Review: RIVE (PS4).
Some games, while not clattering with the player, have a strange power of attraction. We swear, throw a pad, and even get angry, but we still want to push forward. RIVE (PS4) gave me sweat, tears and grinding my teeth, but also a lot of fun.
Creators who go back to the old school of game development often unnecessarily complicate the game with strange solutions. Sometimes, however, it is enough to wear proven patents in modern garments and bam – we get a successful title without too much effort. This is what RIVE (PS4) is about – a platform shooter that does not forgive mistakes, which is the key to its success. At least for those who are not afraid of the challenge.
The storyline is only slightly outlined. We play the role of a space traveler who explores a giant abandoned ship in a robot resembling a spider. By the way, he fights with the drones attacking him, and in the breaks he talks with the ship’s mechanical guardian. There is a clash here, because the hero wants to be funny by force, but he does not do it well. On the other hand, we will ignore dialogues anyway, so there is no problem.
Visually, the title perfectly refers to related productions from many years ago, but using modern standards. The luminaire is kept in a futuristic-industrial style, so we visit the next sections full of machines, electrical devices, pipes, steel containers and other metal objects. Of course, there were also spectacular outbursts of scattered opponents. Although from time to time we return to the locations we have already visited, our eyesight constantly discover new details in them, so the weariness effect does not threaten us. Overall a plus for the technical issues, because even the sound works very well with the graphics and perfectly reflects the atmosphere of an abandoned wreck of a star freighter. Mark Dodson’s voice is also an advantage – unlike his jokes.
The gameplay itself is not complicated, but it is quite demanding. Admittedly, showing the player where the crayfish are hibernating today is passe, but in this case you should watch out for frequent verbal jokes that act as “game over”. The difficulty level is not irritating, and encourages you to traverse the ship, jumping on platforms and pushing the cannon away from enemies. If necessary, we use hacking skills to get further or take the drone to help, but this option has not been developed as promised.
For the sake of balance, there are only addictive stages in the style of the iconic Darius and similar games. Despite the available improvements for our robot, it is difficult to get the production up to the metroidvania genre. There is no exploration on our own, but in return, at least we won’t get lost anywhere. As I mentioned, the difficulty level is really high, but respawn almost in the same place in the event of death allows you to keep negative emotions in check … although it is not always in the right place.
For PLN 63, we get a very good game that will provide fans with collecting points and climbing in the rankings a large dose of demanding, arcade gameplay. If that’s not enough, you can always test yourself in the time trial and the one-life mode. I recommend it to people who are not afraid of frequent deaths.
