LifeisXbox’s Highrisers review | Imagine, you’re trapped on a skyscraper. On top is a broken helicopter and on the lower levels, there are mutated creeps that will try to kill you on sight. This is what Solar Powered Games’ new game Highrisers is exactly like. In order to escape the creeps that are hunting you, you will have to fix the broken helicopter as it’s the only way out. Highrisers is an urban survival RPG where you lead a team of four survivors to their freedom. Or at least that’s what you try to do. Do you have what it takes to survive?
ℹ️ | We played Highrisers for 6 hours on PC. This game is only available on PC.
What we liked!
- Gameplay | Highrisers offers some fun and exciting gameplay, I already mentioned it a bit in my intro, but basically your squad of 4 is trapped on a skyscraper and the only way you can escape is with the broken helicopter on top of the building. In order to fix this heli, you will have to scavenge the building for materials that can be used in the repairs. Luckily the fun doesn’t stop there! You’ll also need to face of the so called dreamers, evil creatuers which roam in the building with the goal to kill you. So if you want to live you will also need to craft some weapons to hold them back and safely gather materials at the lower levels of the tower. Each of the 4 characters has its owns good expertise that you can make use of while progressing through the game, however you also want to make sure that you gather enough food and water supplies because you most certaily don’t want to starve to death.When I first saw what Highrisers was about I got really excited since the gameplay/story look really promising and I must say it didn’t dissapoint!
- Graphics | The game is presented to you in pixel art which really gives you that retro gaming vibe. On the left of you screen you have your crew, with their inventory spots, health and stamina bar and on the right of the screen you have some kind of minimap with all the floors of the skycraper so you can quickly change between floors and can always see where a member is at that moment. Yet, the main action takes place between those screens. On each floor you can dissasmble items for parts, find weapons or certain machines. Everything on your screen looks good and sharp and is easily reconizable. All in all, you can say that the graphics fit perfectly with the type of game the developers want to present you.
- Sound | The background music is a guitar/drum riff which also fits right in with the retro theme of the game that was already introduced in the art style. But what is even more promising is how the developers tackled the sound effects. Every charachter has its own voice, they don’t talk much but when you switch between them they say a line and also when they are performing an action they slip out a few words. It’s a nice addition without it being overly chatty for no reason. The other sound-effects of for example the materials falling on the ground or when you are taking something a part are also very well done and complete the game.
Somewhere between
- Controls | The controls aren’t the most difficult ones you will encounter and you are given a few tips, but here I missed some more information. Since at somepoints it isn’t completly clear what you need to do or where you need to click, things can become kind of confusing. It’s fun to explore everything and find your own way, which is basically a goal of the game, but some more help would have been appreciated. It actually caused me some frustration at the start of the game, so if you’re one of those players that’s easily frustrated, you might get annoyed by the lack of information on how to play the whole game.
- Tutorial | This immediatly brings us to the next point which is sort of the same. There is a tutorial which very very very quickly explains you the basics but it takes like 5 minutes max to complete and after that I still had moments where I wasn’t certain how things worked. It’s a good thing that they added one but personally some more help/explanation would have been great.
What we disliked
- Running around | A lot of things about Highrisers look promising but there is still one thing that I absolutley hated. And that is the fact that most of the game it feels like you are running around gather what you can gather and pile it up on the higher levels to keep it safe. I personally would have loved to see that this was a bit more worked out especially since every characther has its own skill line where they can develop skills which come in handy but to me feel a bit absolete since your just hoarding stuff that might be usefull later on.
How long to beat the story | 5 to 25 hours, depending on the spawn of resources
How long to get all achievements | Highrisers has no achievements.
Similar with | Nothing comes to mind
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