Log Status
Completed
Playing
Backlog
Wishlist
Rating
Time Played
--
Days in Journal
2 days
Last played
March 21, 2023
First played
March 17, 2023
Platforms Played
This game hates you. And do you know what? That's fine - the feeling is mutual. And if I wasn't so stubborn, I'd have binned this off. Maybe I should have done so - it would have saved me 15 hours of intense frustration and dissatisfaction over the really bad game design, crazy difficulty spikes, and general annoyance with the whole package.
I only started this to get the 500 MS reward points for unlocking 3 achievements. That didn't take me too long to do, and I got them all in the hand-holding opening section which is actually quite good. Combat seemed to be straightforward but reasonably fun, platforming sections were unoriginal but perfectly fine, so I thought what the hell, let's stick with it.
Unfortunately, Recore appears to age dreadfully the longer you play it. The world itself isn't particularly pretty or interesting, and if you're looking around for certain objects (more on this later) then respawning enemies seem to constantly get in your way which is a bit of a hassle. The story itself is not memorable, nor the characters you meet aside from your corebots - cute robot companions who have a specific skill you can use for both combat and platform traversals. You play as Joules, but even the protagonist isn't in any way memorable and you never feel connected to her mission.
As you learn new skills and the enemies scale with your skill levels, Recore starts to fall apart quite dramatically. I really liked the use of different colours for different enemies. Using the d-pad changes which colour you fire - if you're up against red enemies, use the red ammo, same for blue, yellow, white etc. All okay. Until you start facing a whole swarm of the bastards, with no easy way of seeing what's behind you. Combat is clunky in close quarters and totally ineffective at long range. When you get swamped by several different colours all at once, you'll be staggered back and probably hit again before you're able to recover. It takes a fair amount of skill to jump , dash, change fire colour, use your corebot as back up, ensure your weapon doesn't overheat etc but it's never fun to do it. It's frustrating, it's clunky and that's before the bugs that might take effect. Several times, my weapon stopped firing and only quitting the game back to the dashboard could stop that. Other times, poor Joules got stuck in the scenery meaning insta-death. And at once point, during a tense boss battle close to the end of the game, I lost firepower AND got stuck in the scenery.
Another stupid lack of foresight is the fact you can only take 2 out of your 3 corebots. Which is a pain because you'll come across some sections where you need the 1 you had to leave behind. So you have to find a fast travel station to switch round again. Then you'll find another section where you'll need the one you left behind, so you'll have to backtrack to the fast travel point and change around again. FFS, why?
On top of this - the aim of the game is to collect Prismatic Cores - found as part of the main story but also side quests, where you need all 3 of your corebots. As I didn't really fancy trying to collect some of these tedious Prismatic Cores found perched atop seemingly unassailable ledges, I just stuck to the main campaign. Until I reached a point where I only had 17 of these cores, but needed 30 to progress. Fucking hell - nothing else for it, time to grind these dull, frustrating side quests.
I have to also moan about the final 1/3 of the game. It is shit. It's basically loads of incredibly dull, frustrating and annoying platform sections interspersed with the occasional 3 waves of very tough enemies. If you die on the last enemy of the final wave, you're right back to the start of wave 1. At close quarters. It looks rubbish, it's FAR too long and by the end of each section, I was so glad to have finished. Until there was another identical looking floor with the same mix of crap platforming and frustrating combat. And then you finish that..... only to be faced with yet another identical looking floor with the same mix of crap platforming and frustrating combat. And then you finish that.... etc etc.
Also, the final boss is way too difficult. I was delighted to finish this - not for any sense of achievement (aside from my own stubbornness winning over common sense) but because I never ever want to go back to such a frustrating, poorly designed, drab game like this.
I hated it, and coming from someone who always tends to see the positives in games, that's quite the accolade. Avoid - it's not worth 500 MS reward points.
I only started this to get the 500 MS reward points for unlocking 3 achievements. That didn't take me too long to do, and I got them all in the hand-holding opening section which is actually quite good. Combat seemed to be straightforward but reasonably fun, platforming sections were unoriginal but perfectly fine, so I thought what the hell, let's stick with it.
Unfortunately, Recore appears to age dreadfully the longer you play it. The world itself isn't particularly pretty or interesting, and if you're looking around for certain objects (more on this later) then respawning enemies seem to constantly get in your way which is a bit of a hassle. The story itself is not memorable, nor the characters you meet aside from your corebots - cute robot companions who have a specific skill you can use for both combat and platform traversals. You play as Joules, but even the protagonist isn't in any way memorable and you never feel connected to her mission.
As you learn new skills and the enemies scale with your skill levels, Recore starts to fall apart quite dramatically. I really liked the use of different colours for different enemies. Using the d-pad changes which colour you fire - if you're up against red enemies, use the red ammo, same for blue, yellow, white etc. All okay. Until you start facing a whole swarm of the bastards, with no easy way of seeing what's behind you. Combat is clunky in close quarters and totally ineffective at long range. When you get swamped by several different colours all at once, you'll be staggered back and probably hit again before you're able to recover. It takes a fair amount of skill to jump , dash, change fire colour, use your corebot as back up, ensure your weapon doesn't overheat etc but it's never fun to do it. It's frustrating, it's clunky and that's before the bugs that might take effect. Several times, my weapon stopped firing and only quitting the game back to the dashboard could stop that. Other times, poor Joules got stuck in the scenery meaning insta-death. And at once point, during a tense boss battle close to the end of the game, I lost firepower AND got stuck in the scenery.
Another stupid lack of foresight is the fact you can only take 2 out of your 3 corebots. Which is a pain because you'll come across some sections where you need the 1 you had to leave behind. So you have to find a fast travel station to switch round again. Then you'll find another section where you'll need the one you left behind, so you'll have to backtrack to the fast travel point and change around again. FFS, why?
On top of this - the aim of the game is to collect Prismatic Cores - found as part of the main story but also side quests, where you need all 3 of your corebots. As I didn't really fancy trying to collect some of these tedious Prismatic Cores found perched atop seemingly unassailable ledges, I just stuck to the main campaign. Until I reached a point where I only had 17 of these cores, but needed 30 to progress. Fucking hell - nothing else for it, time to grind these dull, frustrating side quests.
I have to also moan about the final 1/3 of the game. It is shit. It's basically loads of incredibly dull, frustrating and annoying platform sections interspersed with the occasional 3 waves of very tough enemies. If you die on the last enemy of the final wave, you're right back to the start of wave 1. At close quarters. It looks rubbish, it's FAR too long and by the end of each section, I was so glad to have finished. Until there was another identical looking floor with the same mix of crap platforming and frustrating combat. And then you finish that..... only to be faced with yet another identical looking floor with the same mix of crap platforming and frustrating combat. And then you finish that.... etc etc.
Also, the final boss is way too difficult. I was delighted to finish this - not for any sense of achievement (aside from my own stubbornness winning over common sense) but because I never ever want to go back to such a frustrating, poorly designed, drab game like this.
I hated it, and coming from someone who always tends to see the positives in games, that's quite the accolade. Avoid - it's not worth 500 MS reward points.