RiftStar Raiders review

Reviewed on: Xbox One

You can have a lot of fun playing RiftStar Raiders, but you need patience.

RiftStar Raiders is a shooter – or SHMUP as fans of the style like to call it – that gives you gorgeous visuals and a very good sound arrangement, with somewhat imprecise controls and poorly implemented difficulty.

It reminded me a lot of another game I have already reviewed here: Rise & Shine. Obviously they are very different games, but they share the same trait: they are shooters that use both analog sticks to control movement and aim. In RiftStar Raiders you will use the left stick to move your ship and the right to control the aim, or almost.

Actually, what the aim control does is just slow your ship down and thereby try to give a feeling of greater control over it and the trajectory of the projectiles. But it doesn’t work. The ship control, as expected, uses physics effects to simulate inertia; despite a greater sense of realism, the movement is quite imprecise. And we are talking about a SHMUP; there is no room for imprecision in this genre.

So you have a game with not very friendly controls and a learning curve that is almost a straight ascending line, and things can get quite complicated. The tutorial is already not very simple, some steps can lead you astray, like that damned room full of mines, and then in the very first stage you come face to face with several objectives that consist of destroying certain targets and hacking others amid an avalanche of enemies. It gets a little easier in multiplayer co-op but in the solo campaign it is downright frustrating.

I confess my first impression of the game was not the best, but then I tried again, and then once more. I ventured into the customization system, where we can modify and improve our weapons, propulsion and shields using items and funds obtained in missions, which is quite complete and engaging. I started to use a bit more caution in the stages, especially when approaching enemies, and began to explore the settings better, finding secret passages that led to more loot. That is where the game starts to show a greater ability to entertain and challenge the player; it remains to be seen how many will have the patience to get there.

What is good right from the start and will certainly earn praise from many who play it is the graphics, gorgeous settings rich in colors and details. Many effects that, combined with an excellent sound department, make the gameplay experience very rich and enjoyable. It is, without a shadow of a doubt, the game’s high point.

It is a game that requires a certain perseverance to master its mechanics but has a good chance of rewarding those who do.