If nothing else, The Drifter is a love letter to a classic genre of PC gaming that many will have fond memories of growing up. While there may be those who feel like this form of point ‘n click gameplay may be obsolete and may find the puzzle-solving to be frustrating but I believe what Powerhoof has crafted here is a gem that is worth a look. This engaging story with a gripping protagonist, stellar presentation, and solid voice acting showcases that there’s plenty you can do within the medium that will reward those who enjoy the thrill and challenge of a good adventure. If this kind of game is up your alley, I definitely recommend you’d give it a shot!
While the experience with this journey has been less than pleasant, I can’t help but be amazed and appreciate that this game finally came out after all of these years of it’s rocky, uncertain development and I respect both SNEG and General Arcade for their efforts. However, while the pulpy tone and charming visuals combined with the style of hack ‘n slash genre of action games that we don’t get too often these days does provide a warm sense of nostalgia, it sadly doesn’t hide the many glaring issues that this damaged ship has inside. The rushed paper-thin story, the lackluster combat, tedious set-pieces (including the ship battles), uninteresting boss battles, frustrating world design at points, terrible sound mixing in the cutscenes and the amount of bugs and glitches that I encountered during my playtime.
Revenge of the Savage Planet is a solid follow-up from Journey to the Savage Planet by taking the strong elements from it and expanding upon to make it bigger and more explorable than before. While going from first to third-person may throw some off but it’s easy to get the hang of it after a while. The planets you visit are varied and fun to travel, great variety of creatures to face and capture, multiple amount of things to collect and upgrade and quests to complete.
I’m quite mixed about this game. It has an intriguing set-up that leads you into wild twists and turns that you never see coming, adding with the oddball characters, bizarre dialogue, neat environments and it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. But the simple and sometimes restrictive gameplay may not appeal to everyone and the myriad of issues that I’ve had with my time playing tells me that this needed more time to cook up and what we got in the end is an admirable but flawed debut. I do wish them the best of luck on what they’re working on next!
Being able to play a co-op game with someone else feels right as it provides a sense of togetherness that is rare to come across these days. Split Fiction reiterates this need to tell stories that can be experienced and enjoyed alongside others.