Loot River from Supershot and Straka.studio is a new rougelike that combines the fun and difficulty of one more run and Tetris. I originally played this on Xbox Gamepass. They were awesome enough to toss me a copy of the PS5 release full of new updates, such as the level editor.
The game style is pretty nice, you start each run at level 1 and collect different currency that can be used to unlock different weapons to be used on runs. The game is also quite honest that you need to spend these before you die, because if you don’t you lose it all. Luckily the game is quite forgiving and let’s you spend part of it to unlock weapons at a time and you don’t need to save it all up at once.
The combat is simple to get into,and you can easily take advantage of the Tetris like aspect to move in,hit an enemy and move out or even simply lure a weaker enemy onto your raft. This is good because like many that are simple to get into,mastering it is a monumental task.
You do have to ask tho if this is worth undertaking,and the answer is yes. While the story leaves much to be desired in my opinion,the fun I had playing the game was well worth it. The sound is nice,and the accessibility options were fantastic. If you want to see all the possible ways a section can move,there’s an opinion for that. Want to make countering easier, there is an option for that. Want to make the game as hard as possible,they have you set. The base difficulty however all on its own is fair but challenging.
Graphically the game won’t be winning any awards,but I can’t think of a better way to attempt this great idea of a hybrid game. And while it won’t win any awards it does look good,and the sound really lends to the gritty feel of certain levels. Without a doubt this game is a 8/10. For the $25 dollar price point it is worth picking this up for rouge like fans. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Savior Gaming 