RIVE (PC)

Let's do this!

RIVE is a 2-D twin-stick SHMUP/action-platformer hybrid. You’re a rough-and-tumble kinda guy (with clean teeth!) named Roughneck who pilots a little spider tank of destruction. Most of your time is spent within the bowels of a starship nearly bereft of life, and in artificial gravity. Some areas turn off the gravity entirely, some have anti-gravity bubbles, some have water that blocks your shots entirely, etc. Your tank is also equipped with a Hacking beam which allows you to isolate hackable nodes and bots in the area, so that you can make them do your bidding. Locking onto a hackable object slows down time a bit – which comes in handy – as the creators of the game are not shy about placing them just about instant-death traps.

Shakespeare, Shmakespeare

After passing through a meteor swarm, you end up stuck inside a robot-infested space hauler run by a persistent AI that really doesn't want you to leave. You progress through new areas, seeking out new Hacks (which the AI isn't too happy about) to take over bots and activate control nodes, upgrading as you go. You'll find Warp stations along the way, and utilize them after each stage is complete. You will also be able to afford a weapon, shield, or loot magnet upgrade after every mission or two, provided you make sure to grab the bolts the enemies drop when they go pop. Four special weapons (kill stuff faster, but you can only hold one ammo unit at a time), two armor upgrades (live a little longer), and two loot magnet upgrades (draw loot in from further away) are available. When you die – and you will die – during the main part of a stage, you'll respawn at a nearby checkpoint. When you die during a boss battle, you'll just get kicked back to the start of the most recent phase the boss entered; generally, you will lose ten seconds at the most, so you get right back into the thick of things.

Oh, and one more added plus – you can blow up the plot exposition fairy – er, bot – and his endless supply of replacements; if you don't wanna be bothered with the story, that is. At least, until he wises up and turns on his energy shield...

PEW! PEW! PEW!

RIVE features four control setups, by default: Control your tiny spider-tank with the left stick, fire with the right stick (endless rapid-fire ammo), L2 to jump/doublejump, L1 or L2 to hack nodes and specific AI bots such as healers and turrets, face buttons to select a special attack, and R2 to fire them. Controls are responsive, your tank turns on a dime, and jumping is reasonably precise; it benefits from momentum. Movement speed is nice and zippy. You can fire in 360 degrees, at will, for most of the game.

Oooh, Pretty…

The graphics are really impressive. Lots of background detail in the decrepit ship, and the dark color scheme of the foreground elements (most of the time) makes it easy to keep track of your ship in all of the chaos. There’s just a taste of bullet hell, but not with actual bullets. Most enemies prefer to simply ram you at high speed, or to loose missiles in your general direction. Enemy bots are widely varied – from the swarming blue orb bots to the pink saucers that try to cut you up like Wolverine – and each type has different tactics they use to do you in.

RIVE has a great soundtrack, with solid voice acting. Explosions feel meaty and “explodey” – very satisfying. The soundtrack blends in well with the action too. The script displays a great sense of humor from a bunch of veteran gamers (when's the last time YOU saw a game make a Parodius reference?)