I had a lot of fun with the indie shooter demo, retrieve, but I knew it was special when I tried loading Ghostwire: Tokyo immediately afterwards and found it painfully slow. Speed isn’t everything, but I found myself craving the limitless wall-jumping and recoil-powered propulsion of this neon shooter.
The wave of boomer indie shooters of the past few years shows no signs of slowing down, and Reaver looks to contribute to this mini renaissance with its own brand of fast-paced, movement-heavy FPS action. Reaver owes more to Arsi “Hakita” Patala Ultra kill, but there are some important differences. Reaver is even more arcade-like, with firefights more strictly divided into discrete arenas, and its weapons adhere to a stricter “rock-paper-scissors” formula for balance. Reaver also commits more fully to freedom of movement, trading a certain heaviness present in the Ultrakill for a joyful, unrestricted vertical traversal.
Fellow retro-revival shooter Turbo Overkill made a splash recently with his lightning-fast chainsaw slide, but Reaver focuses his traversal in the opposite direction: his double-jump and dash skills are joined by a super pound floor jump and a chainable wall jump. himself infinitely. With additional movement options like a suspicious shotgun grappling hook from Doom Eternal and recoil-based propulsion on the dual SMGs, Reaver ends up being a game best enjoyed flying through the rafters of its cavernous levels.
These weapons really bring the gaming experience home. The arsenal is underpinned by an organic, easy-to-hold rock-paper-scissors balance, with the Deagle-esque magnum being the perfect answer for slow-moving snipers, while the submachine guns and shotguns help thin herds of melee enemies swarm. and get DPS against bosses. All weapons have infinite ammo, but Reaver’s Quake-style rocket launcher is balanced by having a slow reload between bursts of four heavy burst damage missiles. This tool-assisted speedrun by wao_destroyer on YouTube gives a great presentation of the theoretical skill ceiling these weapons and movement options offer.
A free demo with four full levels and a horde mode is now available on Steam, while Reaver’s development progress can be tracked by its creators. twitter and Youtube.