Rochard
By Recoil games
Genre: Similar to Metroidvania, but more combat-oriented.
Rating: None, probably Teen for Mild Language and Violence
John Rochard, captain of a mining operation employed by multi-planetary conglomerate SkyRig, is not having a good day. Upon revealing an unexpected find on an asteroid, Rochard reports it to his superior, Maximilan. A day later, everything on his mining vessel goes wrong! Communications goes out, multiple gravity malfunctions manifest, and the ship comes under attack by space pirates, the Wild Boys! His X.O., Skyler, and the rest of his crew are trapped elsewhere on the ship, and he must locate them and keep them safe until the SkyPolice show up!
How is he to do this? He’s just a simple miner… but as we have seen before in certain, much darker games (Dead Space), engineering types have a way of improvising when the chips are down. So, he grabs his trusty mining tool of choice, the G-Lifter! This handy gravity manipulator can grab anything that isn’t nailed down and fling it with force against Rochard’s enemies. With an upgrade early on, it becomes a makeshift (though easily-overheated) assault rifle, to get at those enemies that can’t be bludgeoned with the spare crates lying around.
All this sounds like a big setup for a simple concept, and hey, it is. But I won’t knock this game for being simple, not when the graphics are great, the physics consistent and predictable, the story (unnecessary in large amounts in games like this) surprisingly fleshed-out, and the attendant voice-acting quite funny and convincing.
So grab a crate and fling it at your nearest unfriendly space pirate today, and make the galaxy a safer place! Five out of five!
