Re.Surs

Re.Surs is a very ambitious game in terms of lore, setting and story. But it’s held back by technicalities and writing to make it go all out. You have 16 chapters where the gameplay is mostly fighting enemies vaguely similar to Final Fight games, there is some simple hacking, a tiny amount of platforming and 2-3 vehicle sections. You can play with 3 characters that you can switch to from a menu, they have unique moves and skills that help keep the fights a bit fresh. The achievements are mostly related to completing the game with about 5-6 being optional/secrets. It took me around 4.8 hours to get all the achievements. As mentioned, the game’s ambitiousness is really impressive. It makes you want to learn more about the story/world due to the way it’s presented. There are lots of environments that have different settings, making you feel like you’re on a grand adventure. The sound effects, mixing and music are pretty great actually. I like many of the ideas the game has and I like what the developer is trying to do with the gameplay. Having 3 characters with different play styles is very welcome, it’s another example where you feel like the game is ambitious. The game auto saves pretty often, so you can quit quite easily whenever you feel like it. A lot of the technicalities are not very good however. Animations are generally unimpressive but I understand that a lot of work goes into this, especially for an indie developer. I’m less kind on the gameplay. Fighting works once you get used to it but character/enemy animations, stagger, speed and overall balance is not great. There are some sections held together thanks to the generous health drop by enemies whenever you’re low on health. It’s like a necessity to make things work. The platforming is awkward because you don’t do it freely. You switch into that mode when the game decides. Platforming could have also felt better if there was a dedicated jump button instead of relying on specific moves by certain characters. I can imagine it could have enhanced fights as well if you were allowed to jump there too. Lastly, it’s jarring that there isn’t a button to switch to other characters quickly instead of having to go to a menu. This just breaks the flow. There are many shortcuts to switch weapons, I would have preferred having those kind of shortcuts for the characters. As for the writing, it could have been worse. I didn’t really notice typos but you can tell that things are off. The writing is also not good in terms of quality, intend, how information is shared etc. I might sound very nitpicky here but the game has lots of text and the lore is clearly very important not just for this game but all the games that share this lore/universe/setting. It needs to get better if it’s emphasised this much. Overall I had a good time playing Re.Surs. The developer clearly has many great ideas that are being acted on. I can’t help the nagging feeling that there is potential for more but I prefer the dev actually releasing games. It feels like a lot can be learned through experience and it shows with the other games he/she released since. This game is on sale often, I got it for less than €1. So it’s not like you’re losing much when you give it a try. It’s a game to play out of curiosity, when you’re a fan of the developer and want to learn more about the lore/world.