Riftstorm Preview | Deadly, Fun, and Intense

In Riftstorm, players must join forces in a co-op top-down action shooter, taking control as an elite secret operative filled with threats beyond the cosmos. Hunt down supernatural creatures and explore strange new worlds beyond our own. Every mythic encounter and incursion through the rifts will be different, and every fight will create new and exciting opportunities to build, experiment, and adapt. This preview will take a deep dive into Riftstorm‘s story, gameplay, and graphic and sound design. Let’s begin.

The Alpha Playtest for Riftstorm is now available on Steam for free.

Story | Against the Unknown

In Riftstorm, the players take control as one of the three secret operatives combating the alien threats from beyond the cosmos. We have to take the battle to their worlds, eradicate any supernatural creatures we find, and return to our base safely.

While it’s not entirely exciting, as this premise already exists in many other games before Riftstorm, it’s understandable that we don’t see many story elements in the game right now, since it’s still in the Alpha Playtest stage.

However, I do hope that they at least provide more contextual story elements within the Riftstorm‘s gameplay, either through the Main Base, which has the potential of being a bridge between story and combat phase, or through collectibles that the developers can add in some parts of the stages. Overall, the game currently does not have much story to it, however, the gameplay is where things start to get interesting.

Alien Invasion.

Gameplay | Roguelite Done Right

The star of Riftstorm is its gameplay, a roguelite shooter that provides a challenging, yet rewarding experience for all walks of players, both for newbies and veterans. While some might overlook this game due to its current development phase, there is already plenty of content and exciting mechanics that might help cement Riftstorm‘s status as a solid roguelite game.

Secret Operatives

For this section, we will start with one of Rifstorm‘s core gameplay aspects, the Secret Operatives. These units are the primary characters that you will use as of now, each having different abilities with different sets of Skills, Passives, and weapons of choice. 

The three Operatives are: Starling, the Assault Operative who primarily uses an Assault Rifle and has Passives that help her combat the enemies by granting unlimited ammo and more magazine size for a short period; Code: Atlas, who wields a Shotgun and focuses on annihilating enemies in close range; and last but not least, we have Code: Icarus, who prefers to pick off his targets from afar using a Sniper Rifle.

For a game that is still in the Alpha Playtest stage, having three options at the get-go is something that I truly appreciate as we can decide which Operative to use depending on our playstyle, and in my case, I use Starling as she fits my gameplay style like a glove, since I enjoy dealing steady damage to the enemies while also controlling a part of the battlefield.

Overall, the options available right now are more than enough to tackle the game, though I do hope that they bring many other Operative archetypes for Riftstorm as the development process goes on.

Guns

Moving on, to accompany our player character, the game allows us to equip two guns at a time to burst through the alien threats. One thing that I truly appreciate is how we can mix and match any kind of weapon combination without limiting our freedom of choice.

For example, you can bring TWO Rocket Launchers if you think that is the optimal way of blasting through the stages. Or, if you’re feeling that being gung-ho is the correct way of clearing the Tower, then you can pick two Shotguns to pave the road for you. The possibilities are, quite honestly, wonderful.

Lython Abilities and the Enemies

Lastly, we will talk about what’s cooking inside the core gameplay itself: the enemies, and the Lython Abilities. The Enemies we encounter in Riftstorm are all aliens from different planets trying to claim their stake on Earth. 

From humanoid aliens who wield laser-based weapons, to an arachnid alien archetype, the game presents you with many challenging opponents that obstruct your path to victory. Each Tower has 5 stages inside, with the Main Boss awaiting you on the 5th stage. Apart from battling the enemies, you must adapt your combat strategies against stage debuffs that are occasionally littering the stages. These can take the form of red and spiky webs or muddy rocks that can hinder your movements. 

However, like many roguelite games before it, Riftstorm also rewards you with mighty buffs whenever you manage to clear a room within the stages, Lython Abilities, which range from Magazine Size buff, Fire Speed buff, to even an execution ability that is so powerful it can even kill a Boss entity whenever it reached its last 5% HP bar.

Overall, Riftstorm manages to do everything that makes a roguelite game good brilliantly, while also adding several twists and turns that make this game different from the rest.

Rift Through The Realms.

Graphics and Sound | Blood-pumping and Superb

For the final part of this preview, we will take a look at Riftstorm‘s graphics and sound design, which to be honest, surprises me a bit… In a good way.

From the graphics standpoint, Riftstorm is great. There is no screen tearing, no visible missing collision, and the stage designs themselves are awesome, with each dimension having its distinct aspects (Oriental-themed, Ruins-themed, etc.), which helps the playthrough less monotone. Moving on to the sound design, Riftstorm’s background music choices are very fitting and elevate the roguelite combat, making us as the players feel like we are in command against the numerous alien threats. 

However, even though the graphics and sound design are great, several bugs can hinder your gameplay. The major bug that I found during my playthroughs was that I disconnected from the servers mid-game without being able to reconnect and rejoin the lobby. The same goes for my friend, who is sometimes unable to join our lobby even during the Main Base phase. Hopefully, the developers can fix it during the Early Access stage to make our experience smoother.