Updating following a run through of the Beta 2.0

Riftbreaker was already a great game, but the new mechanics add extra freshness, and the new end stages around the megastructures are fantastic and well worth playing through again to experience.

Thanks Devs for the massive improvements to an already modern classic.


--- Original Review Below ---

In its current form, The Riftbreaker is one of the best examples of open-strategy games. (At release, there were problems with mission triggers etc, these have been resolved).


(You can more than triple my playtime hours between offline mode and a good other gaming platform where I also own this)

A mix of 4x and tower defense, it never punishes you for playing the game the way you want. I've played the game end-to-end several times - each taking 40-60 hours, and never failed to win. That's not because the game is overly easy, but because the game doesn't present a puzzle you need to solve, but instead lets you work at your own pace.

You begin on a single map with basic construction capabilities, and in true-and-tested form, must research new technology, mine new resources, expand your base across new regions, and ultimately complete a rift station back to earth to allow colonisation of the new planet you've found yourself on.

There's a fantastic range of economic options across different types of resources and tiers of extraction equipment. And if a resource pool runs dry, the game never punishes you - a comet will invariably crash land with fresh resources. And by mid-to-late game you dont need to mine anything as you can cultivate and harvest a range of plants that you've researched to have infinite supply of any materials you need .

You also have research and manufacturing for weapons and Mech features to improve your ability to fight and discover the inhabitants of the new world.

Each new map area comes with its own range of creatures as threats, and even once you've eliminated them and set up a base of operations, you move into a tower defence mode, with larger and more dangerous waves of attacks.

Again, the game never punishes you - if you bite off more than you can chew and are destroyed, you'll respawn minus a random weapon, which you can then retrieve.

You have warning of new waves (which may be single or multiple directions) so you can prepare additional defenses in the shape of walls and barriers, weapons, shields, auto-repairs etc.

There's a complex without complicated economy you can manage - systems to produce ammunition for different types of defense towers, mud pumps feeding water filtration systems and lines of pipes carrying fresh water to various base structures that need cooling or a fresh water supply to grow plants that can be harvested for rare minerals more effectively than mining finite resources pools

The story mode is relatively thin until the end game where you ultimately build the rift station back to Earth. At this point the game takes on a truely epic sense of achievement as each of the final pieces of the puzzle (or rather, machinery) are produced and fall into place.

There's enough replayability to approach the game in very different ways, there's Survival mode that is much brutal (and I have failed on!), and the fantastically designed campaign game which lets you play how you want.

Thoroughly recommended to get the game plus all DLC, which adds new biomes, monsters, resources, base elements etc.

Updating following a run through of the Beta 2.0 Riftbreaker was already a great game, but the new mechanics add extra freshness, and the new end stages around the megastructures are fantastic and well worth playing through again to experience. Thanks Devs for the massive improvements to an already modern classic. --- Original Review Below --- In its current form, The Riftbreaker is one of the best examples of open-strategy games. (At release, there were problems with mission triggers etc, these have been resolved). (You can more than triple my playtime hours between offline mode and a good other gaming platform where I also own this) A mix of 4x and tower defense, it never punishes you for playing the game the way you want. I've played the game end-to-end several times - each taking 40-60 hours, and never failed to win. That's not because the game is overly easy, but because the game doesn't present a puzzle you need to solve, but instead lets you work at your own pace. You begin on a single map with basic construction capabilities, and in true-and-tested form, must research new technology, mine new resources, expand your base across new regions, and ultimately complete a rift station back to earth to allow colonisation of the new planet you've found yourself on. There's a fantastic range of economic options across different types of resources and tiers of extraction equipment. And if a resource pool runs dry, the game never punishes you - a comet will invariably crash land with fresh resources. [spoiler] And by mid-to-late game you dont need to mine anything as you can cultivate and harvest a range of plants that you've researched to have infinite supply of any materials you need [/spoiler]. You also have research and manufacturing for weapons and Mech features to improve your ability to fight and discover the inhabitants of the new world. Each new map area comes with its own range of creatures as threats, and even once you've eliminated them and set up a base of operations, you move into a tower defence mode, with larger and more dangerous waves of attacks. Again, the game never punishes you - if you bite off more than you can chew and are destroyed, you'll respawn minus a random weapon, which you can then retrieve. You have warning of new waves (which may be single or multiple directions) so you can prepare additional defenses in the shape of walls and barriers, weapons, shields, auto-repairs etc. There's a complex without complicated economy you can manage - systems to produce ammunition for different types of defense towers, mud pumps feeding water filtration systems and lines of pipes carrying fresh water to various base structures that need cooling [spoiler] or a fresh water supply to grow plants that can be harvested for rare minerals more effectively than mining finite resources pools [/spoiler] The story mode is relatively thin until the end game where you ultimately build the rift station back to Earth. At this point the game takes on a truely epic sense of achievement as each of the final pieces of the puzzle (or rather, machinery) are produced and fall into place. There's enough replayability to approach the game in very different ways, there's Survival mode that is much brutal (and I have failed on!), and the fantastically designed campaign game which lets you play how you want. Thoroughly recommended to get the game plus all DLC, which adds new biomes, monsters, resources, base elements etc.