The Riftbreaker

Dandai

<WoW Guild Officer>
<Gold Donor>
5,918
4,504
I played through this a couple times a few weeks ago, once on normal, once on hard (or whatever the next difficulty is called). It’s definitely enjoyable and I felt like I got my $30 out of it, but it’s far from perfect.

It’s got a weird problem with inconsistent design philosophy. The main focus is arguably upgrading your mech and the building stuff is just there to support that. There’s also an optional scanning function that lets you become more “familiar” with flora and fauna and increase resource/harvest rewards from them. This slows the pace waaaay down. Also the most optimal resource harvesting is growing plants/crystals, but you can’t grow them until you’ve unlocked the prerequisite tech tree node (which are locked behind campaign missions).

I ended up uninstalling it before trying out Survival mode, so maybe the design choices would’ve made more sense in that game mode (as opposed to the campaign).

Anyway, I’d give it a 7/10 - above average - at $30. If it looks interesting to you and you’ve got access to it for free on game pass, I definitely recommend downloading and trying it out.
 

Hateyou

Not Great, Not Terrible
<Bronze Donator>
17,776
48,007
I played through this a couple times a few weeks ago, once on normal, once on hard (or whatever the next difficulty is called). It’s definitely enjoyable and I felt like I got my $30 out of it, but it’s far from perfect.

It’s got a weird problem with inconsistent design philosophy. The main focus is arguably upgrading your mech and the building stuff is just there to support that. There’s also an optional scanning function that lets you become more “familiar” with flora and fauna and increase resource/harvest rewards from them. This slows the pace waaaay down. Also the most optimal resource harvesting is growing plants/crystals, but you can’t grow them until you’ve unlocked the prerequisite tech tree node (which are locked behind campaign missions).

I ended up uninstalling it before trying out Survival mode, so maybe the design choices would’ve made more sense in that game mode (as opposed to the campaign).

Anyway, I’d give it a 7/10 - above average - at $30. If it looks interesting to you and you’ve got access to it for free on game pass, I definitely recommend downloading and trying it out.
That scanning thing is optional for sure. I didn’t even realize I had it until 15 hours in lol. I do it to take breaks from building and slaughtering, not all the time.
 

Caliane

Avatar of War Slayer
15,949
12,608
the scanning is a huge oversight for sure. as you say, all these buildings/upgrades... none of them for scanning. constantly having to hold that his is a pita.

There should be scanning upgrades. wider/faster. items. an active aoe scan pulse on timer. equipable, passive scanner.
maybe radar upgrades to scan.
 
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Hateyou

Not Great, Not Terrible
<Bronze Donator>
17,776
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the scanning is a huge oversight for sure. as you say, all these buildings/upgrades... none of them for scanning. constantly having to hold that his is a pita.

There should be scanning upgrades. wider/faster. items. an active aoe scan pulse on timer. equipable, passive scanner.
maybe radar upgrades to scan.
Radar upgrade to scan would be a cool idea. It’s definitely not necessary though. You get the same thing by killing shit, the green DNA drops.

It was needed for a few missions. The excess resource drops you get by making your familiarity higher doesn’t really help much compared to your mines. Like I said it’s nice but going around scanning a ton is pointless unless you’re just sitting there waiting for an attack wave to come or a building to complete.
 
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Daidraco

Avatar of War Slayer
10,705
11,366
One thing I'll give this game is even if you do free mode (cheat w/e) that even with that, if you didnt design a part of your base well - the NPC's will still crush your ass lol. I havent played since early early alpha, so you bumping this might encourage me to look into whats changed since then.
 

Hateyou

Not Great, Not Terrible
<Bronze Donator>
17,776
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I ended up buying this during the lunar sale. Not disappointed at all so far.
Yeah this games good shit. Just make sure your base is pretty fuckin big. Also I’d advise when you build multiples of a building (to stack the bonuses from them) put them next to each other, so when you unlock the next level you don’t have to wander around looking for them all to upgrade them, or even completely miss one you built far away and leave it not upgraded. That happened to me a few times and it was annoying and I just wanted to start over to build my base cleaner. Also use the concrete platforms everywhere, you run a lot faster on those.
 

Hateyou

Not Great, Not Terrible
<Bronze Donator>
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The one thing I wish this game had was some AI units you could set up on patrol without needing a tower like Herzog Zwei had. Being able to set up some AI tanks, launchers, or drones out in the wild to slow down the hordes would be pretty cool.

Multiplayer is going to be sick. Just need to make a friend between now and then.
 

Crone

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
9,714
3,211
The one thing I wish this game had was some AI units you could set up on patrol without needing a tower like Herzog Zwei had. Being able to set up some AI tanks, launchers, or drones out in the wild to slow down the hordes would be pretty cool.

Multiplayer is going to be sick. Just need to make a friend between now and then.
Gaming friends are super hard to come by!
 

Hatorade

A nice asshole.
8,684
7,600
I “beat” this game mid December. It is very fun, the spear is so OP.
Multiplayer should be a good time.