But leaving all this aside and having invested hours in the universe offered by this new production of Comcept(team led by Keiji Inafune ) and Armature (studio formed by several former members of Retro Studios ), the truth is that this adventure It has left us good feelings … with nuances. In fact we think that, with its failures, is going to be one of those little gems that will be enjoyed by the most seasoned players of Xbox One and PC.
Precisely and before we forget, this adventure is compatible with the system or service Xbox Play Anywhere , which means that with a single purchase we can enjoy the game both in its version for console and PC, being able to save the game in the cloud and dispense it on both devices. A feature that we do not want to ignore because it seems very suggestive.
Desert and tin
The story that serves to bring ReCore to life is not that it is the best we have ever experienced, but it is not bad either. We take the role of Joule , one of the few survivors of the human species that goes to a planet called Eden Far (Far Eden), a place that enjoys an atmosphere relatively similar to that experienced on Earth and is located practically sunk in sand and dunes.
The title has been developed by Armature and Comcept, studies that include well-known creators such as Mark Pacini or Keiji Inafune.
The protagonist is practically alone in this world, living inside a ship called Crawler in the company of some very … special companions. Indeed, the so-called Corebots are robotic allies that help Joule in different ways, characters that end up being more important than we could imagine at the beginning and that, in a somewhat strange way, end up being more endearing than we could have expected.
These characters help us in various ways in our tasks. And the main one of them all is to survive, since that planet is also inhabited by other tin creatures that are much less adorable than our pets. Some killer robots that will do everything in their power to eliminate us as soon as they have the opportunity.
In short, a plot not especially original as we go forward is not that it is gaining much more weight. It simply serves as a more or less interesting reason to immerse ourselves in the game and overcome the missions that appear before us, which ultimately is the most important thing in ReCore.
A desert full of possibilities
But what does this game consist of? Well, it’s a very peculiar third-person adventure and, to a certain extent, tries to get into the sandbox fashion … something that we think has not suited you particularly well.
In this way the world we can travel is divided into several different areas of play that can be visited with some freedom. And what should we do in them? Well, basically, overcome dungeons (which are the main levels that are part of the story) and also get some special orbs that are letting us through certain doors that give access to new areas.
The robots have different abilities that allow us to finish with the rivals in a more efficient way to track the ground or move through inaccessible areas.
On paper, the idea on which ReCore is based is very attractive. Exploration commands and we must investigate wide areas of play in which, often, rivals appear. And these monsters have a color code that we must take into account since our weapon is capable of using ammunition of different tonality. And for what? Well, simply, to cause more damage, something that in some cases ends up complicating more of the account some combats that would have worked better leaving this feature aside.
But to eliminate the rivals we can also resort to an alternative and more efficient method: stealing their core that gives them life. If we manage to reduce his life enough during a battle, his nucleus will be exposed and we will be able to use the hook that the protagonist always carries over to take control of that object. A mechanics that has its one.
The platforms are also very present and, in fact, the protagonist is quite agile, being able to make both a double jump and a fast displacement that allows her to reach areas of the scenarios that are initially inaccessible. Therefore, with the exception of the puzzles, which have not been contemplated, it is a relatively varied adventure that offers us at least 10 hours of play.
The adventure is relatively varied during its roughly 10 hours of play
But there is more. We can become friends with up to five different robots , although only three of them can accompany us at the same time. And as you already suspect these robots (one has the shape of a dog, another of a spider, etc.) they have different abilities that, in addition, it is possible to improve and personalize them through pieces and plans that we are finding. Without being a really brilliant quality, this crafteo adds a layer of additional depth to the adventure.
What convinces us less is the open world factor that we mentioned before. And this fact has a negative impact on the development of the game, especially in two very specific aspects. The first is that in the vast majority of cases the playing areas feel empty, and the fact of having to go from one place to another without much to do during each of our journeys becomes somewhat cumbersome.
The world we travel is divided into several areas of play that we can visit, being necessary to use backtracking to be able to move forward.
Even worse is everything related to loading times that, in the version for Xbox One (PC is another fortunate to sing), they reach more than a minute and a half in many cases. And when you have to move quickly from one area to another or, worse, if you bite into dust two times in a row, sleep knocks at our door with both hands. In fact this last aspect, that of loading times on Xbox One, is so obvious that we think it will not take long to be solved (at least in part) with patches. And if you already solve some of the bugs that also houses the title, it’s even better.
Where we do not believe that any improvement will be made is in the graphic section that, without being bad, does not stand out for anything in particular beyond its aesthetic line , which is well outlined. The design of the robots and some enemies is not out of tune, as is the case with the appearance of certain dungeons that we can visit.
Everything else is merely functional without being bad at all, although it is true that some textures are too blurry and, in some cases, it is possible to appreciate popping in some sets not especially ornate. But the worst thing is that in the version for Xbox One the rate of images per second suffers from time to time, down from 30 frames per second, with all that that entails in a title of these characteristics. Of course, in PC everything improves a lot, especially the latter.
The sound section gives us environmental melodies that are interspersed with good sound effects and a dubbing solvent in English (or Latin Spanish) with subtitles in Spanish. And between one and the other, they manage to provide the adventure with an appropriate setting.
