Loot River review of a game out of the box

Have you ever wondered what would happen if Dark Souls-style environments and combat were combined with Tetris-style puzzles? Probably not, but it did for us Straka Studio, an independent Slovak team that wants to show that they have absolutely extraordinary intuition in their first “important” production. But does the unusualness of a piece of content really make sense to make a video game work?

let’s learn in Loot River review.

Obscene discoveries

Loot River is not a game that relies too much on the story it wants to tell, but a game that focuses on the atmosphere it plans to create. There is very little information provided to the player, so much so that there will be remarkably useful suggestions for creating the air of mystery necessary to immerse the player in this game. gloomy and plain universe.

The game takes place between narrow streets and complex corridors. city ​​occupied by waters, where the only way to move is through floating platforms that make up the uneven and shifting battlefield, where countless clashes with formidable enemies take place. Therefore, the player is called upon to enter various environments of the urban area in order to gain knowledge (not only with lived experience, but also with a real game currency) and to obtain rewards of various types, from weapons to useful talismans. Tackle duplicate playgrounds.

It reiterates, yes, because Loot River embraces the roguelike philosophy and prompts the player to restart their journey each time they fall into battle. Not just. Another feature of Loot River is that it is its own. procedural naturepromises to change the pitch with each new try.

Judging by the way it was presented, this feature seemed really relevant for the exploration of circles, but with some disappointment we found that it was actually huge. repeating patterns Randomly put together, leading to a new framework of levels, but starting to become familiar after a few hours of gameplay (a necessary condition, most likely due to the puzzle nature of mobile platforms).

A combination of mechanics

Loot River seems to be a very technical action game first and foremost, but it soon becomes clear that the puzzle variant is an integral part of the scene, if not its real driving force. There mechanics of mobile platforms These little exploration puzzles work very well, but the “revelation” comes during the combat phase, where mastery is all about taking down the enemy.

Much more than other similar situations, it can actually be done strategyisolating enemies, bypassing them, but also hitting them nonstop without giving them any chance to counterattack.

Interestingly enough, there is a tendency to take a “classic” approach to the game at the beginning, using only marginally the possibilities offered by the motion system. This allows you to face enemies individually and understand their behavior, but it also takes a lot of time and slows your progression incredibly. However, from the moment you start using the environment to your advantage, the game seems to change, becoming not only extremely interesting, but also very entertaining. At least until repetition kicks in.

Repetition between life and death

Being a roguelike is good (and a lot) waiting to die in Loot River. The game gives you nothing. Indeed, the unpredictability of enemies’ positions makes everything even more unstable, turning every corner into a potential point of no return. Obviously, once we die, everything we collected in the previous game is permanently lost, with no possibility of getting back what we lost. There is nothing out of the ordinary, that is, in the true spirit of this type of video game.

When does the problem occur probability of progress The player is provided with a dropper: Loot River falls into that category.

Being able to actually finish anything other than exploring the first two rooms over and over is a process that takes hours of gameplay. This forces the player to slow down and learn about environments and places (as it should be, at least when this procedure is followed carefully), as well as to collect as many things as possible and then purchase items in the “headquarters” (which will happen). gel is immediately made available and then added to randomly obtainable rewards from enemies or chests scattered across the various levels).

The effect of “turning around” without completing anything becomes very strong after the initial excitement begins to wane. Even if you unlock a large number of weapons, spells, equipment and modifiers (the latter are real elements of the variety), your success or defeat will always be guided by a longtime friend of such video games: luck. This is one of those unknowns that is either very well implemented or disappoints the player. In the Loot River example, it’s almost impossible to get far if the right object isn’t at the right time, as luck from the first minutes of the game will advance you very quickly.

While it may seem like it wants to reward the player for his technique, the title rewards those who haven’t had enough luck with fights that aren’t difficult (at least once you learn the moves of the enemies), but extremely long, grueling. and mostly recurrent. We faced multiple opponents characterized by monotonous, almost rhythmic fighting styles (including one of the game’s main bosses, who can be defeated using the same “trigger” over and over without seeing a change in approach, resulting in an insanely monotonous fight). This is, at least, when conflicts flow smoothly without any unwanted “glitches”.

The criticalities of a changing world

What has been said so far offers a mostly intriguing overview that is characteristic of a game genre that may or may not like it. so far I’ve put aside real problems Loot River, those that undermine the player’s negative experience. The fact that you have to start “everything over” is a possibility that scares the user, so think about what it means to have to restart the game due to an inevitable error.

Loot River is a game full of following. technical criticalities. There are simple bugs that are mostly harmless, of a visual nature, but it also comes down to the caliber of bugs that are irreversibly blocking the game. And coincidentally, they come from one of gaming’s biggest unknowns: mobile platforms.

It’s happened to us a few times that our characters or other characters are stuck between platforms where they can’t move or get attacked. When it comes to minor foes, you put your soul at peace and move forward, but when this goes to impress your alter ego or a boss, there’s no doubt that you’re practically in for a “game over”. Imagine starting a very productive game that lasts for over an hour because the boss on the mission is stuck somewhere and no longer allows you to harm him in any way.

These issues are the kind of elements that destroy the structural value of a game like Loot River. You’ll beat the chance, you’ll beat the difficulty, you’ll beat the repetition (if used correctly), but calculation error is something that doesn’t get that common in a similar title.

audiovisual fascination

It is represented by the other side of the coin. audiovisual sector. It’s odd how the game can “heal itself” in such a short time, if the technical scum doesn’t take long to show itself, making the player forget about the misfortune they had just by re-suggesting the same image. audio elements in an order that should be stale but taste more like an aphrodisiac. The meeting between pixel art and realistic lighting is capable of creating a familiar visual universe (not apparently), as we noted in our test earlier (you can also find a more targeted in-depth analysis of the game system here). It’s risky to say that games like Dead Cells and Blasphemous had a huge impact on the team’s creative process), but still very whimsical and recognizable.

However, the main emphasis movie soundtrackProbably the most successful element of Loot River, the main defender of the atmosphere that sets this game in mystery, yes, but also full of cunning tactical rage.