E3 Impressions: Recore

Even though Source Gaming has focused Super Smash Bros, we cover more than just Nintendo. and one of the more interesting games we saw was at the Microsoft, Recore.

The game is a third person shooter with plenty of unique mechanics.  During combat, you can swap the color of your gun to one of four different ammo types, represented by colors. Your goal is to match the color of your ammo with the color of your enemy to maximize damage. While this seems simple, it gets a bit more complicated when enemies of different colors appear. Of course, just firing at enemies based on their color won’t do as much damage.

This is where your robotic companion comes in. They can unleash powerful attacks that can deal major damage. In the demo, you had a spider like walker and a robotic dog. By combining charge shots with your robot companion’s attacks, you can do combos. When I first played the demo, I died in a battle of attrition. I couldn’t do enough damage to the enemies. By combining my robot companion’s attacks with my charge shot, I was able to do a lot of damage fast. You can even alternate your robot companions to keep the pain train going.

Outside of combat, the robots have other cool abilities. The spider walker can guide you along rails similar to the spider ball in the Metroid series. The dog didn’t do much in the demo, but a representative told us it will help you search for items in the sand.

The game itself looks great and controls well. The controls were a bit daunting for the demo, as you had a separate button for charging shots and other buttons dedicated to guiding and swapping the companion.  The part of the demo we played was further into the game, so I assume these mechanics will be introduced slowly over time.

The demo mostly put us in combat, but we had some opportunities to try out some of the robot companion’s features and even fight a boss; a large floating sphere that spewed enemies. The game also incorporated a fair bit of platforming, as the player character used a double jump and boost to traverse the stage. According to the representative, most people could not complete the demo. Spazzy and I were among the many who failed. Neo Zero, on the other hand, was successful.

All in all, the game is really solid and was a pleasant surprise. It had a Metroid Prime feel in a lot of instances and it was fun to play. I also love the color that is present in this game, and it’s a nice change of pace from the traditional brown gloom that plagued previous Xbox games in previous generations. We’ll have to wait to see how the final game turns out, but this would be a game to look out for if you own an Xbox One.