The Riftbreaker is a base-building, survival game with Action-RPG elements. You are an elite scientist/commando inside an advanced Mecha-Suit capable of dimensional rift travel. Hack & slash countless enemies. Build up your base, collect samples and research new inventions to survive.

I don’t know if The Riftbreaker knows what type of game it is. It seems to go through a constant switch and change between so many genres it’s like watching a child try to pick just one sweet from the candy store. At first, it looks like an RTS with its base building starting points, which quickly evolves into a tower defence, which then brings in RPG aspects with tech trees and upgrades, then comes the bullet hell and sci-fi fantasy storyline. And it isn’t even close to being able to describe the type of game that The Riftbreaker is. It doesn’t try to be everything and fail either, it IS all of these things in one sweet little package that, like the ways helicopters manage flight, The Riftbreaker is one cohesive game that deserves your time and attention.

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? After training in simulations you, Ashley S. Nowak, and your AI Mech suit Mr Riggs, are set down on a new planet in hopes of saving the human race by preparing the planet for colonization. Your end goal is to build the rift portal and allow for the colonists to arrive. To do this you must collect resources, base build, slaughter wildlife, drain resources from the ground, cut down trees and build walls and defences. Look, the irony wasn’t lost on me either. Ashley does pipe up a number of times wishing to not destroy another planet like Earth, but the AI is quick to counter that the survival of humanity is more important. Overall though, the banter between Ashely and Mr Riggs is enjoyable, not forced and adds that teeny bit of snark. I will say that Ashley is not ever treated poorly being a woman, which is a huge boon in my book. There isn’t even a love interest! Neat!

Speaking of mistakes, messing with the wildlife all willy-nilly is definitely a mistake to be made early on. You can choose to go slaughter wildlife early on, but it’s best not to get too trigger happy too quickly. Out in the wilderness, there are many different swarms of alien wildlife to encounter, from passive prey to giant rock-like boss monstrosities. Coming across these means instant death in the early days, and even later days if you aren’t prepared enough. When I say swarms, I mean swarms. Very rarely will there be a group of 10 or less milling about minding their own business. There can be 100’s of little ant-like alien friends ready to cart your carcass home for dinner. So be careful. Worth noting that ‘dying’ in Riftbreaker just respawns you at your main base. Thankfully you have a tech tree full of overwhelming choices for upgrades. Melee, ranged, offensive, defensive, it is all there. I am sure there are ways to min-max your experience by getting the best ‘build’ but I found I just grabbed what I needed when I needed it. It caters for a variety of playstyles and doesn’t limit the player. When you’ve progressed far enough into the story, you’ll need to start traversing to different biomes of the new planet for research and to gain more resources. This isn’t simply a ‘new map’ that you start in the campaign, it’s a living and ongoing management plan. You are now a CEO overlooking so many mining chains and outposts the difficulty becomes even greater! Did I say the resource management was chaotic yet?