REVIEW: ReCore

ReCore is an adventure game which features modern platforming elements, intense firefights and challenging puzzles. While I was expecting a standard third-person shooter, ReCore plays more like a modern day version of Banjo-Kazooie, except the story is mature and mysterious. You can tell that the title is developed by the legendary Keiji Inafune and Mark Pacini because the game feels like a modern version of Mega Man blended with the shooting mechanics of Metroid Prime. Abilities like the extended forward dash and tracking charged shot feel like they were inspired by the developers’ previous works.

ReCore takes place on the desert planet of Far Eden where terraforming has gone horribly wrong. Joule awakens hundreds of years after the terraforming started thinking that she’ll find an Earth-like paradise but the planet is basically a wasteland controlled by rouge machines. Your task is to figure out what happened and rectify the mistake. In the process you must also band together with other survivors and unravel the mystery behind a Corebot known as Victor who seems to want humans gone. Lastly, you also have to uncover the fates of the colonists. Where is everyone? What’s really going on? These are the questions ReCore presents and it’s up to the player to uncover it all with the help of a structured mission layout and audio logs.

I was expecting the story to be an afterthought because I played Mighty No. 9 but that’s not the case. The tale ReCore tells is finely crafted and you want to keep on playing it to figure out what’s going on. It takes many turns and involves themes of transcendence which are rarely presented in video games. The game is definitely intriguing and hooks you from the beginning.

One aspect I immediately noticed was how great the voice acting was. For some reason I was expecting an experience similar to the Tomb Raider reboot which featured awkward dialogues and chemistry between characters but was surprised when it turned out to be a polished endeavor. Joule’s interactions with other characters is organic and the way she talks to the Corebots is heartwarming to say the least. It captures the bond we feel with our pets and is one of the highlights of the experience.

While the visuals aren’t mind-blowing, they are beautiful. The bleak and lonesome desert environment is captured flawlessly and the fact that the landscape is littered with massive terraforming machines invokes a sense of awe and wonder. Most of the textures are high-resolution assets and while there are technical issues which I will discuss later, they don’t hinder gameplay. The interior environments are varied and range from devious puzzle rooms to caves lit with crystals. The game gets even more varied when you approach the end and have to venture into massive buildings which house research facilities and much more.

ReCore is presented in a semi-open world pattern which features large areas for you to explore and find secrets in. It’s almost exactly like Rise of the Tomb Raider. You can interact with objects here and find lots of collectibles and crates full of crafting materials. There are also battery-like robots you can discover which unlock secret areas. There is so much to do and experience just in these regions alone.

Aside from giving you objectives to go to—whose waypoints sometimes don’t seem to work—the landscape has many dungeons which give you additional challenges. Be careful though, always read the level requirement before you enter because the combat is challenging and there’s no point in venturing in if you aren’t ready for the fights. Each dungeon also features an area at the very end which has rooms closed by different unlocking mechanics. These areas contain additional loot and upgrades as well as cores. In order to truly explore everything, you’ll have to complete a dungeon multiple times as you gain more abilities due to the progression of the campaign. Certain areas also require certain Corebots so you might not have the right one in your party at the time. This increases the title’s replayability because a lot of backtracking is involved.

Aside from the puzzles in the dungeons, the game requires a lot of jumping and dashing in the air. To reach certain areas you’ll need to use daring maneuvers like the obligatory double jump and extended dash. ReCore also requires you to…wait for it…interact with multiple cores to open doors and activate other devices. Finding specific cores to power certain structures forms the majority of the game and you’ll be pulling cores from machines and enemies to accomplish goals. The animations while doing it all are great too. They look natural and fluid. The controls also make everything from shooting to pulling cores easy and intuitive.

The combat is similar too. You can shoot you way through enemies or weaken them until the white triangles which signify that their core can be extracted. If you press the right thumbstick, a short pulling minigame starts which requires you to hold the right stick either loosely or firmly to pull the sphere out of your enemy. If you do this correctly you gain the core which translates to a lot of materials like upgrade components. I’ll talk about the upgrades later but just know that collecting cores is much better than just shooting everything and picking up the scraps. However, only collect cores from high-level enemies because they yield the most materials. You have an inventory with limited space so be careful or you’ll have to end up discarding items. And as you know from any video game, it’s always heartbreaking to leave something on the side because you don’t have enough space to carry it all. I’m thinking of you, Skyrim! There’s also an instant extract option which prevents combat from getting tiresome because you can dispatch enemies with the click of a button. The combat is definitely one of the game’s strong suits.

Unlike the trailers led us to believe, ReCore relies on crafting and upgrading the most. Not only can you improve Joule’s weapons and health, but you can also upgrade your Corebot companions. Throughout the campaign you come across robots like Mack, Seth and Duncan. Each one of them has a unique ability which you must use in certain levels. For example, Mack is good at finding buried objects. Seth can transport you across specialized platforms and Duncan, well, Duncan can smash. He’s like the Hulk of ReCore. There are others too.

You can upgrade the attack and defense ratings of each Corebot along with how much energy they have to accomplish certain tasks. The best part about this isn’t how you can upgrade these basic abilities, but how you can customize your Corebot’s appearance. Scattered throughout ReCore are blueprints to build better parts for your robot companions. Mack starts off weak but towards the end he becomes a fighting force. I was able to craft incredibly advanced body parts for him and not only did they change his appearance, but they also made him more durable and fiercer. He was eventually one-shotting enemies. Out of all the companions I think I liked Mack the most and always had him in my party. Speaking of which, yes, you can choose which Corebots you want to travel the desert wasteland with.

The upgrades are deep and numerous. I’m not sure if I actually got them all because there are just so many and you need to find a lot of materials to craft them. The crafting system is also deep, so deep in fact that I wasn’t able to master it fully. That would require a lot of patience and understanding, maybe even a wiki with all the possible combinations. Throughout your playthrough you collect parts like servos and can dismantle them for credits or combine them with others to produce super-parts. These parts are used to craft ultimate accessories for your robot companions. While you can play the game without really exploring this aspect of ReCore, I would recommend that you take the time to learn it because I imagine it makes the game that much easier and enjoyable. Additionally, it also adds to its replayability because you want to keep exploring and upgrading to dominate your opponents.

As alluded to earlier, everything isn’t great all the time. ReCore has many issues when it comes to its technical front. The game suffers from drops in frames during high-action situations and you can see lines appear on screen—which look like screen tearing but it might also be the edge of the anisotropic filtering. The game definitely needs more polish because apart from these problems, it suffers from long load times when you have to restart a section after death or when you’re entering a new area. This also affects how you fast travel because they’re sometimes so long that you begin to question whether or not the game is frozen. I did not get a chance to test out the Windows 10 version of the game but imagine that most of these problems have been addressed when it comes to a powerful gaming machine, but you never know.

The textures are great when the camera doesn’t go close to them but during cutscenes you can see how blocky and low-resolution some of them are. For example, I was shocked when the game started and I saw the opening cutscene. The armor on Joule’s arms was just hideous. I couldn’t imagine that a title coming out in 2016 used these art assets. Luckily, the game somewhat corrects itself as it goes on and you don’t see these jarring visuals too often. Many Microsoft exclusives have amazing textures and I’m shocked to see a game that runs at 30 FPS on Xbox One encounter these problems, especially a first-party title which is usually of the highest standard. This was the only part of the game which disappointed me and it’s a shame because everything else about ReCore is fantastic. The title needs more technical work and I’m sure the developers will release patches to address these concerns after release.

Summary

ReCore is one of the biggest surprises out this year. The quiet marketing is puzzling to me but the game is a smaller title which lacks the polish of a proper AAA release. For those looking for a true successor to games like Mega Man with hints of Metroid Prime, be sure to check out the game. Despite its technical shortcomings, ReCore’s story, combat and upgrade systems make it a thrilling and enjoyable experience. You won’t want to put the controller down once you start playing and will be a core-grabbing expert by the end. I know many gamers had concerns about this title due to the lack of awareness but it’s amazing. You shouldn’t have any doubts when picking this one up. Hopefully the title will get a sequel with an increased budget because I think Microsoft has a unique and nostalgia-evoking franchise on their hands which brings us a proper modern platformer.

On a separate note, I would like to say that after Quantum Break—which was a personal disappointment for me even though many others on our staff loved it—I somewhat lost faith in Microsoft exclusives. Games like Quantum Break felt unfulfilling because they demanded sequels. Halo 5’s campaign was the same way. ReCore is not only fun from the start, but it leaves you satisfied. That has to be the best part of the overall package.