Looking for something to scratch that alien shooter itch? RIPOUT by Pet Project Games is a high intensity first person shooter similar to games like Dead Space and Doom. It’s almost completely similar to Dead Space, besides the first person aspect. What it benefits from is the opportunity to shoot down space goons with friends. Will you be able to survive the terrors of space? This is an Early Access review, so keep in mind a lot of minute problems might get fixed in the future.
Gameplay in RIPOUT isn’t inherently bad, but there’s something that feels lacking when blasting through enemies. Doom’s gameplay encourages the player to get up close and personal with the enemies, and tests you on your close combat abilities and timing. RIPOUT doesn’t have an obvious battle strategy. You can’t really hide behind objects and take down enemies stealthily. There’s also no point in going head-on to enemies, as they can kill you off with a few swats of their hand. So it becomes this strange limbo of firing at enemies, then backtracking a little farther away to avoid getting too close. Perhaps you’re more coordinated than I am and can move away while firing. Without a lock on feature that tactic seems impossible to me, especially when bullets can become sparse at times. The only battle strategy that becomes apparent is to use the Petgun as a means to kill the enemies. Once I figured out I can keep repetitively using the Petgun after it reloads I used it consistently and it made RIPOUT disappointingly easier. I stopped being worried about managing my bullets because the Petgun can destroy small enemies in a single attack. I can also kill enemies from a pretty far distance with the Petgun.
The Petgun is an interesting mechanic that I wish RIPOUT put more thought into. It’s a neat idea to be able to send the gun out and grab abilities from tiny aliens. It would be even cooler if abilities could be ripped from every alien that you see, allowing you to mess around with different battle tactics and movement. With the limited kinds of abilities and limited movement, the gameplay feels pigeon-holed. Perhaps it is the want to have randomness that makes the world feel lacking. Vents and doorways will burst open now and then with dramatic music, but no enemies will show. The first few times that happened it got a good scare out of me, but after a while it was annoying. It’s already tricky to detect enemies until they’re right in front of you, so making you move around unnecessarily is a hassle.
RIPOUT falters when trying to be too similar to other games. It seems that the design team felt it necessary to have upgrades and have locations randomized, possibly to help replayability and be able to call it a “rogue-like.” It doesn’t do any of these aspects particularly well, however. When reaching an upgrade point the game doesn’t pause to allow you to read the upgrades, so you’ll most likely die in the attempt to upgrade as enemies swarm around you. The randomness also is a huge detriment to RIPOUT. I can’t rely on crates or enemies to drop the right equipment that I need because it only spews out random items. There were multiple mission runs I lost at the very end because health items didn’t drop the entire time. Not having any system to rely on makes a game feel unbalanced and leaves players feeling like they’re going into a game blind. Randomness can get tiring and repetitive if there’s no hint at what’s about to happen.
The art in RIPOUT is nothing to scoff at. Most of the visuals are high quality, and the creature design is a cool mix of both guts and technology. Some menu systems are strange, especially in the hub world where you select the mission at the center console, then go to the ship to fly to that mission. It seems there are an unnecessary amount of steps to be able to hop into a new mission, but perhaps it works better when there are multiple players deciding where to go next. The UI art and words are severely lacking in any effort and look hastily put together. The audio in RIPOUT feels somewhat similar. There’s creepy atmospheric audio playing the entire time, but doesn’t seem to react dynamically to battles happening. It would’ve added to the suspense if the audio picked up during battles, instead of picking up when moving to a different area.
In summary: Some interesting ideas for gameplay and nice set pieces, but unfortunately it gets too repetitive and lacks good audio design.
Jordan played RIPOUT in Early Access on PC with a review key.
