It’s been awhile since I’ve just sat back on the couch with a friend and enjoyed a good old fashioned couch co-op session. Co-op experiences in general have migrated online largely but there are still instances where developers take a step back to greater times but in new ways. Riverbond, by developer Cococucumber, is one such way with a lot of hack and slash/shooter action mixed with a lot of colorful little voxel cubes.
At first glance Riverbond reminds me of 3D Dot Game Heroes’ visual style but with the isometric layout of Diablo as its foundation. Even then Riverbond is clearly different the moment you start your adventure. The story that you piece together as you play is that the each of the Eight Worlds have been thrown into disarray after The Knight imprisons their leaders to bolster his power. It’s up to you, a Riverland bunny named Max, to set out to save the worlds. Or you can forget all that and just have fun, but I’m a sucker for RPGs and talking to animal folk with giant exclamation points above their heads.
Riverbond is more akin to Diablo when it comes to the actual combat which is where most of its fun lies. The thing about Riverbond is that combat is very simple in its design. That alone is a big part of its charm as anyone can pick this up and play. There are no character levels or skills to unlock but rather five different types of weapons that you find in chests throughout each of the levels in any given episode. The downside is that whatever you pick up besides your starting melee sword and ranged blaster is lost at the end of each episode.
Due to this you will most likely pick up three additional weapons as well as manually switch out to more favorable ones. I rather enjoy the fact that you have to manually pick up and then slot the weapon in a rather streamlined method. Switching back and forth between them is done with left or right on the D-pad making it really easy to switch in the heat of combat. Control wise you can attack with either the X or Right Trigger button depending which feels more natural to you.
Weapon types found in Riverbond are your pretty straightforward sword, ranged, club, spear and dual wield based varieties. I like the fact there are different forms of each within all of these categories. For instance the pirate sword or katana has more reach than the starter one making it better for keeping multiple melee foes at bay. Dual wielding weapons on the other hand have the shortest reach but the quickest melee attack rate for quickly taking on individual targets.
My personal favorite however is the ranged class for a few reasons. For starters some of the enemies including flying ones and bosses, while not posing significant challenges, are less open to direct melee attacks, especially when playing solo. Even within the ranged category, there is a decent amount of difference between them such as fire rate. Ranged weapons also have to be reloaded once the “clip” is empty. I use the word clip loosely because how exactly do you reload a gun that shoots rainbows. Trust me when I say defeating foes with the power of rainbows is awesome though.
There are more than 50 different weapons to be found throughout Riverbond across all the weapon types. Some are wildly outlandish like a bee gun, scorpion sword and even one that is so out of the blue that I can’t spoil it. Point is, the weapon choices are fresh yet familiar and each one may be useful or a challenge to the right player. This does give your playthroughs some variety each time you play, as this is the type of game that doesn’t really end in fanfare or conclusion once you beat it.
On average, I got through each world in roughly 30 to 45 minutes. This, I feel is largely due to the fact that you can play this with up to three other people in drop in/drop out local couch cooperative play. The most important thing to note is that Riverbond is LOCAL co-op only on one system despite the somewhat confusing Xbox store listing of “Xbox Live local co-op” in it capabilities. Now personally I prefer local co-op having grown up with it, but for the $25 price tag it seems a little steep for just local play. That said the co-op is just as chaotic as the game describes it and as long as there is another player still alive you or they can attempt to revive each other without waiting to respawn normally.
To keep from having up to four blue clad bunnies running around in co-op, making it confusing to tell who is who each additional player is given a randomly selected skinned character at first. At the beginning of each area, players are allowed to select a different character skin. While only a few are available at first you will eventually unlock more like an eggplant or pug and even a few guest stars such as The Kid and Raz from Bastion and Psychonauts respectively. I found it very amusing and ironic that you unlock Shovel Knight and find a shovel weapon in the episode where the game’s final boss is a Black Knight.
It’s this kind of humor and charm that makes up the other main enjoyable element that made Riverbond a joy to play. Little things like the dialogue of the world’s inhabitants to even their names. One episode is a desert where the animal folk are all hamsters cleverly named after famous people or characters. Another episode’s area was comprised of pigs where the joke inherent took me a few seconds to realize but again made me smile once I got it. Even when the worlds that you visit are at their voxel gloomiest there is often some humor to be found within.
While folks would be quick to compare its visuals to the still popular Minecraft, I however see Riverbond’s inspiration coming from much older roots as well as a more modern one along the way. As a big fan of the earlier Zelda games and 2010’s 3D Dot Game Heroes, which also pays homage to Zelda, I quickly found Riverbond’s voxel setting and effects to be quite charming even in the dreary rain. What’s better is that you can break nearly anything into voxel bits that isn’t part of the main environments, which paired with its isometric level design offers lots of fun and some much encouraged exploration. There are plenty of somewhat hidden areas and items to collect worth some achievement points. All players just have to be willing to work together since your limited to the same single-screen space much like early LEGO and Diablo games.
Speaking of achievements, which I’m sure more than a few Xbox One users are completionist oriented, this is an easy one to max out on. As most of the achievements are progressive there are only a few that could be missed for the non-adventurous. That said there is one rather large downside. Unless you are the host (Player 1) no one else will earn achievement even if you have your profile signed in as well. All of the weapon based ones however are unique in co-op apparently because they will earn progress for the weapon kills even if they aren’t the ones using the weapon, as I found out with my friends. While this kind of detracts from the other players enjoyment it’s not a massive deal breaker overall as the game is completely playable solo.
If anything can be said about Riverbond it’s that it is rather forgiving in its gameplay, which to be honest is kind of refreshing in gaming today. The combat itself isn’t particularly challenging, though that’s not saying you won’t die at all. Utilizing the evade button and special attack (which is the same for every skin) effectively makes things easier even in the most chaotic moments. But the rather surprising part was when I died playing solo during a boss fight. The enemies health including all bosses do not reset upon your death. In true style to some old school games, most enemies do respawn when reentering interior/exterior locations so Death in Riverbond is pretty much on sporadic vacation.
So at the end of the day, Riverbond was a rather welcome romp into a modern mix of games that I grew up on. Balanced gameplay elements of Diablo, Zelda, and 3D Dot Game Heroes make for something that young and old gamers alike can come together to enjoy. Riverbond’s colorful destructible voxel visuals will draw in the young ones while the smooth combat mechanics will hark to older action RPG fans. I suppose the only frustrating thing I foresee outside of the achievements are some players wanting to blow through levels while others want to slow down and explore, but that will never change with these kind of games. Riverbond ultimately is just the kind of action RPG that family and friends alike can dive into, so be sure to check it out via the Xbox Live Marketplace or Xbox Game Pass today.
