QCF: ReCore

t’s bizarre to me that in a medium that spends so much time romanticizing its past through a modern filter for audiences both old, and new, that there’s this weird bygone era in video games that hardly receives the same kind of attention—the 3D Platformer. One could argue that the nuances of the side-scroller will forever stand the test of time in contrast with that of games like Banjo–Kazooie, or Spyro the Dragon, doomed to fall in line with a specific aesthetic or design, but I think the formula deserves more than that, and personally, that outlook always came off like a copout.

Which is why Armature Games’ ReCore is a refreshing experiment to that sentiment; an open-world action adventure title that embraces the age-old “collect-a-thon” conventions of the 90’s, within a large open world game that’s still designed with modern sensibilities in mind.

The refreshment doesn’t last though as the title has one of the most unstable game engines to have ever been released out of a first-party title, and will often reduce the charming experience that ReCore has to offer into a steaming pile of garbage.

To be clear, the disappointment surrounding the Microsoft exclusive doesn’t stem from its follow-through of the game’s concept, but more on its ability to physically execute it in a fashion that cohesively delivers the intended experience, each and every time. There are a lot of merits that make Joule’s adventure in Far Eden undeniably endearing, and it just goes to shit the moment you find yourself repeatedly falling through the physical map for what seems like an endless decent until you die within a purgatory of lost code, doomed to repeat the same fate until you reset the game entirely.

It’s really a shame, because there are so many things with ReCore’s design that are done right, like the control for example, it’s one of the best handling setups I’ve used in an a present day platformer.

The dynamics of Joule’s momentum and physics all possess this after-touch effect that resonate a sense of precision to every jump or dash that you do with her. Whether it’s leaping a series of moving ledges and grapples, or perilously jetting across far distances, directing the action in ReCore consistently offers a very fluid command of maneuverability that’s intuitive, and enjoyable—the kind of enjoyable that makes exploring all the nooks and crannies the sprawling landscape more appealing than the available option of Fast Travel.

The shooting aspect is also ingenious in its method of balancing the fine line between simple accessibility, and complex combat to keep the action from getting repetitive. There’s only one weapon in your arsenal, offering rapid gunfire with rechargeable ammo during any point of cooldown between shooting, along with side-arm style charge shots that depletes a sizable amount of your given ammo every time it’s unleashed.

With only two modes of gunfire, the real depth offered is in the color-based stock mods that not only work to change certain characteristics of your attack, but they also play a role in doling out additional damage to enemy targets coordinated with the same color of fire. Blue energy adds an electric element to your shots, red boosts your assault with fire damage, and Yellow stuns anything hit with it, with some weird slowdown after-effects also being thrown in when used enough on the same target.

Another factor is the support that your metal companions give when battling hordes of rouge machines as well (more on them later) and how you can also tailor your play style around their distinctive areas of expertise on the battlefield. The default buddy Mack, is an all-around unit with strengths even spread across attack, defense, and energy, and as you recruit more of these clanky friends, you’ll see where their pros and cons lie, and which one will particularly excel in one firefight versus any of the others. In addition, similar to your gun, equipping the various companions in Joule’s company will alter their properties and tactics in battle differently from one another, giving you more options with them beyond their established prowess’s in combat. Equipping blue cores will add more energy, red increases attack, and yellow will boost defense—the management of this mechanic is similar to that of the standard skill tree, except without all of the strenuous commitment, and more flexibility, with no compromise to the result.

Another big element to the combat is the ability to harvest from enemies that work to make them stronger, which all depends on how you defeat them as well. Outright destruction of your mechanical foes will net you loot in the form of components that can be used to construct various armor upgrades for the robot pals, but the other method to kill them is weirdly akin to the feeling of catching a Pokémon in Nintendo’s hit handheld franchise—extracting the cores.

When engaging an opponent, you’ll have the option to initiate an extraction when their health hits a certain low point, launching a grappling cable that latches onto their core, and starts a veritable tug-o-war contest with your struggling foe, working to retrieve the core without them snapping the line as if they were a big-mouthed bass. The more damage you do to them, the weaker they are to fight back against your capture of their core, and when successfully taken, it will instantly kill the bot in one fell swoop, adding a bit of flair of efficiency to your fight as well. The cores stolen can be used to level up the same stats that their equippable counterparts strengthen whichever companion you decide to spend them on, and again, that all plays into how you choose to play ReCore.

The promising combat formula culminates even better when it’s put to action, as the cycling though a combination of varied enemies with their corresponding shots of weaknesses will net you additional scores of experience, offering a real sense of arcade-like reward to any cerebral effort that’s applied, and the gunplay more artful in the process.

While the Combat is deceptively deep, the exploration isn’t as lucky; I mean, it’s really exciting when you unlock a new means of traversal sure, but the excitement is far more fleeting than it should be. The open-world in Armature’s dystopian adventure does hold a whole of story to it, subliminally driving players to mine content out of the plethora of miniature dungeons available to tackle, and collecting the biggest prize within ReCore—the Prismatic Core. Similar to the Power Stars, Golden Jiggies, or power cells, the Prismatic Core is the major trinket to gather in your stay of Far Eden, working to access gated areas that not only progress the story, but also unlock the additional content. The twist is that collecting the bare minimum to proceed won’t do you a lot of good, because you’ll need the extra ones that you can find to unlock upgrades to your companions, that work to get you to areas that weren’t accessible before, leading to, you guessed it, more cores, being the flow of the game in a nutshell.

The problem is here though is at these areas are just micro gated areas of what’s already a fairly humble stage of the overworld, and really, doesn’t stack up into anything more than average filler, especially when you get further in the campaign. Another issue is that you’re only able to keep two friends in your immediate crew at one time, and a lot of areas will require you to swap out with the one of the other mates in your party back at your base of operations on the overworld. While most of these intersections usually have a Fast Travel station near them to help ease the burden of the trips, the need to do so is still maddeningly annoying, and only works to break the pace of your gameplay instead of adding any sort of depth to it.

Even then though, all those flaws truly pale in comparison to the performance of the game itself, like, I honestly couldn’t tell you guys how many times I randomly hit this game killing bug that would just stop any and all play, each and every time. Hell, at one point, I had to uninstall ReCore, and reinstall it just to correct one of these freak crashes just so I could go on!

The performance of the title is so haphazard though, that the experience ends up dwindling into something less than the sum of its parts, and it’s a damn shame too because there’s a lot more to ReCore that makes it stand out more than anyone could have initially thought otherwise.

In spite of these glaring issues, I personally still enjoy the game quite a bit, but I can’t in good conscience recommend it to any of you without punctuating the unavoidable jankiness that you have to contend with in order to play through it. I definitely still think you should grab this one up when it hits the bargain bin this holiday though because it’s still worth a look, just not a full-priced one.