‘Lone Ruin’ Review (Nintendo Switch)
Super Rare Games have been on my radar for a while now. They are continuously releasing great, original indie games that are initially only available digitally, and making them physical releases, often with cool extras thrown in to. The occasional digital release is also included and this is where Lone Ruin comes in.
What grabbed me initially with Lone Ruin (actually there are a lot of things but this one first) was how simple an idea it is but that I had also never really played anything like it. And although I haven’t played as many games as others, I have been playing video games for about thirty years, so it’s great to find something original. Simply put it’s a roguelike twin-stick shooter but it has a style and tone all of its own. It involves making spells and creating combos to kill the creatures and monsters that attack you in their droves.
Graphically, it has that classic 16-bit style but definitely updated to a modern era. You wouldn’t make the mistake of thinking it was a thirty-year-old game, it looks fantastic. Its colours no doubt play a big part in this. Bright and vibrant, the game pops out of the screen and looks great on a big screen and even in handheld mode on Nintendo Switch. Watching gameplay videos of Lone Ruin, you might be mistaken for thinking that it gets almost a bit ‘messy’ once so many enemies start appearing on screen – and believe me, at times it feels like there are hundreds of them running towards you – but when you are playing the graphics run super smoothly at all points. When you’re in that moment you can clearly see each creature even if you can’t stop it! Not only that but it has its very own musical style too that fits perfectly with everything else in the game.
Lone Ruin, despite plenty of originality, only takes a few plays before you understand what you have to do and how to go about doing it. Even for a newcomer to this genre like myself. But it still has depth. It takes a while to work out how to best use which spells and which ones are your preferred ones. There were definitely some that I struggled with, while others were ones that I could get much further in the game when using. Working all this out is never a chore though, I enjoyed pretty much every moment and kept coming back for more. Enemies act in different ways, leading you to work out how is best to take each one out, while you have a handful of spells at any one time which can all be upgraded. For what is a kind of ‘short’ game there’s still depth here, even ignoring how many times you will go back to beat your’s and others’ high scores.
That replayability is a huge factor in why Lone Ruin is so good. It is the perfect example of a ‘just one more go’ game. You really won’t want to put it down. It’s so much fun to play and every time I died I was ready to go again, in both play options – the main story and survival. Survival is a time-based mode that gets increasingly difficult. It’s great in short bursts and the leaderboards for each mode are even more of an incentive to play again and again.
I cannot recommend Lone Ruin enough. I highly original, beautiful-looking twin-stick shooter with endless replayability. Not many games can be as tremendously tough as they are fun to play.
***** 5/5
Lone Ruin is out now from Super Rare Games.
