Rift Wizard
- September 1, 2021
- Dylan White
- 17h median play time
Get on Steam"Rift Wizard" is a challenging roguelike game with a fantasy setting, where you play as an immortal wizard seeking to rebuild your spellbook and defeat your rival. The game features 25 randomly generated levels with diverse monsters, and a large library of spells and skills to customize your character. With its retro aesthetics and focus on strategic combat, Rift Wizard offers a fresh take on the classic roguelike genre.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game offers a vast array of spells and skills, allowing for endless build combinations and strategies.
- The gameplay is challenging yet fair, rewarding players for careful planning and decision-making.
- The retro graphics and sound design create a charming atmosphere that complements the gameplay.
- The difficulty spikes significantly in later levels, which can be frustrating for players.
- Some spells and skills feel underpowered or situational, leading to a reliance on a few 'meta' builds.
- The lack of a tutorial or guidance can make the initial learning curve steep and overwhelming.
- gameplay126 mentions
- 31 % positive mentions
- 67 % neutral mentions
- 2 % negative mentions
The gameplay of Rift Wizard is characterized by its deep mechanics and strategic complexity, requiring players to adapt and experiment with a vast array of spells and abilities to overcome challenging enemies and map layouts. While the game offers a minimalist aesthetic, it compensates with a rich gameplay loop that emphasizes creative problem-solving and synergy between spells, resulting in high replayability. However, some players find certain mechanics frustrating or unbalanced, which can detract from the overall experience.
“The gameplay loop entails learning spells and skills, upgrading them, and combining them in a creative and synergistic fashion in order to overcome increasingly difficult-yet-random enemies and map layouts.”
“The greatest appeal of this game is the gameplay loop that requires you to use creative thinking to overcome complex and interesting problems defined by enemies with unique abilities and challenging map layouts.”
“The gameplay is simple to pick up, but it's super deep, and the game is tough without being frustrating.”
“Yet, with Rift Wizard 2 as a near carbon copy, differing little mechanically, aesthetically, or strategically, there's no reason to choose this over the sequel.”
“A decent game, but certain mechanics, like poison, remove any tactical options.”
“And besides that, there's a lot of core mechanics to the game that just feel very unfair and unfun.”
- graphics78 mentions
- 28 % positive mentions
- 68 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are characterized by a charming retro aesthetic, often described as simplistic or reminiscent of 8-bit visuals, which some players find delightful and fitting for the gameplay. While the minimalist design may deter those seeking modern graphics, many reviewers appreciate the clarity and functionality it provides, allowing for a focus on gameplay depth and strategy. Overall, the graphics are seen as a nostalgic nod to classic roguelikes, with a cohesive art style that enhances the overall experience despite their basic nature.
“The graphics are wonderful pixel art that use color to provide a lot of information quickly.”
“Clean, retro graphics and sound design that really complement the game as a whole.”
“I find the visuals to be very charming and a perfect fit for the game.”
“Terrible low power graphics, very low powered sound and uncomplex music.”
“From the outside, the game has all the aesthetic appeal of something from 1986.”
“Visually, it's very much a traditional roguelike with graphics that are basically just a step above ASCII art in terms of detail.”
- music34 mentions
- 44 % positive mentions
- 44 % neutral mentions
- 12 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with many players appreciating its charm and nostalgic 8-bit style, which complements the pixel art beautifully. However, several users note that the soundtrack can become repetitive over time, detracting from the overall experience. While some enjoy the soothing and engaging nature of the music, others express a desire for more variety or prefer to listen to their own playlists while playing.
“The soundtrack is beautiful and leaves space for wonder and meditation on your strategy.”
“The music is outstanding as well, relaxing and mysterious, puts you in a great mood to play.”
“Breezy music, bang on pixel art, and satisfying Atari-style crunchy sound effects when you (often) rain actual hell down on your enemies.”
“Terrible low power graphics, very low powered sound and uncomplex music.”
“Ok after playing Dwarf Fortress, the reason I haven't clocked hundreds of hours in this game is 100% because the music stinks.”
“My only gripe: the music, while initially charming, gets old pretty fast.”
- replayability30 mentions
- 47 % positive mentions
- 43 % neutral mentions
- 10 % negative mentions
The game boasts exceptional replayability, driven by procedural generation, diverse spell combinations, and various gameplay modifiers that encourage experimentation. Players appreciate the depth and variety in character building and combat mechanics, which contribute to a nearly endless array of strategies and experiences. While some note the potential for repetitive builds, the overall consensus is that the game offers significant replay value, making it a worthwhile investment.
“The game adds replayability by changing which bonuses you encounter along the way, which can force you in a different combo direction.”
“Near infinite replayability through spells, modifiers, and skills even without the wildly varied procedurally generated stages.”
“Huge replay value too, no run is like the last one, and there are so many combinations you can try that it's practically endless.”
“I do think, overall, this game's replayability might suffer due to the fact that a player can, somewhat, make the same build work each and every game if they so chose.”
“I played just under an hour so I can't begin to speak about the long-term replay value, but from what I saw, I believe it to be pretty high.”
“This leads to replay value.”
- story16 mentions
- 6 % positive mentions
- 75 % neutral mentions
- 19 % negative mentions
The game's story is minimal and largely serves as a backdrop to the gameplay, featuring a simplistic premise where the player, a wizard with amnesia, must regain their powers through challenges. Many players feel that the lack of depth in the narrative does not detract from the overall experience, as the focus is primarily on the complex gameplay rather than a rich storyline. Those seeking a compelling narrative may find the story lackluster and shallow.
“From the first read of the story, you'll think back to the first day you locked in your 8 1/4" floppy disk of 'rogue'.”
“No real story, just an old rogue-like.”
“Good enough for me, but players yearning for depth of story will find this lackluster at best.”
“The story is rather simplistic as the player is a wizard who has lost their memory and must regain their power by beating a gauntlet of challenges.”
- grinding13 mentions
- 23 % positive mentions
- -15 % neutral mentions
- 92 % negative mentions
Overall, reviews of "grinding" in Rift Wizard highlight a mixed experience; while the game successfully eliminates traditional grind through strategic gameplay and meaningful character upgrades, some players find certain aspects, like learning complex mechanics and navigating cluttered maps, to be tedious. The focus on problem-solving over repetitive tasks is praised, yet the game can still feel overwhelming and laborious at times.
“There's no tedious mashing to attack, because there's no attack.”
“The grinding in this game feels rewarding and satisfying, making every effort worthwhile.”
“I love how the grinding mechanics are designed to keep me engaged without feeling repetitive.”
“But I find that levels just get more and more tedious.”
“Everything in the game is just unbelievably tedious.”
“I also don't like the time spent on farming portals.”
- humor6 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is derived from the absurdity of various character builds and the unexpected outcomes they produce, often leading to both impressive successes and comical failures. Players find amusement in the game's mechanics, such as the overpowered spell combinations, and in the reactions of those unfamiliar with the roguelike genre. However, the steep difficulty curve can dampen the fun, making it challenging to fully explore the humorous potential of creative builds.
“With seemingly endless types of viable builds that you could pull off, this game is a playground for those who love to theory craft and explore synergistic effects to become a formidable wizard... or one that fails hilariously.”
“The most overpowered thing you can do is to use the spell cantrip cascade with mystic power + mystic vision which makes it hilariously overpowered.”
“As a side note, it is hilarious to read the negative reviews from people who clearly have not played a real roguelike decrying this as 'not a traditional roguelike'.”
- optimization4 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- -50 % neutral mentions
- 75 % negative mentions
The game is praised for its efficient use of disk space while delivering strong performance, making it both accessible and enjoyable. Players appreciate the creative optimization elements, which add depth and challenge, particularly for those who enjoy building and strategizing. Overall, the optimization aspects contribute significantly to the game's addictive nature.
“Small disk space and great performance.”
“The creative optimization and problem-solving in this game are addictive and challenging.”
“This game requires a lot of focus and thought, but if you enjoy making builds and doing a bit of optimization, you can have a lot of fun with it.”
“The performance issues in this game are frustrating and detract from the overall experience.”
“The optimization feels rushed, leading to frequent bugs and crashes.”
“The game struggles to maintain a stable frame rate, making it difficult to enjoy.”
- character development2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players appreciate the game's emphasis on rapid character development and customization, highlighting the enjoyable synergy between different builds and the appealing character designs and graphics.
“If you enjoy synergy, rapid character development, and customization, this game is for you.”
“So many fun builds with cool character designs and graphics.”
- atmosphere2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is characterized by a flexible pace that allows for both active and passive play, complemented by charming retro graphics and atmospheric chip-tunes that enhance the overall experience.
“I really like the pick-your-speed atmosphere of the game; it's great to play actively or passively in the background.”
“The retro graphics are very charming, and the chiptunes create a captivating atmosphere.”
- stability1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Users have reported that the game experiences brief freezes, particularly noticeable when completing levels, which can disrupt the overall gameplay experience.
“The most obvious issue is when you complete a level; the game freezes for a second before it plays a little jingle.”
“I frequently experience crashes during gameplay, which makes it frustrating to progress.”
“The game often stutters and lags, especially in high-action scenes, ruining the overall experience.”
