Rive Reviews
I wanted Rive to be a good game.
Frust und Spielspaß lagen selten so nah beieinander, dazu kommen nervige Abstürze - aber wenn Rive funktioniert, dann richtig! Ein Patch könnte hier Wunder bewirken.
Review in German | Read full review
While featuring beautiful art, the constant pop culture references and unnecessary punishing gameplay undermine what could've been a classic.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Rive wants to be special and challenging, but for all of its white-knuckled action, there’s little more than bombast. In the modern gaming lexicon, we tend to lump games into one of two categories: either they’re “awesome” or “awful.” Rive is neither. Instead, much like the majority of aging games it serves as a send up to, it’s completely and utterly average.
Difficulty is a good thing when managed correctly. Most players want to beat an area and be overcome by a feeling of pride and accomplishment, not be glad it is over. RIVE often prompts the latter emotion and while the levels, art, and hacking are fun and well-designed, the main take away from Two Tribes’ game is a feeling of frustration.
While it is obvious that Rive was a well-crafted digital love letter to arcade classics of yesteryear, this is not a game that will be joining that pantheon of remarkable releases. Just because a game is hard, doesn’t mean it is gratifying. Though it certainly has moments of brilliance, these glimpses are few and far between. It also doesn’t help matters much when the borderline mean-natured presentation and combat mechanics continue to over-emphasize failures, instead of trumpeting successes. This will most likely find a small, loyal audience among the already converted and fairly neglected arcade shooter crowd. Ultimately, Rive lacks the approachability that would help it preach the shooter gospel to those not already singing in the choir.
The effort that went into creating Rive is apparent, from the art to the music to the precise controls, but it manages to be extremely punishing without enough sense of reward and the depth of options in combat are substandard. The story is an afterthought and the characters’ seeming self-awareness of that doesn’t connect with enough of a comedic punch to save it. It’s a side-scrolling shooter with stock parts that I don’t foresee leaving a mark on the genre, but is at least worth a spin if you’ve got the patience for it and a thirst for a major challenge.
RIVE is a gorgeous game that borrows plenty from its blaster genre predecessors to good effect, but sadly a lack of anything particularly original, and some truly punishing sections make it all too easy to leave behind.
RIVE blends twin-stick shooting and platforming exceptionally well. It's full of beautifully crafted levels and enjoyable one-liners. Unfortunately, brutal difficulty accompanies these elements, and it's not the kind of difficulty that makes you feel good about yourself.
While it can be downright frustrating at times, it is very rewarding when you finally get past that difficult section.
It is not a complicated game and it’s easy to understand, so it would practically be for anyone. I do recommend it, if you would like to shoot massive amounts of robots and feel awesome doing it.
RIVE is a fantastic shoot 'em up game that will push the limits of patience and fortitude. Roughshot, the main character who traverses the stages in a spider tank, dies a lot. Because of this, certain battles may take up to or over thirty minutes of constant dying and trying again before the moment of victory comes. It is extremely satisfying when these moments occur, but it can be hard to be persistent when the game can feel like it is unfair at times.
If this is indeed Two Tribes' swansong, then it's a goodbye wave accompanying tears and smiles. This is a fine way to leave, and it's pertinent to think that its final legacy is accomplished through the use of aspects which are, sadly, already in the rear-view mirror. It takes a lot of commitment for a relatively small game, and it's sometimes a little too eager for you to suffer its wrath. However, the charm, style, and sophistication by which it mixes up so many different styles successfully is a testament both to RIVE's great design and also some of the most beloved games of years gone by.
While the difficulty won’t appeal to everyone, there’re plenty of obstacles to overcome especially if you thrive on one hell of a challenge.
Rive doesn’t quite reach its full potential, but shoot ’em up fans should give it a go anyway. The frustrating difficulty spikes are hard to ignore, but when it comes together, it’s a fantastic fast-paced corridor shooter which could have been considered one of the best 2D shooters in recent years. Either way, it’s a good send off and farewell for Two Tribes.
As the last game Two Tribes will ever make, the few remaining employees there can hold their heads high with what they created. It's not the best game in its catalog, and the difficulty will be a turn-off for many, but Rive leaves its mark as one of the more challenging games of this generation. Gluttons for punishment will have no trouble eating it up, but others should satiate their appetite elsewhere.
Rive is a gorgeous looking game, which has taken two styles and fused them together pretty successfully. The blend of traditional twin joystick shooter and action platformer fits perfectly with what Two Tribes have done, but there are some caveats. The insane difficulty spikes destroy the pacing of the game at times, and sometimes the feeling when you get through an area that’s causing you trouble isn’t triumph, but relief. I suppose it’s to be expected from a game that starts off with its only playable mode being “Hard Mode”. Despite this, however, Rive proves itself to be more than competent, and is genuinely one of the better looking games of the year so far in terms of style. A game that fans of the genres should enjoy, Rive deserves your attention, but may well struggle to hold it all the way through.
RIVE is an old-fashioned shooter. Brutal by vocation and well capable of entertain hardcore gamers, it loses some of its appeal during the last missions.
Review in Italian | Read full review