Roguelike and Roguelite titles exploded in popularity over the last two years. If you aren’t ready to exit the genre yet, Remnants of the Rift looks to deliver another great title to the list.
Remnants of the Rift, formerly known as RFM, is being developed by Puebla, Mexico based developers Bromio. The team’s been working on the title for three years and now turns to Kickstarter to help reach the finish line. The team successfully funded its previous game, Pato Box, through Kickstarter and hopes to succeed once again. It’s currently planned to release this year on PC. It launched a demo over on Steam that you can download to take it for a spin yourself.
Remnants of the Rift is a roguelite tactical action game with a 70s aesthetic. You play as Morgan exploring a dimension only known as Bast. This dimension appears to be an in-between of the real world and a virtual reality. I got to play an early preview version of the game. While the start of my experience was a little frustrating, I quickly became engrossed in wanting to keep playing until I succeeded.
Remnants of the Rift Impressions
Let me get the bad/frustrating parts out of the way because, honestly, there weren’t many. As I said, this was an early build of the game so I expected some issues and feel what issues I did have was just my build.
The first thing I noticed was the game didn’t support mouse movement. So I thought my build was broken when I couldn’t click anything. Once I noticed I needed to use the keyboard, that resolved. However, navigating the start screen and menus felt awkward as I kept wanting to use the mouse. Also, you needed to use WASD to navigate which made it feel more awkward. I couldn’t circumvent this issue by using my controller either because it wouldn’t work in the game at first. After restarting the game a few times, this finally resolved. Finally, my build also never properly reset the game upon my defeat. It would just continue to sit in game with me and the enemies bouncing to the music. I had to quit the game each time to begin a new run.
Time for the Goods
Now that is out of the way, let me get to all the good parts because this has a lot. The combat feels great. Enemies spawn on the map and slowly move toward a modulator on the screen to destroy. You must quickly position around the grid based map, ready up an attack, and blast them before the enemies destroy the modulator. Each map brings different enemies and hazards you need to look out for. You can stop the flow of time by going into Morgan’s Aim Mode (see GIF below). This can help with planning and not feeling overwhelmed. After you attack, the move goes on cooldown before you can use it again. I loved strategizing how can I take out multiple enemies at once. Switching between my gun, a damaging dash, and a stun attack to figure out the right strategy for me felt rewarding.
As with a number of roguelites, completing the map will allow you to select how to move forward. This can be either to uncover a new level to tackle or a place to shop, upgrade, and meet the other team members. These members felt like filler in my initial play. However, based on the information revealed so far and other screenshots, these relationships will be more developed upon release. I’m curious to see the world unfold and understand why my character does what she does. Even if it never gets that far into it, the story appears to be serviceable to understand the motivations.
Remnants of the Rift Screenshots
Also like all roguelites, the upgrades you receive will be randomized and can determine how well you do. My first playthrough saw me get all the way to the first boss before dying. Subsequent playthroughs saw my end fall much shorter. It makes you think hard about each upgrade you find and what upgrades to replace. For example, on one playthrough my dash received an upgrade making me go one tile further. I thought this would be great initially. Then I found that I couldn’t use the dash as often because I didn’t have enough space. It made me apprehensive to get that move again on a subsequent run so I didn’t end up in a bad spot like before.
Lastly, the music is phenomenal. It really reminds me of the Persona 5 jazz that made every fight make you bounce in your seat. Remnants of the Rift replays the same tune as you dive into Bast and it may get old for some, but it didn’t for me in my short time with the game. I look forward to other tracks in future worlds and as you progress in other aspects of the game.
Overall, the demo serves up a nice sample of the game. You will either want to sink your teeth into it or move on down the line. The Kickstarter offers an early bird tier where those who support the game at this tier in the first 24 hours will receive the game for half price.
Remnants of the Rift releases sometime in 2022 for PC.
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