RICE: Repetitive Indie Combat Experience

About

RICE: Repetitive Indie Combat Experience is a single player casual shooter game with comedy, medieval and historical themes. It was developed by Pirate-Rob and was released on May 1, 2023. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

A rich paragraph of information which will try to charm and pique interest, trying to catch your eye in a sea of competition using a slew of buzzwords such as ‘bullet heaven’ and ‘in-depth meta-progression’, in a vain attempt to make you believe this game is any different from others in it’s genre.

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74%

Audience ScoreBased on 233 reviews

gameplay17 positive mentions

optimization6 negative mentions

Unique and highly engaging meta-progression system featuring a Tetris-like upgrade grid that allows deep customization and rewarding build variety.
Fun and satisfying gameplay loop with interesting weapons, enemy behaviors, and clear level objectives that differentiate it from similar games.
Developer is active and responsive, regularly patching performance issues and improving quality of life features, making the game promising for the future.

Severe and persistent performance issues including FPS drops, lag, and crashes, especially during late stages and on lower-end hardware.
Unclear and insufficient in-game explanations for many mechanics and upgrades, leading to player confusion and frustration.
Repetitive gameplay with limited content variety, balance issues such as bullet spongy enemies and a slow, grind-heavy meta progression.

gameplay
35 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
49%
42%
9%
The gameplay offers an engaging and innovative roguelike experience with a satisfying core loop and interesting meta-progression mechanics, including a customizable tetris-like upgrade system. However, it suffers from slow meta-progression, occasional RNG frustrations, unclear explanations of some mechanics, and occasional downtime, which may impact long-term enjoyment. Overall, it's fun and promising, especially for fans of the genre, though it could benefit from better balance and clearer documentation.
- “Good game, mob survival rogue-lite with interesting meta progression, lots of enemies and weapons, interesting gameplay loop of not just killing guys but going for abyss as well.”
- “Really solid bullet heaven roguelike, gameplay loop felt really engaging and solid, due to being early access a lack of variety in weapons/characters is fine, as long as the core gameplay is fun.”
- “The tetris-like grid that serves as the metaprogression system allows for an incredible amount of customization, and the actual gameplay feels extremely satisfying.”
- “Upgrades are so minor they hardly affect gameplay most of the time.”
- “In terms of gameplay, there are some weapons that are flat out useless, there's some cards that won't come up over and over even though you desperately need them. The upgrade system also relies on those cards showing up, so sometimes your entire run will be screwed over simply because the game decided to spite you.”
- “In my two hours of gameplay, I was only able to make ~3,000, which may seem like a decent amount, until you look at the costs and realize that you need hundreds of thousands of meta-currency to even begin to influence the outcomes of your runs (requiring well over 70 hours).”
optimization
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
50%
33%
The game's optimization is widely criticized for poor performance, including frequent frame rate drops, excessive CPU load due to many on-screen entities, and inefficient GPU usage, even on high-end systems. However, recent patches and added settings have significantly improved stability and smoothness for some players. Overall, optimization remains a major concern but shows potential for improvement.
- “Thankfully the dev in a matter of a day or two just tweaked things and added some settings, now the game just runs smoothly for me, start to finish, no matter how many enemies I slay.”
- “I have not faced any performance issues aside from some slight frame rate dips that can be difficult to notice.”
- “Performance was perfect.”
- “The optimization becomes horrendous very quickly into an endless run due to having too many entities on screen at once and being limited to a single CPU core. This severely impacts the game's performance.”
- “I couldn't get this game to run over 20 frames per second consistently, and enabling the blood option in the main menu dropped the frame rate to 7, even though those graphics shouldn't affect performance at that point.”
- “The performance is terrible when turning on bloom/shader effects or using higher settings—it heavily strains the GPU while the visuals remain very simple.”
graphics
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
60%
20%
The graphics feature a cozy, appealing art style with engaging effects, but performance issues such as significant frame rate drops and occasional crashes are common, even on higher-end hardware. Despite the aesthetic charm, many users report severe lag and instability that negatively impact the experience.
- “Awesome game with a ton of replay value and fun takes on the genre, not to mention a cozy art style and explosions!”
- “On top of this the music is chill, the graphics work well, it runs nicely, and the humour is great.”
- “Played fullscreen with default graphic settings”
- “Notably, I couldn't get this game to run over 20 frames consistently, and if I enabled the blood option even in the main menu, where those graphics shouldn't affect performance, my frame rate dropped to 7.”
- “By the time I reached ascension/stage 4 after about 45 minutes of play, with all graphics settings at their lowest, the FPS was about 1 or 2 and remained that way.”
- “Even on some higher-end graphics cards, there are performance problems.”
humor
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is described as sarcastic, cheeky, and meta, with many players finding it funny and entertaining, often making them chuckle. However, some users find it dry, hypocritical, or a forced excuse for game flaws. Overall, the humor complements the gameplay for those who enjoy the style, while others might overlook or dislike it.
- “It's funny and has plenty of jokes throughout the game.”
- “The sense of humor is fantastic!”
- “Had me chuckling a bunch.”
music
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
33%
17%
The music is widely praised for its chill, engaging, and memorable qualities, complementing the game's style and atmosphere. Fans express a strong desire for an official soundtrack release or streaming availability. Overall, the soundtrack enhances the gameplay experience with its unique blend and attention to detail.
- “Love this gem, would really like to be able to purchase the soundtrack or at least be able to stream it somewhere!”
- “On top of this the music is chill, the graphics work well, it runs nicely (I have experienced slow down just once later into an endless run, which is to be expected in these types of games), and the humour is great.”
- “Insane music, great game-play, good systems, amazing style and attention to detail”
- “Music goes doo dee dee dee doo, repeat”
grinding
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in this game is described as slow, tedious, and unrewarding, requiring extensive effort to progress. While it offers a strategic layer in assembling passive buffs, the overall experience feels monotonous and comparable to repetitive tasks, leading to frustration for some players.
- “It has a lot of the facets of a fun, roguelike game, but offers the players two choices: slow, tedious, unrewarding grinding or high stakes double-or-nothing where all of your potential progress will be lost due to whimsical RNG.”
- “They change the coat of paint from killing slimes to killing planets, but in substance it's just as tedious and boring.”
- “There is absolutely nothing to do except for ideal grinding!”
replayability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
25%
The game offers high replayability with addictive gameplay, diverse skill builds, and a charming art style, making it ideal for short play sessions. However, users feel that additional updates are needed to fully unlock its replay potential.
- “Awesome game with a ton of replay value and fun takes on the genre, not to mention a cozy art style and explosions!”
- “I think this game is perfect to pass time in 10-20 minute sprints and has a ton of replayability.”
- “An addictive power trip that's very replayable, thanks to infinite skill build possibilities.”
- “Really, really, really needed more updates to get the full potential and replayability out of this game.”
stability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game currently suffers from significant stability issues, including severe lag and frequent freezing, making it largely unplayable and buggy.
- “Unplayably buggy.”
- “This game is a buggy mess right now.”
- “If you take a certain option, you may experience lag to the point that your game freezes.”
monetization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The reviewer notes their limited recent playtime but highlights their positive experience based on prior enjoyment of the developer’s previous game, Dredgers. They appreciate that this game offers an idle RPG experience without relentless monetization, suggesting a fair and less intrusive approach to in-game purchases.
- “It's almost like an idle RPG without the endless monetization.”
atmosphere
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's atmosphere is praised for its unique and detailed design, creating a distinct and immersive experience.
- “The atmosphere and detailing in this game are done in a really unique way.”

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4h Median play time

3h Average play time

1-5h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 2 analyzed playthroughs

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Frequently Asked Questions

RICE: Repetitive Indie Combat Experience is a casual shooter game with comedy, medieval and historical themes.

RICE: Repetitive Indie Combat Experience is available on PC and Windows.

On average players spend around 3 hours playing RICE: Repetitive Indie Combat Experience.

RICE: Repetitive Indie Combat Experience was released on May 1, 2023.

RICE: Repetitive Indie Combat Experience was developed by Pirate-Rob.

RICE: Repetitive Indie Combat Experience has received mostly positive reviews from players. Most players liked this game for its gameplay but disliked it for its optimization.

RICE: Repetitive Indie Combat Experience is a single player game.

Similar games include Rogue: Genesia, Time Wasters, Nomad Survival, Soulstone Survivors, Bounty of One and others.

RICE: Repetitive Indie Combat Experience

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