Buy Koya Rift

Slow starter, pixilated, and gets very boring very quickly. Simple rules; get farther, get more points with no additional add ons or additional rewards available. Very poor.

Way too short.

it was k

This is obviously a iOS PTW game. Which is not a bad thing, just don't expect a AAA game.

Pro:
Graphics
Easy to learn
OK controls
Funny (I'm sure it was meant to be)
Alien TRex skulls with guns
Short AKA casual game play
Low system specs needed
Plenty of options - upgrades .... well some anyways
Cheap game (wait till it's on sale for under $1 though)


Con:
Kinda sucks (yes I know not constructive)
Repetitive
Looks like a tween - 20 something designed it
WASD, which I actually hate
No steam anything (cards, chieves, etc)


Overall:
For a 2d platformer when it's on sale for $1 ... It's OK.

5/10 at $1, 4/10 for more than $1.

Why should i pay for a game i could play in my browser?

Good things Bad things

- the graphic ideas are pretty cool - Too easy
- upgrades are fun - You can't start with campaign (you have to do battles)
- This game could be free on a kids site
- Too short
- ain't worth ♥♥♥♥
- too few features
- the worlds are not totally random generated

So plotless and basic. Needs more purpose than just shooting crystals.

Game takes 30 min to beat. Forced to play boring battles before starting campaign, how stupid, and way too many battles. The campaign has basically no story. It is the same as the battles. You literally go below the surface and destroy cystals that spawn guys, which all look the same but are apparently different. All the guns basically do the same thing except for rate of fire and damage, but that is hard to tell. Game crashes if you try to read more about guns. Every level plays the exact same, as you go below and destroy cystals, then come back up to get reinforcements and then destroy everything. game is boring and not that fun. you can make a few upgrades but they are meh. 5/10.

Koya Rift feels like a flash game and even plays like something you'd find on Newgrounds.

Your objective is to destroy a set amount of crystals in an underground tunnel area while protecting your home base. It plays like a click shooter, where you move your mouse to where you want to shoot and click to shoot. WSAD moves your character and the spacebar lets you buy reinforcements for you or your base. The game has a variety of weapons, different colors and different shooting styles that consume a different amount of energy. While it is nice to have a variety to choose from, what you pick really won't have an impact on how quick you will destroy the enemies.

Before you get a chance to play the campaign, the dev makes you play Battle Mode first to unlock it. Battle Mode, though sounds fancy and cool, is just a way to teach you the basics of the game. What is annoying is how many times you need to finish a Battle Mode to unlock the Campaign. It just feels like a time waster after the second go and I think the dev just put in a high number of completions to extend the game's length.

Campaign mode is just like Battle Mode really, except the dev gives you the ability to buy droids before the start of each mission in the campaign and upgrade their levels. The Campaign consists of 6 or 7 missions, all basically the same with an increase in difficulty that you don't really notice. The final level is kinda different since it consists of an actual boss, which is somewhat difficult. My game ended up bugging and not ending after I defeated the boss, oh well.

In all, this is a timewaster. Despite the price being cheap, the substance and variety, "randomly generated levels" aren't really that great of a way to extend your game if your objective is always the same, is lacking. I'd avoid unless you can get this for cheap in a bundle.

Koya Rift is a 2D Action Platformer, with a big emphasis on random generation of both maps and weapons, as well as a scaling difficulty.

While it has its heart on the right place, and does everything it says (on paper), its methods don't prove as effective.
The main problem here is that all the random generation alters stats and numbers, but everything feels the same.

Presentation
For the game's scope, I think it looks and sounds pretty good! Especially since it was made by only one person, and a musician. It won't blow your mind, but it's really solid.

It's simple looking, but each weapon has a different color, creating some pretty great light effects. The fact that it's not low-res helps it quite a lot to stand out as well.
The enemy design is my favourite part. While there's effectively only one design (with some changes between each type), it gives the game a lot of personality.

The player character, allies and turrets also look pretty cool. It's more modern that you would expect from an indie game.

The only problem with it is that, when there are many enemies and allies close to you, all shooting at each other at once, the game gets a bit frame-y, and the explosion obfuscate everything else. Your best bet is to just stand back, otherwise you'll be hit by a lot of hidden bullets.

Everything is also color-coded. From the enemies to the weapons, its color will determine its effects, like piercing, explosive-damage, life-steal, etc. This leads to the next aspect: interface.

The interface is simple and functional, I like it. However, the loading screens and the way it teaches you these mechanics is a bit of a problem, to me.

During the loading screens, you're presented with leaflet-esque presentations with the colors, story or enemies explained. While they're pretty neat, visually, it's still a screen with paragraphs of text, which is definitely not ideal to teach a game's mechanics.
Regardless, I don't think it plays a huge part in actually playing it, and you'll learn what you need in the first battles.

The sound-effects were pretty standard, nothing noteworthy. Still, whenever an enemy died or you destroyed a crystal, a sound played, giving you good feedback.
The music wasn't bad at all, although it was a bit... generic, I guess. The musicians is clearly talented, so it would have been nice to have something a bit more unique. Also, it doesn't loop very well, and it's pretty short, so you're very likely to hear the wrong looping every level.


Structure & Mechanics' Overview
There are two modes: Battle and Campaign. The campaign is basically progressively more difficult battles, with a progression system added to it. The battles lose a lot for not having any progression. They take 5-10 minutes at most, so it's not like a Binding of Isaac, where there's progression in each battle. Not at all. You can pick a few power-ups, buy a few droids, but it's almost meaningless, since they're so short.

However, these battles serve two purposes: as a tutorial, and difficulty measurement. Before you unlock the campaign, you'll have to play a few battles, first. This is basically to teach you the general mechanics before jumping into it. Aside from that, it's seeing how well you do, and deciding the campaign's starting difficulty.

I've done more battles than necessary, and finished the campaign 2 or 3 times, so you can see that it's very short.

Let's now talk about the weapons. As I've mentioned, there are specialized effects that are color coded. These will basically determine what weapons you'll want to carry with you, for the different situations. Usually, I took one with slowing, one with life-steal, and one with explosive-damage. But there are some other choices, that I won't detail.
Aside from these effects, and during the campaign, there are also attributes.

These include rate of fire, size, accuracy, and homing. There are 4 or 5 ranks to each, and the price for the upgrades increase the more you buy.

You'll also be able to pick weapons in power-up form, that you can switch between, and also upgrade. These have a decent variety, because of the stats and effects combinations. However, the game has a tendency to overwhelm you with these. By the end, you can have 10+ weapons that you have no use for (1).

The enemies also have different weapons, with these characteristics. Also, some are faster, some are more deadly, tankier, etc. Visually, they have a similar base design (with differences in size and form), but you can generally distinguish well between them.


In each battle, you start at your base, and then have to go underground to destroy every crystal and enemy. Your base, if not under attack, will heal you, and restore your energy. Energy depletes when you shoot.
You can also buy Droids and Turrets, in the base. These rank up, becoming more powerful as they kill enemies. Turrets are stationary, and just for base defense. Droids can go with you, or stay defending the base.

Droids are basic units that will follow you around and shoot everything they see. They'll also be in front of your character, tanking the damage.

If your character dies, you'll have to control a droid, and go underground to the place you died, and ressurect. You'll ressurect with as much energy and HP as you had (or, well, very little). This plays an important part about difficulty, which I'll talk about later (2).

There's a bit issue with these droids, which is their path-finding. The maps are randomly generated in squares, with lots of intersections. Your allies VERY easily get stuck in those, and you'll have to manually do a dance to get them out. If you don't, they'll simply be reset back to base. This is really annoying. In some levels, as you'll have to constantly go back and forth...

The power-ups are quite varied to. They include shields (for you or your minions), helper weapons, ranks, energy, etc. There's one particular power-up that's awesome: it's gives you the ability to basically phase through the walls, slowly losing HP. This lets you go around enemies, escape more easily, etc., giving you more strategical choice. Unfortunately, there aren't that many situations where you can use it appropriately, and it's the only power-up with a cool ability.

I think this is enough. Now, to talk about the 2 major points about this game, for me.

1.Weapons
They are indeed randomly generated, but there's one big problem: they all feel exactly the same. There isn't any mechanical quirk to any of the weapons, and every element is merely numerical. Faster rate, more damage, spread shot, etc.
It's unfortunate. However, if they actually felt different (in a different game, I guess) it would be much more interesting. Perhaps an overheating laser, or a manually reloaded Shotgun, etc. Then, each type of weapon could have its own stats and progression.
Just my 2 cents. In the end, they all feel the same weapon, in this game, which defeats the point of random generation, a bit.

2. Difficulty
While the procedural generation does what it promises, the game is still far too easy. I didn't have any issues, with the exception of the last campaign level, and because of a very specific reason. It's basically a big room with lots of huge enemies. If you die, you'll fall to the bottom. And then, getting yourself out is a pain in the ♥♥♥, because you're bombarded from every direction...
Aside from that, it's too easy, and you just need to be careful, with certain enemies.

Conclusion
This review may sound overly negative, but being critical doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the game! It's actually pretty good, for what it is. Sure, it's limited and byte-sized, but it's a fun experiment, for a couple of hours. Recommended on a sale!

REASON FOR WHY I RECOMMEND THIS GAME IS AT THE BOTTOM OF MY REVIEW, SO IF YOU THINK IT'S TL:DR, SCROLL DOWN PLEASE.


This game is... boring. No really. Almost no challenge at all, only the last mission was in the campaign was kind of difficult, as it had two gigantic bosses guarding the last Phantom Stone (if I remember correctly) and they take A LOT of punishment. The rest of the missions are easy. The battles aren't really that special. Why? Because you do the exact same thing in the campaign missions and in those Battle Mode stages. At least each time you win a stage in Battle Mode the difficulty increases, so that's good.

I just can't get over the music. The fu***g music. I'm not a music 'PRO', but even I recognise the samples from FL Studio (at least they sound like FL Studio, I may be wrong though). It feels like it's rap**g my ears. It's dreadful. Like... someone just started up FL Studio or whatever program you use, played around with the samplers, showed it to a friend, friend said: "Hell yeah! It's amazing! We will make like GAZILLION OF DOLLARS for this!" and then they put it in this game. Best solution: mute the game, open up MusicBee/Winamp/Foobar/Spotify (iTunes is ♥♥♥♥♥, deal with it) and put Metallica or some other metal band. It will make your experience at least 30% more awesome. Don't worry, you won't miss out on the SFX (Sound Effects) as almost all of them sound the same and unintresting. Just your general 'laser' sound effects.

The game gives you option to find useful bonus orbs which TRUST ME: are actually useful. The 'More Energy' bonus orb doesn't make a noticeable difference however. It's more about exploring the caves to find those orbs as they are kind of essential: you can get new weapons from them, shields, reinforcements, drone shields and helper guns.
It also gives you an option to collect money and build towers to protect your Pod or purchase Drones which I found more helpful than the Towers, as the drones can move and if they get damaged, they will automatically return to the Pod and they will stay there defending the pod, until you decide to return to the surface and order them to follow you. Yes, you can order your drones to stay at the Pod, or come with you. Their pathfinding however is not so brilliant really. They get stuck often. Very often.
I do like that this game gives you an array of weapons to choose from. However... they all feel the same. The 'Redder' guns are supposed to be slower and do more damage than the 'Blue..er...' ones, but... it's such a slight difference it's BARELY noticeable. Okay, yes, the red guns have explosive effects and blue guns freeze enemies. Nontheless they feel the same. That is, until you discover that they have different perks like piercing, which goes through many enemies. Or scatter, which is basically the 'S' powerup from Contra for your guns. This was a VERY welcoming feature. I liked it. It felt like a mini-borderlands gun po*n thing, though not as exciting. Also, this game has BULLET PHYSICS. BUT. And it's a big butt (pun intended)... it's not about your usual bullet stuff: how long it travels before it starts stalling and lose it's potential. No. It's more like Call of Kaka bullet spread. You know: you shoot straight, but somehow your bullets come out of your barrel at unreal angles... and also how good they are at ballet. Seriously, it feels like some of these guns are firing sparkling/glowing ballerinas... at unreal angles.




SO WHY DO I RECOMMEND THIS GAME?
(I'm too lazy to do formatting things and spell-check. It's late, I'm sick with flu and tired after working for 14 hours. Yes, 14, from 6 AM to 8 PM. I'm gonna... crawl into my blanket and pretend I'm a hotdog and just... fall asleep...)

Because it's cheap. 3,99 Euros. That's like... 6 USD or 3 Pounds if you are British.
So don't expect anything like 'FTL' for this price. The game LOOKS cool and fresh, but it just isn't. You can play similar games on Kongregate and Newgrounds FOR FREE, because this kind of thing (defend your base, while exploring some area) has been done in Flash plenty of times. This game DOES stand out from them, as it introduces bullet physics, which I think is a welcoming thing. It feels like... it's a missed potential. This game could be so much more, so much better, if they didn't try to make it like a Flash game.