Disclaimer
I was sent the Riftfall demo to review for my blog. I understand the game isn’t finished yet so I will be a bit more lenient with my review. That said, these are my honest first impressions.
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Table of Contents
What is Riftfall?
Riftfall brings the classic boomer shooter to a modern audience with its unique aesthetic, 20-level campaign, and all the guns you need to blast your way through them. Riftfall aims to take shooters back to when they were at their most fun. Back when you picked up a gun and started blasting, without the ridiculous pay walls or micro transactions. The game is releasing sometime this year, but there is a demo available in the meantime. Don’t forget to wishlist.
Hook
The rift has opened, unleashing waves of enemies that threaten your salvation. With the help of your AI squadmates and some very powerful guns, blast your way though the unique levels as you search for a way to close the rift. Run fast, shoot faster, and activate some bullet time in a high-speed adventure you will never forget.
Gameplay
Riftfall is an appropriate love letter to the boomer shooters of my youth. You grab your guns and blast your way through the different levels. Each group of enemy you encounter has a unique strategy to take you down. Overcome them all, and collect useful resources like ammo, health, and shields along the way. The game builds up to powerful and unique boos fights you will never forget. There is also an upgrade system so you can customize your character to fit your playstyle. I didn’t touch the skill trees much in the demo. You also get AI squadmates to help you in battle.
If you miss the old days when you could run home and play DOOM all night instead of doing your homework, or want to experience it for the first time, check out the Riftfall demo.
Impressions
I’ve been doing this long enough to be desensitized to the use of “love letter”. If is often a marketing gimmick to lure fans of the original game or genre for an easy sale, but there have been a few gems over the years that have proven me wrong. I can tell that the creators of Riftfall really loved this era of gaming with how much effort has been put into replicating the vibe that made these games everlasting. The visuals, the music, and the gameplay all come together in an almost perfect love letter. The problem? The demo is kind of broken. I still had fun with the title, but it needs more patches.
Aesthetic
Riftfall has a unique retro aesthetic, but it does not feel old. I am a huge fan of the blocky, simple enemies and the unique maps the demo takes you through. The world is simple, but beautiful. It did give me flashbacks of all the hours I spent on DOOM, and that is not a bad thing. The reason you should really play this game is for the soundtrack. The music in this game is fantastic. I sat through a couple of the songs without playing because I just wanted to enjoy the music. I will be finding the soundtrack when it comes out and adding it to my playlist. The soundtrack is up there with Don’t Stop Girly Pop and Planet of Lana.
Gameplay
I played a lot of DOOM growing up because it was one of the few games I could run for a while. This game is a proper entry to the genre with some well placed humor to make the game perfect. The guns all feel unique and everything is quick. I had a lot of fun with this game, when it worked.
The biggest issue I have with this demo is that it isn’t working. At least not with my RTX3060. The game crashed in the tutorial. Everything fought during the big escape, only to unfreeze to a death screen. The enemies were a little bugged and a few stutters before that were hard to ignore. Skipping the tutorial, the performance got a little better but there are still issues. The enemy AI is king of dumb and you can cheese the boss fights if you have any video game knowledge. There were times where I would fall through the floor for no reason. It never died because the enemy was a little too dumb (or maybe I am just really good at this game). The AI squad that follows you around is useless. It kept getting stuck out of combat, but it least it was funny.
That said, I still had fun. If they can get the game working smoothly (you need a game like this to be smooth for the speed runners), it is a solid addition to the library. As is, I would try it out and show your support if you like boomer shooters.
Conclusion
Riftfall is worth checking out so you can fall in love with the sound track. The game is in a rough state, but it also isn’t finished yet. A few more patches should be good, but they should at least try fixing the tutorial. A game’s performance shouldn’t be killing players. Personally, I think Mullet Jack does this a little better, But I do like it better than Rebel Engine. I personally prefer El Paso, Nightmare for its unique and trippy take on the genre.
Make sure you check out the demo, and don’t forget to wishlist!