Rise & Shine Review – Beautiful, Brutal, and Brilliant

<p><em>Rise &amp&semi; Shine<&sol;em> is likely going to be a surprise hit in 2017 for those who decide to give the game a chance&period; Not often in the past few years that there has been a game with such thoughtful design from a handful of abilities at the player&&num;8217&semi;s disposal inside a game which looks stunning on screen&period; The violence is overstated and the story lets down an intriguing concept&comma; but the game shines as a standout January release&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-youtube layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"500" height&equals;"281" data-videoid&equals;"O6AOqzqjyDg" title&equals;"Rise &amp&semi; Shine Launch Trailer &vert; Adult Swim Games"><a placeholder href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;O6AOqzqjyDg"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;O6AOqzqjyDg&sol;hqdefault&period;jpg" layout&equals;"fill" object-fit&equals;"cover" alt&equals;"Rise &amp&semi; Shine Launch Trailer &vert; Adult Swim Games"><&sol;a><&sol;amp-youtube><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Rise&comma; after a series of unfortunate circumstances&comma; finds himself as the only hero who can save Gameearth from the destruction of the Nexgen armies &&num;8211&semi; this is pretty much what&&num;8217&semi;s happening right now&comma; to be honest &&num;8211&semi; but there&&num;8217&semi;s a problem&semi; he&&num;8217&semi;s a kid&period; Why is he the only one&quest; He has been passed down the legendary weapon&comma; Shine&comma; from a fallen hero who you might recognize as an homage and he is the only one who can use it&period; As a result&comma; Rise goes on a terrifying adventure&comma; which tells a disappointingly simple story&period; The concept is really cool&comma; and as you see references to games of old and some new&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll likely wish they could have done more with the narrative&period; How do these worlds fit together&quest; Who else could have been spoofed or been made as an homage&quest; How is Rise coping with the bloodshed around him&quest; It could have been expanded further and at the end&comma; there is a dramatic scene but it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t feel impacting due to the lack of character development&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; <em>Rise &amp&semi; Shine<&sol;em> is gripping due to its outstanding game design&period; The puzzles have you really think about the game mechanics in a different way&comma; and it also flips traditional conventions at certain points&period; The puzzles are a great way to break up the intense combat segments&comma; which have fun-as-hell sidescrolling shooting that requires skill from the gamer&period; Each level flows well with atmospheric segments&comma; battle sections&comma; and the puzzles&period; A showing of a great game is when your knowledge of the mechanics is tested progressively in difficulty and <em>Rise &amp&semi; Shine<&sol;em> does that&comma; especially during its tough-as-nails final boss&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;117643" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-117643" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"wp-image-117643 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;01&sol;28172550&sol;RiseShine-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Rise&amp&semi;Shine 1" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-117643" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Rise &amp&semi; Shine&comma; Adult Swim Games and Super Awesome Hyper Dimensional Mega Team &rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Whenever you figure out a puzzle through a unique twist of a mechanic or even the bosses and go through a tough wave of enemies&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s rewarding and incredibly fun&period; The only issues to be had are that the game doesn&&num;8217&semi;t allow checkpoint saves and the enemies are sometimes to small to see&period; If you are stuck at a boss or can&&num;8217&semi;t figure out a puzzle&comma; you have to start the 15-20 minute level again from the beginning&period; As for the small enemies&comma; play this on as big of screen as possible because they can be a big pain as one type is hard to see and they zip from one side of the screen to another&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Oh man&period; The game has such a stunning art style and thrilling soundtrack&period; The 3D models within the 2D plain stand out and the cartoon art style really pops on screen&period; There is so much detail in the background and the art itself is interesting as the game worlds we knew while growing up are getting destroyed&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s unique but also strikingly disturbing&period; Despite this game looking like a cartoon and having a kid as a lead protagonist&comma; it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t pull its punches&period; There are depictions of characters we know from video game history killed off in gruesome ways and it&&num;8217&semi;s disturbing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;117641" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-117641" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"wp-image-117641 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;01&sol;28172232&sol;riseshine-3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"rise&amp&semi;shine 3" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-117641" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Rise &amp&semi; Shine&comma; Adult Swim Games and Super Awesome Hyper Dimensional Mega Team &rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Rise &amp&semi; Shine<&sol;em> has an excellent sense of atmosphere during its tense levels&comma; thanks to its visual and audio work&period; Damian Sanchez&comma; the composer of the game&&num;8217&semi;s soundtrack&comma; with his music keeps the battles intense and the overall theme epic&period; For example&comma; the strings of the soundtrack are beautiful to listen to in the track&comma; <em>Seashores<&sol;em>&comma; but it maintains an epic battle for survival throughout&period; The developers cleverly manipulate the music to scale up the tone of the song depending on what&&num;8217&semi;s happening on screen&period; For example&comma; boss battles have stages to them and on the last stage&comma; the song gains more percussion&comma; creating more tension with the player&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>One thing to note is the game&&num;8217&semi;s length&period; The playthrough for this review took about 3-4 hours to complete&period; Others have reported 2-3 hours of playtime&period; The game unfortunately lacks replay ability with uninspired collectibles&comma; but the game overall for what it offers is worth the price of admission&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Check <em>Rise &amp&semi; Shine<&sol;em> out because this game should get a sequel&semi; this game could shine even more within its beautiful video game inspired world&comma; cleverly designed puzzles&comma; and action packed gameplay if it was given a more involved story line and a checkpoint save system&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center"><em>A PC code of Rise &amp&semi; Shine was received by the publisher for review purposes&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;