Riverbond (2019)

Whether you’ve conquered many other quests already or have a young adventurer yearning for their first, Riverbond is a great adventure for the casual and the experienced.

Riverbond is a game that feels as if it were meant to be part of a larger and more ambitious world. It's great for jumping into a quick game to feed your hack and slash needs throughout the day, but with no in-game saves, no perks for skins collected, and a world that offers no room for real exploration, I find it hard to want to play with four friends because the enemies aren't challenging enough. Coupled by an imbalance in weapon damage and objectives that don't fit the style of play, I'd say Riverbond doesn't stand out in a genre that's already crowded.

So is Riverbond worth your time? If you have kids I would say that they couch coop experience is great. It introduces them to a great genre with a family-friendly filter. If you're looking for the next dungeon crawler for yourself I worry that there just isn't enough here to keep you interested for any length of time.

And that’s my biggest problem with this game: how tedious it is. You go through level after level and stage after stage, doing the same things over and over again. It doesn’t even feel rewarding towards the end, just a relief that the level is over. I really hate saying that, because this game had a lot of promise and is very pretty looking, especially for someone like me who loves that art style. I just wish there were a little more depth to the game, because as it is right now it’s very boring to sit through a lot of the time. I didn’t even mention the story that much because it’s very simple and takes a backseat to a lot of the game. For a simple pick-up-and-play game, I suppose it’s fine and serves the purpose of an arcade game well enough. But I don’t think it’s all that worth it, especially at the $24.99 price range where it sits right now. All in all I got about five hours out of the game, but I really wouldn’t recommend it unless you really love this kind of thing, or you need something simple and fun to play with friends.

Riverbond coaxes you in with its charming feel and aesthetically pleasing voxel graphics, only to thrust you into a monotonous hack 'n' slash. With the plethora of other games that have interesting art styles and incredible looks, it is hard to let the gameplay here slide, even with its comedic relief and destructible environments as a backer.