- 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 26/Jun 03:58

Rise of Rebellion – Review

It’s impossible to ignore FromSoftware’s ongoing success with games like Elden Ring and Dark Souls. The latter game’s title even resulted in the term ‘soulslike’ to define a genre by itself. So when former FromSoftware developer Hytacka decided to create his own independent entry in that very genre, it inevitably drew our attention. With Rise of Rebellion, Hytacka’s new studio Team 疾鷹 certainly makes an ambitious debut, but can the game live up to its spiritual predecessors? Story Once a peaceful place under the protection of dragons, the land of Jilla has fallen into ruin. The cause of this cataclysm are the Invaders, powerful deity-like beings that appeared out of nowhere and took over the land. With the dragons gone, it is up to the Tella, human warriors, to take on the Invaders and restore peace to Jilla. Players take on the role of one of the Tella and must drive away their monstrous oppressors. It’s a serviceable premise, but there isn’t anything to Rise of Rebellion’s story beyond this. Graphics The land of Jilla makes a good first impression. The sprawling world is presented as a fully rendered 3D environment that is yours to explore. As you spend more time in the surroundings, however, a feeling of repetitiveness starts to kick in. Rise of Rebellion lacks a distinct visual identity, with both the bosses and the environments looking very generic. There also isn’t a whole lot of environmental variety. It’s a shame, because the premise isn’t entirely capitalised upon and environmental storytelling could’ve compensated for this. It’s also worth mentioning that the game makes use of motion blur during fights. This is something that is often done to hide obvious imperfections, and it can be an effective technique. In Rise of Rebellion’s case, however, the game seemed overly reliant on it, to the point that it became distracting. Even with the blurring, performance wasn’t up to snuff, with an inconsistent frame rate. Sound Music is only sparsely used in Rise of Rebellion, typically just during boss fights. That means that most of the time, the game relies on ambient sound effects for its soundscape. This results in long stretches of effective silence, which in turn undermines the atmosphere and breaks the immersion. The sound effects that are present are okay, but nothing special. Gameplay We’re going to try and avoid any direct comparisons between Rise of Rebellion and Dark Souls, as these would be unfair. There are undeniable similarities between Team 疾鷹 ‘s title and its bigger cousin, but the scope and resources of the former are understandably much more limited. That doesn’t mean we’ll ignore the shortcomings of the newer game, of course. Being a soulslike game, the focus of Rise of Rebellion is on mastering melee combat first and foremost. The formula is familiar. Players will need to keep an eye on their stamina as they take on an increasingly powerful menagerie of enemies. There is a lot of trial and error involved with learning attack patterns, and knowing when to dodge the blows of opponents. It’s a formula that, when done right, has proven itself time and time again. To its credit, Rise of Rebellion understands what makes the soulslike formula so successful, and it manages to get a lot of it right. Some of the boss fights are highlights, delivering truly engaging and compelling encounters. Unfortunately, these are rare glimmers of Rise of Rebellion’s potential. As a whole, the game feels unfinished, with an uneven difficulty level between the different bosses. Hit detection feels unreliable, for starters, and the controls shift between clunky and precise, with seemingly no rhyme or reason. Enemy AI also is wildly inconsistent, resulting in a mixture of battles that absolutely nail the soulslike gameplay that Rise of Rebellion goes for and tedious fights that feel like boring slogs. It all adds up to a game that comes across as unfinished. To its credit, Team 疾鷹 is actively monitoring player feedback and has promised post-launch improvement updates, so there is some hope that Rise of Rebellion can catch a second wind. The current build feels like an Early Access game. If it had been, we’d have been more forgiving. Rise of Rebellion isn’t a fairly short title, with a runtime of around 8 hours. That is something that is reflected in its €8.79 price point, as that is remarkably cheap for how ambitious it is. If the game’s shortcomings can be overcome over the next few months, this one may be worth checking out. There’s a free demo on Steam too, but this is one of the rare cases where we’d say the demo isn’t indicative of the overall game. Rise of Rebellion starts off strong, but trails off, unfortunately, and this isn’t something that you’d get from just dipping your toe in the land of Jilla. Conclusion Expectations were high, and the potential for greatness certainly was there, but Rise of Rebellion fails to deliver overall. We cannot blame Team 疾鷹 for a lack of ambition, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. To its credit, some of the boss fights are great, and the price point can’t be beat. Hopefully, a few updates can bring Rise of Rebellion up to the standard that it should’ve been at in the first place.