Revita Review: Risk vs Reward

Revita is a twin-stick shooter platformer roguelite all about risk vs reward gambling mechanics. There is a ton going on in this game, and much more beyond the surface, making it one of the bigger roguelite releases this year.

Objective

Your goal is to climb a tower that’s separated into 5 zones. Along the way, you’ll be picking up a bunch of items and visiting tons of shops. The catch of the game is that your health is your currency. Every single item in the game has to be bought with your hearts. Lucky for you, there’s also a mechanic where enemies drop souls that increase a meter that lets you regenerate health, and even gain more max health. The risk of the game is up to how much health you’re willing to give up for power, and this mechanic alone is what makes Revita so enticing and exciting.

Content & Run Variety

The amount of content in this game is impressive. There are easily over 200 passive items and then there is a good chunk of active items, plus tickets which are bonuses you can start a run with. The base game has you going through the standard 5 areas but the game has multiple secret routes you can take for endgame objectives. My biggest issue here is that a lot of content is locked behind meta progression currency and it is a bit slow to get going, I’ve been unlocking about 2 new relics and maybe 1 new room type (things like a gambling room or improved shops) after each run. 

A few criticisms I have with the run variety are relatively minor. The bosses that appear on each floor are always the same which is unfortunate, although luckily these bosses have several patterns each and are very well designed. I know the game was designed with only the starting pistol in mind, but I wish you weren’t locked to only using whatever gun you choose to start with each run. The passive upgrades carry the run variety in the game significantly, and I do think there are some improvements to be made, although in the game’s current state I don’t feel it’s necessarily required.

One aspect Revita shines in is the shards system. These work as steady difficulty increases and stack onto each other and serve as an ascension mechanic. After your 5th shard, the game starts to get very complicated. To get further up the chain, you need to complete several obscure objectives during a run to unlock a secret final area and kill its boss. What’s insane about Revita is this is only the first of 3 secret paths. There’s a way to get to an infinite area and a way to unlock a 7th floor as well. As a huge fan of the Spelunky series, there aren’t many roguelites I’m aware of that have these sort of checklist systems for endgame content, and I love that Revita has this. It absolutely requires a guide to figure out what needs to be done which is a bit annoying, but I am so glad this system is here.

Presentation

Revita’s presentation is decent. I absolutely love the combination of dark, barely lit rooms combined with somber yet hopeful music, bringing the theme of the game together with its dark lore. I find it kind of neat that the camera zoom is altered depending on the size of the room you’re in, it can be a little disorienting but it’s a neat touch. Another criticism I have is that due to the overabundance of light blue due to the character, bullets, and certain items, it can be hard to keep track of everything, even with the outlines things have. The overall game-feel is kind of odd and off-putting at first, the game feels pretty lightweight, and everything is very large, plus your jump height feels abnormally high compared to most games. I found over time though that it’s not too hard to get used to and doesn’t hinder the game outside of first impressions. 

Conclusion

I am sure that my dozen hours of playtime and several victories barely scratch the surface of what Revita has to offer. There are things that I imagine I’m not aware of hidden within the game and a lot more going on than I know of, and because of this and my own experience, I would say Revita is absolutely a game to look into grabbing for yourself!