Fast Facts
Game Title: ReCore
Genre: Action-Adventure
Platform: Xbox One, PC
Price: $39.99
Why You Should Get It
This game gets way more hate than it deserves. I feared the worst when I rented it, and after an ungodly loading time (that really is that bad), I was shocked to find a lot of claims were unwarranted when it comes to ReCore.
In the game, you play Joule. Joule is trying to figure out why no one else woke up to help terraform the planet Far Eden (new Earth) and where her father is. With her dog Mack, she will explore the desert planet and collect gear power-ups, and new friends to help her on her travels along the way.
You'll spend your time in the game dungeon exploring, collecting items, and taking on bosses in order to obtain prisms. The gameplay itself feels like Samus Aran is a playable character in Tomb Raider. That makes sense considering a bulk of the games development team worked on the Metroid Prime series.
The side dungeons were probably my favorite part of the game. The side missions give you something to work for as you jump and dash on platforms trying to make it to the exit in time to get upgrades for your robots or more prisms. It's simple fun and it works to break up the battles and navigation of this vast open world.
Mid game the combat gets intense, and you'll have to rely on stringing combos and switching your allies (robots) to get the damage modifier high enough to take down multiple enemies at a time. You'll fight a lot of the same things (minus bosses), but one wrong dodge and you could find yourself in some trouble real quick.
You'll collect a lot of stuff, you'll fight some enemies, and you'll move on. There are no heavy hitting decisions that the player is faced with morally, you won't find 60+ hours of gameplay, and there is a lot of repetition. That's not a bad thing, it's a refreshing change of pace.
I get tired of every game having to be some next level hype machine for the press to give it any value. I realize we live in a world where people either buy games or don't play them (which I'm wholly against), but this is a damn good game. If you're a fan of platformers you'll be into this game no question.
Yes, the game does take an ungodly amount of time to load the open world. In fact, I was able to get 2/3rds through Lil Wayne's "A Milli" before progressing past the loading screen.
That said the full song is under 4 minutes, and I never had a load screen come in near that despite some accusations others have made. In their defense, two minutes on a load screen does feel like a lifetime in the generation of gaming we live in.
I equate Recore to the first Assassin's Creed. Both are great games, and a polished sequel will make that apparent. Recore is a great game, but I'll admit little things could make it better. Unfortunately, in today's climate it's unlikely it'll see a sequel with poor sales.
TL;DR
Despite its faults, ReCore will pull you in with its dungeon running and fun combat. A sequel would perfect its small flaws, but well never see one if no one is playing it.
