The Riftbreaker is a breath of fresh air in more ways than one. Most obviously, this is a brand new world created by developers with an impressive pedigree. Building on the tower defense aspects of previous title X-Morph: Defense, EXOR Studios adds in base building and an epic campaign across various huge maps. At the same time, it’s completely accessible thanks to a constant rollout of new content and combat based on top-down shooters. Even for those who typically shy away from the more complicated strategy games on the market, The Riftbreaker is a rewarding and engaging experience that will whittle the hours away.
Players step into mech suit Mr. Riggs as his pilot Ashley, a pair of explorers on a mission to a far-off planet. Their goal involves investigating the local wildlife and building a portal back home, a task that requires building up an RTS-style base and wiping out aggressive aliens with tower defense armaments and top-down shooter combat. Mr. Riggs doubles as both a combat-ready suit of armor and a platform for an endless supply of 3D-printing drones ready to build power plants, turrets, and ammo repositories. In a way, The Riftbreaker steals a page from the Fortnite playbook, seamlessly switching between building defenses and shooting down waves of alien forces. Dropping a turret just far enough away from the approaching horde and then returning to the trusty machine gun is risky but satisfying.
The Riftbreaker requires a set of controls that fully covers building and combat, which could make console players wary. Thankfully, EXOR Studios has mapped out an approachable control scheme that allows for the same complex actions that PC strategists have enjoyed for years. Utilizing every button to the fullest along with plenty of submenus, there was never a situation that felt out of place on a gamepad. It’s easy to build out a big home base and establish smaller outposts around the map thanks to constructible portals that let players warp around Enter The Gungeon-style. Alongside nailing the arcade action of taking on huge swarms of aliens, building out a base has never felt this smooth on a gamepad.
Speaking of the alien hordes, one of The Riftbreaker‘s biggest selling points is just how big the opposing force can get at certain points during the game – think the biggest Starcraft Zerg rush imaginable and then crank up the graphics. Seeing a wave of aliens completely eradicate an entire wing of a base is equal parts awe-inspiring and terrifying thanks to The Riftbreaker‘s impressive presentation, but that never gets in the way of a balanced survival experience. Even smaller armies put up a significant fight, so planning out walls and defenses is always in conflict with but complementing exploring the wilderness for more resources and progressing toward the ultimate goal of building a rift back to Earth.
Despite its ease of use, The Riftbreaker doesn’t skimp on complexity, and that can have a negative impact on gameplay. There were several technical hiccups on display where menus refused to work or on-screen cursors froze for a split second. These negatives never impacted the experience beyond momentary frustrations, but they were present. Beyond that, the more complex late-game buildings can be hard to balance on top of everything else, especially when one particularly nasty attack can wipe out vital buildings that require rare minerals.
With a lengthy campaign that supports every aspect of its genre-bending gameplay, The Riftbreaker feels like a momentous big-budget release. Thankfully, its amazing visuals that scale well from less powerful rigs all the way to the latest GPUs keeps its aesthetic an eye-popping selling point across multiple setups. The fact that it can also showcase that graphical prowess on the latest consoles and still provide a refined strategy experience makes this a special entry into the genre. EXOR Studios has delivered a surprisingly great single-player experience that offers dozens of hours of thoughtful play.
The Riftbreaker is available now on PC, Xbox Series X, and PlayStation 5. Screen Rant received a PC code for the purposes of this review, with additional testing performed on Xbox Series X via Xbox Game Pass.
