Ruin Raiders can be defined as a tactical adventure in full roguelike style, which will put us at the helm, in fact, of the Ruin Raiders, anthropomorphized animals organized in underground research teams, which we will have to guide in search of treasures among the ruins of ancient lost cities. Developed by OverPowered Team and distributed by Freedom Games, as we will see in the review, Ruin Raiders it is a seemingly simple game, but that in the more advanced sections will prove to be quite challenging even for the most avid fans of the top titles of the genre. If you are a lover of strategic with isometric view, Ruin Raiders is the game that could be right for you: let’s find out together.
At the center of the earth
Ruin Raiders will put us in command of the search team of the mysterious Gate of Dawn, a dimensional passage able to lead anyone lucky enough to find it, to heaven: no, not the biblical kingdom of heaven, but the oldest ruin in the world, a city overflowing with gold and forgotten secrets. A small narrative pretext to lead us into the heart of countless isometric dungeons, along which we will have to face hordes of enemies room after room, advancing, dying and starting over, stronger than before, thanks to the experience acquired, in perfect roguelike style. The maps will be randomly generated, allowing us to never experience the same expedition twice in a row.
However, as the developers themselves warn us with a message at the beginning of each new run, and as we will be able to tell you in this review, Ruin Raiders it’s a tougher title than it looks. The death of our teammates will be permanent, and beyond the Entium, the main currency of the game, almost nothing can be carried over to our next run. Any unused object, skill or resource will be irretrievably lost at each death or the abandonment of the mission (choice that is counted as a failure of the same). Fortunately, at the beginning of each new expedition, we will be able to spend our possessions to improve our base, in effect the central hub of the game, unlocking new classes, raising the maximum level of our raiders – thus improving their health, strength and accuracy – and purchasing new upgradeable weapons through the Entium. Masteries will be fundamental: once unlocked, we can buy them to enhance the true nature of each character, revealing the hidden ability based on his class.
Move, cover, shoot, repeat
From a pure gameplay point of view, Ruin Raiders can be considered a tactical simulation very close to what we will be able to experience in a XCom. Entering a new room, we will move to an imaginary grid on an isometric field, on which we will have to move the members of our team. Each character will have 2 action points per turn, with the classic goal of moving to find the best shelter from which to fire or use your skills against the opposing team. During the battle we will have to manage three raiders, being able to switch from one to the other, exchange objects and weapons, and make the most of the battlefield, our war equipment and the unlocked masteries. In case of victory, we will be able to collect coins, collectibles and loot what remains of our enemies, one looting component which closely resembles those seen in the various Diablo or Baldur’s Gate. We will then be able to follow the practical map to choose which room to face: the lower you go, the more complex things will get, and we will have to occasionally face some bosses as well.
From a technical point of view Ruin Raiders does not excel, and approaching the shot on our heroes a few pixels too emerge. However, especially on a smaller screen like that of Switch (console that unfortunately does not exploit its peculiarities), on which we tried the title, Ruin Raiders fulfills his duty as a whole. The same goes for the musical component, with a few but well-chosen songs that manage to fit nicely with the mood of the title. What he was less successful at Ruin Raiders it was the controls and the narrative focus. The command interface is a bit confusing and in the most complicated clashes it could lead you to make some mistakes: since there is no cancel button, very often we will find ourselves wasting objects or even shifts, errors that could also lead to the death of one of our companions. Not only that, if we choose to use our first action point to shoot, we will not be able to use the second, a feature relegated to the cat character only; a choice that will force you to move before firing, and therefore not fully comprehensible.
For a few more Entium
Ruin Raiders, as anticipated during the review, it is a title that makes difficulty its strong point, but which in the long run can become its Achilles heel. As we mentioned, in fact, history is only a pretext, and since many times our teammates will be only slaughter fodder to grab new resources, we will not be able to become attached to any team. All this, combined with high difficulty, and one background repetitiveness which, net of procedural scenarios, will make itself felt after a few hours of play, could lead many users to abandon it after some time.
Ruin Raiders it is nevertheless a good title, with some interesting ideas, but which in the end fails to fully carve out that slice of identity that was in the mind of the developers. It would certainly have benefited a few more modes in the advanced stages, a better mapping of the keys, and some further advantages to carry with you between one mission and another, while you often end up in game sessions useful only to sacrifice our raiders for get a few more Entiums to spend, and nothing more.
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