We had bet on it last year, when its particular gameplay that fuses action-roguelike mechanics with original exploration sections was shown for the first time. We recently tasted a small demo that had us even more well disposed towards him. Now we have played it and we can finally breathe a sigh of relief: Loot River is one of the best indies of this first half of 2022 and while carrying some imperfections it deserves all your attention.
During the design phase, the Slovakian guys from Straka Studio must have thought: “why don’t we make a game in which not only the main character moves but also the levels?”. No sooner said than done. The feature that distinguishes Loot River from the flood of similar titles released in recent years is precisely the shifting mechanics that allow the player to move the islands from which the levels are composed as if they were pieces of a gigantic Tetris. The beauty is that this feature is not an end in itself and is not only used to move around the game. You will soon discover that if used properly it can become a powerful tool even in combat and beyond.
Let’s start with this last aspect of the game. Despite being a title that winks at souls-like, Loot River grants the player a decidedly different approach to clashes. In the vast majority of action-roguelikes, the levels have an almost totally passive value even if they often exploit ravines, corridors and obstacles to have small advantages. Here, however, almost all the platforms on which you will move can be moved in the four main directions to reach the still unexplored areas, as long as there are no obstacles in between, but also to divide too numerous groups of enemies or even used as a ” ram ”after having drawn your favorite weapon.
The combat system is not monstrously sophisticated and articulated but it does its duty very well. Each weapon allows a quick attack and a slower and more powerful one, but above all a loaded shot that often unleashes the secondary powers of some of them on the enemies. They have different ranges that favor closer attacks or alternatively those from various distances. Initially you will have a few available but their number is destined to increase as you make your way through the levels, in any case you can take a maximum of two at the same time to be exchanged “on-the-fly” with the simple press of a button. Equally important are the defense techniques, with parries capable of unbalancing the weakest enemies and dodges that for once are not related to the consumption of Stamina. This means that you can use them as many times as you want, but the particular “mobile” morphology of the levels means that this technique is sometimes not feasible.
The possibility of moving the character and the platforms at the same time initially requires a minimum of time to be assimilated but already after the first half hour everything will seem natural to you and you will begin to give life to intense and fun combat phases, in which you will have to have a glance , responsiveness and a pinch of tactical acumen. The initial enemies, rather stupid and doomed to suicide, will soon leave room for stronger, faster, more powerful opponents and above all able to hit you from a distance or even teleport.
The bosses have been specifically designed to take advantage of the “shifting” mechanics and although not all worthy of memorability they manage to refresh the genre. The same goes for exploration. Often some areas will be placed on slightly higher levels (or lower) than the starting one and only by moving the platforms in the right order can you reach them and in many cases earn the most interesting loot. These consist of pieces of equipment and accessories capable of increasing your destructive and / or defensive power not a little but watch out because in the event of death you will lose them all and the same will happen with the levels gained and the relative statistical increases.
When this happens you will find yourself in the Sanctuary, a mystical and mysterious place initially populated by a few and bizarre characters. They don’t like to talk that much but they can come in handy as long as you do what they tell you. For example, one of them can double your regeneration potions, as long as you return to him after completing a level without dying. Another may sell you valuable goods while the most disturbing of all will unlock “modifiers” for you whenever you manage to bring her the lost souls he is looking for.
The “bestiary” of Loot River is quite substantial even if the characterization of most of the characters is not particularly marked. Pixel-art, on the other hand, deserves attention, in particular for the excellent fusion with the dynamic lighting system that offers suggestive panoramas. To review some effects that are too grainy and poorly integrated … water in the first place. On the other hand, the instrumental soundtrack is excellent, which offers the right degree of immersion in the gloomy and decadent atmospheres of the game.
Loot River is one of those games capable of challenging you, testing you, punishing you but always giving you a reason to resume the adventure. Reaching Hades’ playful and stylistic perfection was an unlikely undertaking, but the title Straka Studios deservedly rises to a slightly lower quality level. To aspire to excellence, just a pinch of personality is missing in the characterization of the characters, some corrections in the balance of rewards and small interventions to improve some aesthetic elements (water above all). You can find it immediately on the Game Pass, try it and you could fall madly in love with it.
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#Loot #River #Review #Souls #Diablo #Tetris