R.E.P.O. Early Access Review: My Friends Are Arseholes
A Smash Hit In The Genre Since Lethal Company
Released in Early Access by developer Semiwork, R.E.P.O. is a Lethal Company-esque 6 player co-op horror game that turns physics into a tool that allows you to haul and smash loot, practically making the game one big chuckle brothers team-building exercise, with your friendship and progress on the line.
If this sounds like a recipe for disaster, I’m glad to say it’s completely worth it. R.E.P.O. creates peaks of unscripted chaos that even a drunk driver could only dream of achieving. It absolutely stands out from the recent influx of similar indie horror games on the market and, for me, is a contender for the best out of the bunch alongside Lethal Company.
I adore playing silly co-op games, it’s a category focused first and foremost on having a blast, and I’m still waiting for AAA studios to catch on, as there is still so much potential in this area. Helldivers 2 feels like proof that there’s a gold mine here. These kind of games do a great job of bringing friends together, or in my case with R.E.P.O., pushing me one step closer to throttling the stupid twats. Priced at £8.50, this game is hard not to recommend even in its early-access state and will easily give you a couple hours of laughs.
R.E.P.O follows a familiar gameplay loop of entering a facility to collect loot worth so much currency, then once you have extracted the loot, you can spend that currency on items and upgrades with the aim of progressing as far as possible. One thing I appreciate with R.E.P.O. is that there’s very little downtime between missions, which made it feel like I got the most out of my sessions.
What really makes R.E.P.O. stand out from similar games is the physics. You’ll be carefully trying to carry your loot, both big and small, heavy and light, through tight corridors and around furniture, into your trolley. But if you’re not careful the loot will smash or lose value, causing moments where you just silently stare at each other for the fuckup. Naturally, playing with friends means that this is harder than it needs to be. This, combined with the numerous entities that spawn and roam the map, can make the game very chaotic, frustrating and positively hilarious.
Speaking of entities, there’s a good number of them, each unique and varying in size. For example, there are gnomes that will beat the shit out of your trolley when you’re not looking. These guys always appear at the worst times, usually when we’re being harassed by a larger entity, such as the man with a gun who reacts to sound. You’re not powerless in this game at least, you can use loot as a weapon, purchase equipment between missions, and even physically grab and pick up some entities. I can easily imagine players much more creative than I am, coming up with humorous ways to get rid of some of these entities.
Duck
Goofy Canadian Robots and Funny Voices
If you’re like me, a funny voice is all it takes to have a giggle. This game will make you want to use both text and voice chat because of all the features related to the communications. One feature that has been the source of so much fun for me is the robotic text to speech that changes to a strained whisper when crouched. Not only is it amusing to use, as of right now it’s completely uncensored. Another is a love potion, which when grabbed will make you flirt with your friends. It’s the little bits of humour like this that come together to make this game special for me and my friends, as it’s just fuel for our banter, adding to the overall experience.
Now since the game is in early-access, it’s worth noting the game currently doesn’t feature public lobbies, however, the devs have recently expressed in a recent developer update that this is something they can implement but would be accompanied by an anti-cheat to deal with hackers which in turn would affect mods. So they’re going to take their time to figure out the right way to do this.
While we are on the topic, this game does have issues that may get ironed out at some point. One issue I have is the sensitivity is very low, and are unable to change it without messing with DPI. My other problem is that purchasing upgrades can be quite expensive, especially as they only apply to the individual that claims it.
Thankfully that’s pretty much where my issues end as the game runs well on lower end hardware and there are next to no bugs that I have seen or experienced. Other issues such as map variety or entities being silent until they’re on top of you, are all things that can and most likely will be resolved, and in no way ruin the experience as it is right now.
R.E.P.O. Review
Overall, R.E.P.O. is a game that me and my friends are going to continue playing whenever we can all get together as its just a charming silly game. Its strengths are in creating the funniest unscripted moments, and bantering with your friends as they smash yet another expensive object “by accident”.
I have many highlights from my time playing the game, but one that stood out is when I was hauling my trolley up some stairs and my friends spectated as the loot fell out behind me down the stairs and smashed, all whilst my vision was obscured by the underside of the trolley. Then when I reached the top I was so confused where the loot had disappeared to. Dumb moments like these define this game for me, and every gaming session we always have new funny moments.
▲ Unique gameplay that creates endless comedy.
▲ Some entities stand out and certainly add to the experience.
▼ Items and upgrades too expensive to justify at times, especially with more players.
▼ On higher days, its best to stack buffs on one person, which isn’t very fun.
