and Steam PC games from the mid-2000s onwards, whereas they often bug out when using Bluetooth or a wireless adapter.

    Overall, the Nacon Colorlight Limited Edition is a decent budget gamepad, with some surprisingly premium features. It doesn’t offer back paddles, swappable thumbsticks, or weights, but the programmable software options and lighting customisation feel on par with more expensive gamepads. The build quality is great, the layout familiar, and the customisation options intuitive to use and easy to test mid-game. Unfortunately, the shorter hand grips and trigger design make it less ideal for shooters and racing games – both genres the software feels tailored for. It works well as a robust backup controller for a child, or maybe as a dedicated Xbox-style gamepad for PC but would like to see a revision with conventional triggers.

    Pros:

    • Robust build quality, familiar layout, and tactile feel to original Xbox gamepads
    • Intuitive and useful programmable buttons/triggers using the Pro Compact app
    • A wide range of lighting configurations to personalise your pad
    • Quality braided cable that’ll survive handling and storage

    Cons:

    • Short hand grips and Dualshock-esque triggers make it less ideal for shooters and racing games
    • Unintuitive menu, view, and share button placement

    Score: 7/10

    A review sample of the Nacon Colorlight Limited Edition was provided to gameblur by the manufacturer.

  • Review: DREDGE: The Pale Reach DLC (Xbox Series)

    Review: DREDGE: The Pale Reach DLC (Xbox Series)

    I really enjoyed DREDGE earlier this year. It was a near-perfect indie experience that felt smartly designed to get the most out of a limited budget without wasting my time. I’ve been looking for an excuse to go back and wrap up a few achievements – but playing through The Pale Reach expansion was both satisfying and disappointing. It is more DREDGE – which is a good thing – but it also left me concerned about future expansions if they don’t (or can’t) shake up the mechanics and gameplay structure significantly.

    In brief, The Pale Reach expansion exists to provide more of what DREDGE already did well. It couples simple but satisfying fishing and dredging mini-games with a rewarding progression system – ensuring you’ll rarely play for more than an hour without improving your ship, fishing equipment, or passive skills in some way. You sail out at the break of dawn to maximise your exploration and fishing time, then dash back to shelter once the sun sets in order to avoid cosmic horrors that plague the open seas after dark. Despite the stylised, cartoonish visuals and soothing soundtrack, there’s a constant sense of lingering dread in what is typically a relaxed genre.

    The Pale Reach provides a new icy biome to explore, with a substantial secondary quest, new equipment to craft or purchase, and new sea life – with several gruesome abhorrent species, of course. A visiting photographer provides an incentive to sail south, but she only serves to reveal an angry Narwhal that roams the frigid waters. The meat of the story involves discovering the fate of an old expedition – a task that’ll force you to dredge up parts for an ice breaker – and prevent the awakening of yet another slumbering monstrosity.

    Mechanically and structurally, the expansion plays out exactly like any of the existing island biomes you visit in the base game – albeit a suitably low-risk option that you can tackle early with only a hull upgrade or two recommended. NPCs will ask you to catch fish or dredge old parts to craft new gear; tattered journals will recount the fate of the prior expedition and update your goals; ancient shrines will hint at the true nature of the threat; and the aforementioned Narwhal will alternate between chasing you and conveniently destroying ice barriers if tempted with enough fish.

    There are some useful rewards that have application outside of the icy biome – like the ability to create ice blocks that keep your haul fresh for longer or a mysterious anchor that creates a two-way portal to Blackstone Isle – but if I had been playing DREDGE for the first time and someone installed the expansion without me knowing, I doubt I’d have realised it was post-launch content.

    As a consequence, I’m torn on how to rate The Pale Reach expansion. If you skipped DREDGE at launch and wanted to play it; or if you wanted to return to complete fishing challenges, boat upgrades, and check other free post-launch content; DREDGE: The Pale Reach is a well-priced excuse that slightly bulks up an already excellent game. If, on the other hand, you’ve 100%-ed DREDGE and were hoping to see what else could be done to shake up the gameplay formula, getting more of the same might disappoint.

    Pros:

    • A smart and respectful remaster that preserves System Shock 2’s timeless qualities and a few flaws
    • The updated textures, ambient lighting, and new weapon models don’t gel with the original designs
    • Competent gamepad controls and a multi-plat release improves accessibility
    • There’s only one cyberspace section at the end (which I guess some might consider a negative)

    Cons:

    • It ultimately looks and plays just like the late ‘90s early 3D FPS-RPG hybrid it is
    • Some laborious objectives remain unaltered and can drag down the pacing

    Score: 7/10

    DREDGE: The Pale Reach was reviewed on Xbox Series S|X using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One, PS4/5, and Nintendo Switch.

  • Review: Robocop: Rogue City (Xbox Series)

    Review: Robocop: Rogue City (Xbox Series)

    Robocop: Rogue City is quality 7-out-of-10 fare – one of those games that lack the production values of an “objectively” higher-scoring “AAA” title but are often way more fun to play. As such, how much you enjoy it will depend on what you’re willing to forgive to finally play a good game based on an underutilised IP. It shares many of the same highs and lows as Terminator: Resistance, demonstrating a lot of passion and an obvious love of the IP. However, some great character interactions, solid shooting, an authentic sense of style, and a flashy new engine can’t obscure the disjointed campaign flow, limited mechanical depth, dated character models, and awful cutscenes.

    If you’ve watched the 1987 film recently, it’s easy to argue Robocop: Rogue City retreads too many themes. What makes us human and who gets to decide? Is the rigid application of laws truly just? Is there no end to corporate greed and the collateral damage it causes? Repetition, sure, but these themes make for some of the best interactions between Robocop and the supporting cast and they tie into a narrative role-playing mechanic that influences the fate of several characters and Old Detroit. That said, it’s no subversive masterpiece. Robocop guns down hundreds of gang members with no consideration for the socio-economic manipulation that pushed them into that life, and there’s no shortage of real-world examples that demonstrate trying to resolve violence with violence begets more violence.

    The events of Robocop: Rogue City take place after the second film, with resurgent gangs, an ongoing Nuke drug problem, and the OCP still looking for any excuse to replace the police force with robots and level Old Detroit to make way for their Delta City project. Robocop experiences more glitches during an attack on the Channel 9 building, so OCP inserts a chip to monitor his performance (tying into the progression mechanics) and assigns him mandatory therapy sessions (used to define, question, and reinforce your role-playing choices). He’s then let off the leash to investigate “the new guy in town”, a mysterious villain whom several gangs and mercenaries are vying to work for.

    This kicks off an interesting but poorly paced story that revolves around Robocop in more ways than one. A good chunk of the opening half is spent shooting through several gangs to interrogate their leaders; destroying more dysfunctional ED-209s; dealing with OCP’s ongoing efforts to undermine the existing police force; avoiding or engaging with mayoral election campaigns intent on using him for political goals; and uncovering an even deeper conspiracy within OCP that leads into a drawn out finale and a bizarre final boss that, I guess, is was somewhat foreshadowed. I know this is both a video game and Robocop is satirical sci-fi, but the plot is still full of contrivances, inconsistent logic, and sudden deviations that make it feel as though the script was written on the fly.

    That said, if you focus instead on optional missions and smaller moments between Robocop and Lewis, his fellow officers, the citizens of Old Detroit, and even the antagonists, you’ll find much better writing, unexpectedly touching moments, and get the chance to explore lovingly recreated spaces like the Metro West Police Station. Peter Weller’s voice and delivery add instant authenticity and, with the notable exception of OCP’s CEO “the Old Man”, the rest of the voice cast give it their all – even if most performances aren’t going to win any awards. During many of these moments, you choose Robocop’s response or actions, which don’t drastically alter the events you experience, but they do change how he perceives himself and how the cast interacts with him down the line.

    The problem is no matter how good Robocop: Rogue City looks – with incredibly detailed environments, destruction physics, realistic lighting, and exaggerated gore – the vast majority of character models look dated and stiffly animated, lip-syncing is all over the place, and the cutscene direction feels crude: think simplistic framing, awkward cuts, poor dialogue delivery, and shifting sound levels. Robocop’s model looks great, Weller’s delivery is perfect, and the soundtrack variations of the original theme are brilliant – but all that can’t stop many cutscenes robbing the game of the emotional impact the writers clearly intended.

    Now I’ve got this far without discussing the gameplay in-depth, and I’d argue that’s because there’s not a lot of depth – well, at least not enough when tackling all the primary and secondary missions takes almost 20 hours, alternating between corridor shooting galleries and repeat visits to a hub-like Old Detroit that evolves over time. Mechanically, Robocop: Rogue City is another RPG-shooter hybrid like Terminator: Resistance – albeit with less looting, crafting, and upgrading gear and a greater focus on satisfying gunplay based around Robocop’s iconic Auto-9 and his incredible resilience. There are simple dialogue and scanning-based investigations, but while some larger chapters and the Old Detroit hub often reminded me of Eidos Montreal’s Deus Ex games, Robocop is no Adam Jenson. Even if a mission starts off peaceful, it’s guaranteed to end in a gunfight.

    Thankfully, the shooting is solid, and Robocop: Rogue City nails the sensation of being half-man and half-machine, with the durability and manoeuvrability of a tank. I’d always laugh when yet another gang member or mercenary threatened Robocop and pulled out a handgun or rifle, as only high calibre rounds and explosives pose a significant threat. From the moment Robocop thuds into the Channel 9 building, draws his iconic Auto-9, and the classic theme kicks in, you’ll spend most of your time shooting enemies in the head, in the groin if they’re armoured, or in weak points if they’re robotic. Although you can carry another weapon in reserve, the customisable Auto-9 with unlimited ammo is your workhorse tool and clearly received the most attention.

    Firefights are dynamic and evolve to a degree, just not enough to sustain a campaign twice the length of the classic FPS that inspired it. Enemies with more armour, bigger guns, or special abilities are slowly introduced; environments are full of hazards you can throw at enemies, or throw enemies into; most secondary weapons are useful in specific situations; there are offensive and defensive skills you can put points into for incremental buffs and perks; and you can upgrade the Auto-9 using “PCB” omni boards and chips that feels like a less-intuitive variation of what we got in Terminator: Resistance.

    The problem is it takes hours to get impactful perks if you don’t take a min-max approach – think deadly ricochet shots, bullet-deflecting armour, and bursts of slow-motion actually long enough to be useful – while there’s a steady increase in the number of tank-ish enemies that offset their impact and drag out firefights. As I was blasting through an end-game gauntlet, about 18 hours in, I realised I was just going through the same motions on autopilot: pull the left trigger, smile as the CRT effect and targeting outlines appeared, pull the right trigger, watch heads or groins explode. Considered in isolation, most scripted firefights are entertaining, but there are a lot of them, and they all blur together over time.

    Now despite ending on a low note, Teyon still deserves plenty of praise for creating the best Robocop video game available, just as they did for the Terminator IP, and that makes this a must-play for fans of Terminator: Resistance. For those not part of that crowd, Robocop: Rogue City can still be a lot of fun if you’re heavily invested in the IP and can look past inconsistent production values or underdeveloped systems. It somewhat outstays its welcome but provides a unique opportunity to role-play a conflicted Robocop, violently prosecuting justice through a CRT filter, to a fantastic soundtrack. If nothing else, it might also convince you the IP could work in a dedicated narrative-adventure game.

    Pros:

    • Great interactions between Robocop and the secondary cast that revisit themes from the 1987 film
    • Recreated locations from the films and classic Robocop lines delivered by Peter Weller himself
    • A customisable and immensely satisfying Auto-9 that explodes heads, hands, and groins alike
    • A progression system that (eventually) unlocks some overpowered perks

    Cons:

    • Weird campaign pacing and contrivances
    • The emotional impact of many encounters is undermined by crude cutscenes and character models
    • Not enough mechanical depth to sustain a 15-20 hour campaign
    • No permanent CRT filter option and no New Game Plus

    Score: 7/10

    Robocop: Rogue City was reviewed on Xbox Series S|X using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC and PS5.

  • Review: ADORE (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: ADORE (Nintendo Switch)

    ADORE is an intriguing “hands-off” action-RPG from Brazilian developer Cadabra Games. The focus is on capturing, upgrading, and synergising creatures that function as your attack abilities – a feat you’ll achieve by grinding procedurally-generated maps for said creatures and a myriad of upgrade resources. With real-time, isometric combat exclusively using summons, it feels novel at first, but progression begins to feel repetitive, unrewarding, and even frustrating at times.

    Starting with the good, ADORE has an interesting premise. Your protagonist has been cohabited by the spirit of “Draknar”, the god of creatures, who was slain by his brother “Ixer”. Ixer’s betrayal has resulted in a curse spreading across the land, corrupting once-peaceful creatures, and leaving it up to Lukha and a hidden village of fellow Adorers to try to set things right.

    ADORE gets off to a slow start but the combat and upgrade mechanics are surprisingly deep. At first, you only need to consider the type of creature – think beast, mystic, nature, or arcane – and their attack patterns.

    Some dash forward for a flurry of quick attacks; some waddle along before dealing a sweeping AoE attack; others have to charge up for a few seconds before dealing a devastating high-damage attack. With up to four creatures assigned to the face buttons (or keys), picking the right attack behaviour is essential, and so too is using the correct damage type to counter armour. You also have a limited, recharging stamina pool to manage, so you can’t just spam all of them at once.

    That’s only the basics, however. Creatures charge up special attacks you can selectively trigger; they can develop synergies with other creature types to unlock new abilities; they can gain experience from Shrines of Draknar to unlock new traits and level existing ones; upgradeable artefacts carried by Lukha add useful triggered abilities; while equipped runes provide him varying levels of passive buffs if you have the points to invest. On top of that, you can collect ingredients and cook meals to heal and buff your team mid-mission.

    You set out from a central hub and slowly unlock five regions on a world map. There’s a string of plot-related missions – most of which are just item or creature hunts before a battle against another Adorer or puzzle-like encounter with Ixer – and there’s a constantly refreshing list of optional missions.

    You jump through a portal in the Adorer village into simplistic maps made up of interconnected segments, each with a handful of hostile creatures to capture or defeat, a mini-mission or two –think activating switches or guiding floating orbs while under attack – and, hopefully, a useful item spawn like the “Particles of Gaterdrik” used to capture creatures, cooking or crafting materials, and upgrade shrines.

    With 39 creatures to capture, managing their upgrades, synergies, and constantly shuffling them in and out of your active party can be fiddly with a gamepad, but there’s a lot of fun to be had in slowly creating a diverse and powerful menagerie. So too is mastering the deceptively simple-looking isometric combat, which forces Lukha to stay mobile and dodge attacks, summon creatures when you spot a gap or first-strike opportunity, and quickly recall them before enemies can land a counter – potentially knocking them out of action for a mission if their health hits zero.

    Unfortunately, moving the plot forward, capturing new creatures, and obtaining resources for upgrades involves grinding short missions and longer excursions; to the point progression feels repetitive and unrewarding, undermining the overall experience.

    To ADORE’s credit, it always indicates what challenges you might face – like a legendary creature – and what resources are available on any given mission. The problem is how quickly the resource costs escalate. Activating one or two runes, levelling your creatures up two to three times, and enhancing an artefact once; are all manageable in the opening hours but as your roster grows, you’ll be forced to tackle the longest multi-map excursions or multiple short missions to achieve any significant progress.

    As fun and tactical as the combat may be, and as stylish as the character designs and environment first appear, it doesn’t take long before your brain settles into a monotonous routine and both the vibrant backdrops – which already suffer from that “made in Unity” look – blur together.

    Of course, grinding to upgrade your party is hardly a novel idea in video games, but the gameplay loop falls flat here due to a few annoying design choices. The first issue is that you have to manually pick up most rewards and they’re prone to falling out of the playable area or hidden behind chunks of the environment.

    The second issue is how death results in dropping most of your currency and crystal shards – essential for purchasing and upgrading artefacts, or expanding rune slots and rune activation points. Both simply add a degree of frustration to an already grindy progression system.

    Now ADORE should entertain those that love collecting and upgrading creatures for battles, with no shortage of upgrade mechanics to engage with and satisfyingly tactical real-time combat. It’s the mission and progression structure that leaves me conflicted. On one hand, it’s a smart way to get more mileage out of limited assets, gives you plenty of time to engage with the mechanics, and its a good fit for short sessions on the Switch or Steam Deck. On the other hand, the longer you play, the less rewarding the progression system feels, and the more formulaic and repetitive the gameplay loop feels.

    Pros:

    • A novel, hands-off, summons-based combat system
    • Plenty of mechanical depth when it comes to upgrading and synergising your party
    • Perfect for shorter sessions on the Switch or Steam Deck

    Cons:

    • The progression system feels increasingly unrewarding and repetitive
    • The rogue-like punishment for death adds nothing but frustration

    Score: 7/10

    ADORE was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, and PlayStation 4/5.

  • Review: Return to Grace (PC)

    Review: Return to Grace (PC)

    Playing Return to Grace had me thinking back to when so-called “walking simulators” were still a divisive topic. Video games like Dear Esther, Gone Home, or Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture – in which the narrative, characters, atmosphere, and audiovisual experience take precedence over mechanical complexity.

    On one hand, it’s a design that benefits Return to Grace, making for an immersive experience focused on the narrative pay-off. On the other, I was reminded of how fine a line this genre walks between compelling and boring if the pacing and length are even slightly off the mark.

    Return to Grace is a first-person narrative adventure that places you in the environmental suit of Adie Ito – an archaeologist exploring a frozen and stormy Ganymede in 3820 AD, searching for an ancient AI “Grace”, held in god-like reverence.

    She was an AI that led humanity into a golden age of peace and expansion across the solar system before her disappearance, a thousand years before, triggered a new dark age with many technological innovations and record keeping lost.

    This is a genre that thrives on strong storytelling and Return to Grace, despite retreading some familiar ideas, offers up an intriguing setting, quirky cast, a briskly paced mystery to unravel, and plenty of optional environmental storytelling and world-building.

    Times have clearly changed since Grace was the caretaker of humanity. Travel throughout the solar system is no longer commonplace as Adie has taken a risky, 300-day journey to get to Ganymede. It’s a one-way trip but she claims everything of value to her on Earth is gone. Record keeping from a thousand years prior is so limited she had to rely on centuries of oral histories to pinpoint the location.

    Even before I appreciated the divergent nature of the narrative, I was already sold on the setting, and I wanted to discover more about its take on the future of humanity.

    Thankfully, that “future history” element is integral to the present investigation-based story; it comes up when Adie comments on the technology she witnesses in the spire; and it often features in her conversations with an entertaining selection of AI personalities she discovers on her journey.

    Shortly after arrival, she awakens “Logic” who – alongside “Control” and “Empathy” – form core components of Grace’s identity. The problem is they’re old back-ups that have little knowledge of what led to Grace’s shutdown, what happened to the people that maintained the spire, or how her interactions with humanity evolved over time.

    What they do have is unique personalities, system permissions, and thoughts on how Adie should proceed. As she pushes on, they create amusing hybrid personalities – for whom Adie picks some choice names – that help her circumvent new obstacles.

    It’s not obvious at first but Return to Grace‘s most significant narrative mechanic is how it tracks your decisions. The consequences can feel a little rushed given the 3–4-hour runtime, but there are a few key moments where Adie can push forward instead of exploring, take risky shortcuts instead of the safer path, or allow the AI to perform certain tasks for her. These decisions feed into evolving AI responses and (if we exclude one obviously bad ending) lead to minor ending variations that felt appropriate for my choices.

    Return to Grace‘s biggest issue – and this is one shared by all games in this genre – is what you’re doing mechanically is rarely that engaging.

    You explore and move at whatever pace the game dictates; you sit around listening to lengthy conversations that block your ability to interact with anything until they’re finished; you push or mash a single button to trigger scripted traversal moves or optional commentary; and sometimes you engage in pattern- or memory-based puzzles that require little mental effort. Crossing balance beams, briefly controlling a crane, and melting ice with a flame-thrower is about as wild as it gets.

    Thankfully, Return to Grace’s brisk runtime – coupled with some choice comments from the AI if you do get stuck – make this less of an issue and the compelling world had me hacking every door and audio-log I could find for more details. That said, it didn’t make the process of trudging around larger areas, repeating door code inputs, and twirling Adie’s glove to line up sync points a dozen times feel any less repetitive or tedious.

    Return to Grace’s brevity and strong storytelling are its saving grace. It kept me hooked over two evening sessions and I only started ruminating on the weaker elements just before the credits rolled.

    I wanted to find out more about the past events by sifting through the deserted spire; I wanted to hear every one of Adie’s comments on the current state of humanity; I was fascinated by the AI personalities and their attempt to dissect her motivations; and there were moments of doubt that had me wondering if Adie’s quest was misguided.

    If you’re in the mood for a brisk, immersive, thought-provoking adventure with a lightly divergent narrative, and you can accept the somewhat limited and repetitive gameplay loop, Return to Grace is a great addition to the genre.

    Pros:

    • An intriguing setting and briskly-paced mystery to unravel
    • Thought-provoking conversations and ending variations based on your actions
    • A likeable cast with quality voice acting
    • Atmospheric environments and soundtrack

    Cons:

    • An over-reliance on a handful of simple, repeated mechanics
    • The short length makes some AI relationships feel rushed

    Score: 8/10

    Return to Grace was reviewed on PC using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on Xbox Series S|X and PS5.

  • Retrospective: Vaporum (2017)

    Retrospective: Vaporum (2017)

    I love Vaporum and many of the classic games that inspired it, but it’s a difficult sell to newcomers. Clunky, archaic movement limitations and artificial grid-like environments – elements you might criticise in any other modern game – are core gameplay features and, if you buy into the nostalgic aspect, all part of the charm

    Vaporum is a retro-inspired but infinitely more accessible modern “blobber” – think first-person dungeon-crawler, usually party-based, and with RPG elements. You trudge around labyrinthine grid-based levels, searching for keys, solving puzzles, hunting for secret areas, avoiding hazards, and defeating enemies to progress between floors. It’s a wonderfully contrived game world that makes little sense unless the primary purpose of the facility was to frustrate and/or kill its researchers.

    Events take place entirely within a massive steampunk tower, in the midst of a raging and stormy sea, though figuring out who the protagonist is forms part of the early mystery. The ominous tower beckons them in and although they know they have some connection to it, everything else is a blur.

    As you explore, a combination of written notes and scratchy audio logs spur on their memory, leading to revelatory monologues that slowly reveal the truth about their past and the present research into a mysterious substance known as “Fumium”. It’s a dated but effective approach that works in a game not particularly suited to conventional cinematics – though I wish there was a little more world-building to flesh out events beyond the tower.

    Although many games in this sub-genre – from 1985’s The Bard’s Tale to 2017’s StarCrawlers – shift into turn-based combat when you encounter a foe, Vaporum uses the real-time approach first pioneered by 1987’s Dungeon Master and almost perfected by 2012’s Legend of Grimrock. Unlike many of its predecessors – and one of the reasons it received multiple console ports – is that is Vaporum is not “party-based” and doesn’t rely extensively on an emulated mouse cursor in combat.

    You control a lumbering exoskeleton rig – a sensation not dissimilar to Delta in BioShock 2 – with four starting classes to pick from. These range from pure offence to pure defence, with a few unique perks and 10 gear slots that can be configured without restrictions. There are two offensive slots that can either handle one-handed maces, blades, or pistols combined with a shield, or a single but powerful two-handed weapon. You unlock up to four “gadget” slots that provide elemental damage or support abilities akin to spells, and there are four armour slots to mix and match attribute-boosting gear.

    Fumium gained from destroyed enemies goes towards increasing your rig level, unlocking circuits to invest in a dozen linear skill trees that cover weapon types, energy generation for gadgets, elemental damage and resistance, and general survivability. Each point invested provides a useful but incremental upgrade, while the third level provides a minor perk, and the fifth a choice between two major perks.

    On the whole, it’s a versatile and adaptable system that replaces multiple less-specialised party members. It also feels reasonably balanced given you can only max out 3 or 4 skill trees in a single playthrough. You could prioritise damage output to quickly remove threats; turn yourself into a physical and elementally resistant tank that reflects back a huge portion of damage; or pick a middle ground.

    Whatever your choice, exploration, puzzling, and indeed the combat all hinge on understanding and navigating the grid-like environment, rather than simply increasing your level and gear quality – a design many seem to ignore when you consider the number of videos with players retreating into a corner to just trade blows with enemies.

    Vaporum can look and sound great despite its relative simplicity. The throbbing, clanking, and hissing industrial-steampunk setting is a perfect match for the artificial grid-based world. That said, Vaporum is at its most boring when you’re plodding down claustrophobic corridors or backtracking to a locked door, moving past hundreds of near-identically-textured walls and floors.

    You move block by block in any direction relative to your view, which you can swing 90 degrees at a time. Free-look is great to scan for nefariously-hidden switches and objects, and you’ll engage in some light inventory management and menu-ing to use key items.

    Thankfully, what it lacks in fluidity, it makes up for with purpose.

    When you’re forced to move quickly to hit switches, dodge floor traps, or engage in combat with multiple foes, you’ll come to appreciate the convoluted but engaging movement system that forces you to be actively aware of your position in grid space.

    There are times you need to dash between multiple switches by picking the most effective route. Other times you’ll be dashing between safe spots to avoid fireballs or pit traps. Far too much time is spent shifting around large boxes around to open a path. No matter what you’re doing,

    When it comes to secret hunting, the predictable and repetitive grid-like nature of the environment is both a blessing and a curse. A quick look at the map often reveals blank spaces that hide a secret room but opening them can mean hunting for the tiniest differences in a common texture. It’s worth the effort though, as powerful gear, consumables that permanently increase your basic attributes, rare upgrade circuits, and even revealing documents are common rewards.

    Battling on a grid can feel a bit limited at first and, so long as you’re up against a single enemy and have a 2-by-2 grid space, it’s possible to simply shuffle around them and get in free hits as they transition or reorient. Vaporum attempts to spice things up by giving some enemies projectile attacks, quick strafes, area-of-effect attacks, knock-back attacks, and sideswipes, but one-on-one battles are always survivable if you’re patient.

    In contrast, group battles – especially those with hazards thrown in – will quickly tax your powers of observation, planning, adaptability, and reflexes. Vaporum is perhaps too fond of locking you in rooms, resulting in combat that feels like an awkward dance as you avoid being boxed in, try not to strafe into a hazard or AoE attack, dodge crisscrossing projectiles (or lead enemies into them), clear space to trigger a repair kit, and line up priority targets.

    It’s often chaotic and unpredictable but if you keep a clear head and have a decent sense of spatial awareness, it can be a lot of fun and you’ll often come out on top.

    So, six years on from launch, and 36 years since Dungeon Master introduced real-time combat to the formula, Vaporum is an interesting mix of old designs with more modern sensibilities. The PC version feels most intuitive to play but the console ports are great, irrespective of which platform/s you own.

    I strongly recommend it for dungeon-crawler and RPG fans, though I’d hazard a guess the audience will always be niche. That said, if you can wrap your brain around the grid-based structure, Vaporum provides a weirdly compelling mix of methodical exploration and secret hunting, plenty of mentally taxing spatial puzzles, and high-intensity combat that requires you simultaneously plan and react.

    Screenshots were captured on the Nintendo Switch. Vaporum is also available on PC, Xbox One/Xbox Series, PS4/PS5.

  • Review: The Riftbreaker (PC and Xbox Series)

    Review: The Riftbreaker (PC and Xbox Series)

    At first glance, you might think The Riftbreaker – developed and published by EXOR Studios – is a simple hybrid of twin-stick shooter and base-building/tower-defence game. To an extent, that’s true, and a skilled player could always draw aggro away from their base and limit the need for extensive defensive structures. However, The Riftbreaker also packs unexpected depth, with hundreds of research options, dozens of building and player upgrades, and the ever-present need to expand and protect resource-generating operations. The Riftbreaker provides plenty of entertainment in short-bursts but can also feel unforgiving and tedious when you mess up and need to recover.

    Story

    The narrative, outside of a flashy opening cutscene, is minimal and stretched thinly over hours of playtime. You take control of captain Ashley Nowak, a “Riftbreaker” – think scientist/commando hybrid – in an AI-powered mecha-Suit called “Mr. Riggs” as they emerge from a one-way jump to the lush world of Galatea 37. Earth is barely liveable, and humans are rift-jumping to distant planets to find resources and establish new colonies. She’s tasked with securing a foothold and building a massive “Rift Station” that will allow two-way travel between Earth and Galatea 37. Of course, things are never easy, and the native species are not happy with the intrusion. Aside from infrequent banter between Ashley and Mr. Riggs, which fleshes out Ashley’s ideologies and past a little more, this overarching objective and the need for rare resources to construct the Rift Station is all the context you’ll get to push forward.

    Galatea 37 is a massive, procedurally-generated world full of potential resources and danger – from both the environment and local lifeforms. Early on, you’ll gain the ability to perform short-range jumps to scout and set up new outposts, but you always need to maintain your starting HQ.

    Gameplay

    Controlling Ashley in her mecha-suit is a breeze, with a familiar twin-stick movement and aiming setup. This makes early exploration an enjoyable foray into the unknown, but you’ll eventually have to decide on the location of your HQ and engage with the base-building, resource-generation, and horde-defence mechanics. The world is filled with finite resource pockets – some immediately apparent, several uncovered through research and scanning – and the continuous generation of these resources is essential to making progress. Carbonium is your basic building material used to craft new structures and gear. Ironium is needed for defensive structures and, most importantly, ammunition production. Cobalt, Palladium, Titanium, and Uranium are rare resources needed for advanced structures, crafting designs, and – in huge amounts – your ultimate goal, the Rift Station. Liquid resources, like water and magma, are essential to the functioning of advanced structures, which can, in turn, produce artificial resources, like coolant and plasma, for even more advanced structures.

    All the basic, advanced, and defensive structures you can build require considerable power, which can be produced using solar panels and wind turbines (susceptible to environmental conditions), Carbonium powerplants, biomass generators, geothermal power, and even nuclear reactors. Of course, the ability to build advanced base structures, upgrade them for greater efficiency, or craft and equip the multitude of weapon and mech-suit upgrades, requires researching your way through three massive, multi-tier technology trees. Research speed becomes a major obstacle to progress and can feel painfully slow at times – unless you can support multiple power-guzzling Communication Hubs. Naturally, all these structures require space, and making more space means your walls and defensive network is spread thinner (an HQ location with some natural barriers is a must). You’ll quickly discover the need to run power nodes to distant resource-producing outposts, which are then more vulnerable to horde attacks. You could surround them with walls and powerful, specialised turrets but that means more power, AI cores, and resource-hungry ammunition factories.

    So many structures and so little space! Thankfully, most structures can be upgraded to make them more efficient, but you’ll still need a sizeable base, with a strong defensive perimeter, packing dozens of power-producing structures, refining and beneficiating resources for advanced structures to complete the Rift Station.

    If this is all starting to sound overwhelming, it can be. Although not as granular or deep as games like Factorio or Satisfactory, I can’t help but feel The Riftbreaker has been untruthful in its marketing campaign. Resource production and beneficiation, coupled with power generation, underpin everything you do. As a result, it’s possible to get it very wrong and find yourself struggling to recover. As an example, an early push for automated Repair Towers seemed like a great idea, until I realised they were chewing through my resources faster than I could replace destroyed structures and defences, forcing me to run about manually disabling them. This frequent need to repair and upgrade structures also highlighted the variable gamepad support. Exploration, combat, and menu navigation are solid with a gamepad, but the precision placement of structures or trying to mass select them for upgrades is problematic (and nigh-impossible under pressure). The base building feels more intuitive using a mouse and keyboard, and this is an option for console players if they have the hardware.

    Having hopefully conveyed the complexity of resource production, construction, and research, you’ll be relieved to know exploration and twin-stick combat is far simpler and instantly gratifying. Movement and shooting feel great, making it easy to kite hordes, dash out the way of larger creatures, and thin the alien ranks before they break upon your walls. The mecha-suit can handle three swappable weapons per arm – ranging from swords to chain guns, flamethrowers to rocket launchers – which can be upgraded to higher tiers or modded for extra elemental damage. There are passive equipment slots and active abilities to enhance your combat skills and survivability, all of which can be crafted with the right research and sufficient resources. If you’re after a more hands-on approach to base defence, you can prioritise the weapon technology tree and create a walking tank. Many of the upgrades in the alien technology tree become essential once you’ve constructed the Orbital Scanner and begin away-missions to secure rare resources in hostile environments (think heat, radiation, volcanism, and corrosive clouds). Given the ceaseless demands of your primary base, these away-missions to explore and establish distant outposts are paradoxically stressful and relaxing.

    So many things to research, so few communication Hubs, and constant power shortages… Waiting on research feels like an excuse to go out and explore more, but there’s only so much entertainment to be gleaned from clearing respawning alien mobs from the local area for upwards of 15-minutes at a time.

    When the environment isn’t trying to kill you – and there is an inordinate number of natural phenomena on Galatea 37, from calm moon phases to damaging hailstorms – it’s the myriad of alien species. These range from basic Zerg-style cannon fodder to lumbering organic artillery and – sticking with the StarCraft analogies – seemingly advanced, cloaked and bladed warriors. Each environment – lush jungle, scorched desert, icy tundra, or volcanic waste – has several unique lifeforms (not all hostile) but they fill similar roles when it comes to assaulting you or your base. Despite Ashley’s apparent desire to study and conserve Galatea 37’s original environment, frequent hordes and respawning alien clusters ensure she butchers hundreds of them on any given day. Combat is less stressful than resource production and base management to be sure, but it’s frequent enough that you’re rarely able to explore for more than a minute without shooting something. On the upside, it’s a great way to hoover up biomass, uncover hidden resources using a scanner, find new species for the alien technology tree, and several unique power or gear designs.

    Presentation

    When it comes to the presentation, The Riftbreaker looks and sound great for most of the experience. The world feels ridiculously detailed, vibrant, and packed with moving and reactive parts – think foliage, liquid pools, and destructible terrain. Firefights against large hordes in forests are a particular highlight, with projectiles tearing through vegetation, while explosions send shockwaves through trees and grass. That said, it can be easy to lose track of Ashley’s mecha-suit in busier scenes. The Riftbreaker can buckle during massive horde attacks but proved scalable on PC and even performed well on the budget Xbox Series S, about 95% of the time. The audio is also a highlight, with loud and impactful combat and a catchy soundtrack that starts serenely before escalating based on nearby threats. With only two voiced characters, Ashely and Mr. Riggs have plenty of exchanges, often cheesy and overwrought. Thankfully, the voice-acting is not too bad and you don’t hear it all that often.

    The Riftbreaker’s environments are vibrant, detailed, and reactive but it’s easy to get lost in the visual chaos. Large hordes can drag down the framerate on PC and console, but the experience was smooth for the bulk of my playtime.

    Notable issues

    A lot is going on in The Riftbreaker at any given moment and you’re rarely given any downtime (even after delving into the heavily customisable difficulty settings). This ensures the world of Galatea 37 is less a mysterious space to explore, and more of a pretty canvas on which to build and murder things. On one hand, the procedural generation ensures each new location – be that a permanent outpost or once-off scouting mission – can throw up new challenges and sights. On the other hand, I wish there was a little more structure to the narrative and lore, rather than needing to read hundreds of journal entries. Maybe some handcrafted scenarios to test your construction and combat skills, as in the They Are Billions campaign. Other irritations include the aforementioned gamepad support and the need to manually upgrade structures once you’ve researched new tiers (a thousand wall segments being a prime example).

    Conclusions

    Considering each mechanic in isolation, The Riftbreaker is packed with interesting systems but the learning curve, balance, and pacing often feel off. It’s a game in which you’re constantly hitting roadblocks – some of which present an engaging challenge, while others simply require you to sit around until you have enough resources or research completes. It’s possible to find yourself desperately reconfiguring your base to balance power supply, resource production, and resource consumption, while constantly stopping to fend off hordes and likely racking up more damages. There is an audience for this sort of challenge and, despite pointing out these challenges, I could not stop playing. However, I think there’s an even larger audience who’ll pick up The Riftbreaker looking for a twin-stick shooter with streamlined base-building elements, only to find themselves bogged down in base micromanagement and making little progress. That said, The Riftbreaker can be a ton of stressful fun – just so long as you know what you’re getting into.

    Pros:

    • Fluid and responsive twin-stick shooting
    • Tons of research, buildings, gear, and upgrades to unlock
    • A lengthy, involved campaign across a procedurally-generated world
    • Visually stunning with decent performance on PC and Xbox Series consoles

    Cons:

    • Variable gamepad support
    • Waiting around for research to complete
    • Exploration = incessant combat

    Score: 7/10

    A review code for The Riftbreaker (PC) was provided to gameblur by the Publisher. The Xbox Series S/X version was accessed using an Xbox Game Pass subscription.