Rive: Ultimate Edition review: Rife with Revives
By Reggie-April 10, 2018
This is the Rhythm of the Rive (Yes, we do Corona puns)
Rive is a twin stick arcade shooter with a loose story driven by exploration of what looks like an ancient alien fuel refinery. However: this place filled with interesting tech is also filled with an overwhelming number of hostile A.I. and robots. The controls are quite simple: Left stick to move Right stick to shoot Either bumper to use hacking beam Left trigger to jump Right trigger to use abilities D Pad to select active ability It can take a little bit of time to get used to the overall control scheme if your not familiar with twin stick shooters. However this take a few mins and your good to go. The thing is with Rive is that it's a title that pushes you to be flash and fast with movements and attacks. Much like the Bleed series, Rive doesn't really give you an opportunity to take your time. If you're a Dragon Ball fan you'll understand the term "Ultra Instinct"; that really sums it all up. It's all about instinctive movement instead of taking time to make a decision. To put that into perspective: At one point early on in the mission based story mode you find a fuel tank which then explodes and leaks into lava destroying it. Robot and what is known as "A Sky Whale" barrage you with attacks, missiles and smouldering asteroids. It's all about practicing and getting to know the Rhythm of Rive, which I couldn't think of a suitable off timing for. It's that mental. You will die In Rive and you'll die a lot, but the game doesn't punish the player for this which lets players carry on trying to hone dem skillz. A cool ability is to hack into turrets, health bots, door mechanisms etc to unlock new areas or give you that backup for the next onslaught of mental metal. A couple of stand out features that this writer really enjoyed is the use of HD force feedback in this Switch version. A player will really feel those waves of robots punch, as well as feeling every key hit Roughshot makes whilst typing away. Also, the menu system is very reminiscent of the green screen "Pip Boy" displays from Bethesda's "Fallout" series. Other cool features include gravity orbs that you can fly around in, incredibly well thought out map design and Well placed ammo/health drops. This is all contained in the campaign mode that can be played via online co-op. Other modes of play include: Single Credit: Only one life**cries** Challenge Mode: Small levels with special conditions Battle Arena Mode: Fight wave after wave of robo enemies
