Preview | Rise of the Betrayer

LifeisXbox’s Rise of the Betrayer preview | Today we will take a slight dip in a platformer that made me appreciate the good old days of pixel art and arcade/Metroidvania life! It feels like a game that should have been made 10 years ago but is here for all of us to be enjoyed. I am talking about Rise of the Betrayer, a game made by the people at Blasted Realm. But is it a demo that you should try? Or should you steer away from it? Let me tell you all about that right now.

What do you do in the game?

In Rise of the Betrayer, you are first greeted with a story told by a narrator. And boy, do I love a good narrator. Just a slight shame that you can’t move while listening, but hey, there is a price for everything. That being said, after your first mandatory story introduction, you are off to the hopping (platforming). You will gradually collect weapons, skills, and powerups, all in the quest for exploration.

All of this is mixed with a well-scaled design kit. Like honestly, you get the best from both worlds. You get some beautiful scenery and well-animated bosses. Yet, you somehow are blended into a fully developed world in this pixel art style that makes you feel like you are playing with an old handheld console. But this time, it actually plays excellent!

For the most part, at least. I found myself wanting to venture into the wild open-world that this game has to offer, but I was quickly met with a few enemies. And they are hard to defeat if you don’t pay attention. In and by itself, this isn’t a bad thing. But I somehow hope that I can warn all of you before you sometimes need to keep your head to this game. Enemies can be a real nuisance and quickly drain your health bar if you don’t accurately look to avoid hits.

So what is up with it then?

While all of that might sound like it is pretty generic, I must agree with you on the fact that so far, nothing stood out too much. But for a game to actually work, it needs to be executed well. Rise of the Betrayer looks to be a complete game with a lot of potential for a great ending!  Yet, some things need to change. When I was playing the demo, I could only shoot in 2 angles, which pissed me off! Since I had to wait for enemies to come in my crosshairs so that I could shoot them. Especially bats caused a problem here. But that is where you have to play it like an evasive platformer, I would say. You can do a lot, but it can feel rather weird to control at times.

Final verdict: Should we be hyped?

With a dedicated team focussing on Rise of the Betrayer, things can’t go wrong. And I sure hope that the people over at Blasted Realm bring this game out in a beautiful state, since I genuinely look forward to playing this game when it is fully released. It just really invokes this mood of you wanting to sit on the couch and grind through levels. If you want to see what I mean with that, go ahead and try out the free demo on steam right now, and let us know what you thought of it.

If you like this type of game be sure to check it out and support the developers. The estimated release date should be somewhere this summer! So get them summer vibes all ready!