RIFTSTORM looks like another co-op shooter where you run through corridors, shoot monsters, collect loot, and extract. It is all of those things—and more. Its biggest strength might not be pure originality, but how enjoyable it actually feels to play. Some objectives may start to get repetitive, but the moment-to-moment combat stays strong. Should you commit as well? Let’s find out together after the trailer jump!
Movement in RIFTSTORM feels quick and responsive, and the gunplay mechanics have enough impact to make every firefight satisfying. Whether we were sliding between cover, dodging incoming attacks or emptying magazines into waves of mythic creatures, the action aggressive pushed us forward. It’s a power fantasy that made us feel like highly trained operatives rather than fragile soldiers.
Builds become delightfully chaotic
As you explore, you’ll encounter unstable rifts that shower you with weapons, resources and other rewards, but some of the most exciting discoveries are the crystalline formations scattered throughout the maps. Destroying them lets you choose from one of three Lythogram upgrades that can dramatically change how your character plays during that run.
Some upgrades fire projectiles in every direction whenever you activate an ability. Others summon small drones that orbit around you, slowing enemies, firing at them or exploding on contact. One of our favourite upgrades summons a robotic bulldog every time you dodge. We almost always picked the doggo. It’s adorable, surprisingly effective, and when dozens of enemies suddenly flood the room, every extra ally helps.
The fun comes from stacking these upgrades together until your screen becomes absolute chaos. Abilities trigger other abilities, drones fly everywhere, explosions constantly erupt around you and your Weaver gradually transforms into an unstoppable force. Build experimentation is easily one of the game’s biggest strengths.
Each of the Weavers also brings their own abilities and combat style. Thanks to this, there’s enough variety to encourage trying different team compositions instead of sticking with a single favourite forever.
Extraction adds just enough tension
RIFTSTORM isn’t trying to be a brutally punishing extraction shooter. Even so, the extraction mechanic still creates enough risk to make successful missions feel like they are worthy of your time.
You can leave with your loot whenever you think you’ve had enough, or keep pushing into increasingly dangerous areas for better rewards. Staying longer means facing tougher enemies and risking everything you’ve collected.
Failing to extract carries another penalty through the Weapon Scarring system. You won’t permanently lose your favourite gun, but you will get a negative modifier replacing one of its upgrades. It’s a clever middle ground that creates consequences without becoming overly frustrating, and it fits the game’s more approachable take on the genre.
The gameplay loop
Unfortunately, not everything is quite as polished as the combat itself. The environments quickly become one of the weaker aspects of the experience. Most maps consist of fairly generic corridors and industrial-looking locations branching into side paths that rarely feel memorable. Objectives don’t help much either. We repeatedly found ourselves travelling to a location, eliminating enemies, activating a device, collecting an item or defending an objective before moving on to the next mission. The gameplay itself remains enjoyable, so much so that everything else didn’t bother us much.
Visually, RIFTSTORM looks good enough, but not good enough to justify the hardware demands we experienced. Our RTX 4060 Ti struggled to maintain consistent performance at 4K, occasionally dropping close to 30 FPS in heavier encounters. Even lowering the resolution to 1440p didn’t completely solve the problem, with frame rates still dipping below 60 whenever large enemy groups filled the screen.
We also experienced two crashes during our time with the game, both of which forced us to restart our progress from scratch. Losing an otherwise successful run because of technical problems is never enjoyable, especially in a game built around extraction and progression.
The soundtrack doesn’t leave much of an impression either. It does its job by creating tension during combat, but most tracks blend together into a fairly generic backdrop that we barely noticed once the shooting started.
An enjoyable foundation with plenty of room to grow
Despite its shortcomings, we enjoyed our time with RIFTSTORM.
As we’ve mentioned, its missions could use more variety, the environments need more personality, and the technical optimisation still requires significant work before we could comfortably recommend it to everyone. And yet, beneath those problems lies an entertaining co-op shooter with satisfying movement and enough chaotic combat to keep us coming back for more.
Developer: Confiction Labs, Agate
Publisher: Confiction Labs, Gamersky Games
Platforms: PC (Steam Early Access)
Genre: Co-op PvE Looter-Shooter
Release Date: Early Access
Players: Single-player / Online co-op (up to 3 players)
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