Ripout, the proven roguelike shooter like many others
Ripout
Testing dozens of video games a year often happens to come across unoriginal titles, but which still have their own dignity as well-made copies or simple variations on a theme appreciated by the public. In recent times, roguelike-like titles of all genres have multiplied: from pure role-playing games, to hybrid platforms, to FPS, probably because a similar structure allows you to extend the duration of a game without having to invest millions of dollars in resource creation. In some cases they come out of real jewels, in others of titles that stink of derivative a mile away and that seem to have little to say.We then tried Ripout to find out which of the two categories it belongs to.
Game mechanics
Technically it's not bad First we are asked to follow a short tutorial in which the basic mechanics of the game are explained to us. Ripout is basically an extremely classic first-person shooter, with roguelike elements to season it all. The formula is not particularly original, given that by now there are dozens of similar games on the market, but there are certainly some elements of interest.The demonstration area (a long corridor) explains us how to move and shoot, then how to use the parasite that we carry with us (the most original mechanic of the game): pressed the scan button of the area surrounding the protagonist, the target is identified that will be attacked by our nice friend. Depending on the objective, we will have different effects: the enemies will suffer damage, more or less consistent depending on the bonuses we have collected during the mission, while some creatures will be collected and will become real secondary weapons, usable until exhaustion ammunition. Thus, for example, we will be able to launch biological bombs or very powerful energy discharges. Consider that even some hostile creatures will be able to do the same, that is to use their smaller fellows as weapons, becoming enormously more dangerous than they are basic.
As already mentioned, the use of the parasite is certainly the most original feature of Ripout, which for the rest proceeds on well-known tracks. After the tutorial you find yourself in a space base, which acts as a hub area, where you can perform various operations, first of all the choice of the weapon to take on a mission (in the demo: assault rifle, shotgun and sniper rifle). In addition to this is the aforementioned parasite, the protagonist will always carry with him a pistol and the classic hand-to-hand weapon, indispensable when the ammunition is exhausted: in this way he will never be completely disarmed. From the hub area you can then access the next mission. We imagine that in the final version there will be some choice in this sense, but in the demo we were given only one chance.
The roguelike structure risks making the environments monotonous Once the new mission started we found ourselves at inside of a large space base, full of enemies. We actually faced only two types of adversaries: mutant robot dogs and warped beasts with cybernetic grafts. The environment was very dark and we made extensive use of the classic flashlight. The map itself did not particularly impress us: procedurally generated, it was made up of many sections attached to each other. The problem is that, although Ripout is not graphically ugly (indeed, quite the contrary), the environments lack a bit of organicity and the perception of randomness is very strong. Even the objectives to be pursued do not help, in this sense, since they are all of the type: kill enemies, find a certain number of corpses, access a certain number of terminals and so on.
In terms of interactions, moreover, the environments are very poor. There are doors, which divide the sections of the levels, there are upgrade stations, which allow you to choose one of three improvements (more damage with weapons, more damage with parasite, greater resistance to damage and things like that) and there are the mission objects, which however offer unique interactions. For the rest you just shoot. Explosive barrels come across occasionally, which can be used to cause greater damage to enemies, but that's really all.
Space shuttle is just decorative Speaking of shootings, Ripout has the problem of many others first person shooter with roguelike progression: enemies are bullet sponges. In particular the beasts, whose attacks are often impossible to avoid. It is certainly a way to increase the challenge, but at the same time it creates little variety of tactics, because what matters is to do as much damage as possible as soon as possible. So, basically, you shoot with everything you have and use the parasite several times until the enemy dies, retreating when necessary. The hope is that with more enemies in the final version, there will be a greater variety of tactics to employ, to make the action less obvious and ultimately less monotonous.
The road test by Ripout left us quite indifferent. It is certainly a title made with a certain awareness of the genre, but whose lack of originality and variety did not make us want to continue playing it. It works, but we haven't found anything that really stands out and sets it apart from the competition. We will see if these impressions, indeed quite negative, will be confirmed by the final version. Maybe try the demo and see if it's for you or not.
