Recore is a brand new IP from Microsoft for Xbox One and Windows 10. The game is part of their ‘Play Anywhere’ program meaning if you buy it on Xbox One, you get it free on Windows as well.
The game is set on a mysterious planet called Far Eden. You play as Joule, a young female who wakes after a long cryo sleep to find the planet has not been terraformed as was originally planned and the robots there were meant to carry out the task have turned evil. You spend the game fighting off these turned ‘core bots’ as you try to uncover the mystery of what happened and where all the people went.
Recore’s art style and presentation has a great vibe to it. It fits well with the gameplay. Your support companions are different core bots; you have a dog, a spider, a big monkey and another animal, however you can only carry two at a time with you so you might have to run around and switch before a particular dungeon or to access a secret area. Figuring out the best combos with your companions will also go a long way in ensuring your success. While the game is set in an open world, I personally wasn’t a fan of the tedious back tracking to change my companions and sort my inventory and upgrades. Recore isn’t really skill-based as far as shooting is concerned but there’s tons of platforming, puzzles and time trials. The game really pushes you to get that extra dungeon bonus by trying again and you’ll find yourself at it for quite a while. The combat is fairly straight forward but at the same time challenging. Multiple enemies can easily swarm you but if you play your companions and combos right its quite satisfying pulling off instant extractions for one hit KO’s.
Overall my Recore experience was near flawless, however I was playing in Windows 10. Xbox One owners have reported slower load times, issues with textures all which are being looked into and addressed. Good thing is that thanks to ‘Xbox Play Anywhere’ a console copy of the game means you can play it on Windows 10 without any extra fuss. Recore is quite enjoyable definitely worth a try, the fact that it’s not even a $60 game is a bonus.
overall 7/10 Strengths Nice art style. Fun combat and combos. Companion mechanics are great. Platforming and puzzles are challenging.
Weaknesses Console version doesn’t perform too well. Too much backtracking in open world.
