Crystal Rift from British indie team Psytec Games is a first-person grid-based dungeon crawler with PS VR support. This means that you can play the game without it as a regular PS4 game if you don’t have Sony’s VR headset. How does this old-school style release fare on Sony’s console? Read our Crystal Rift review to find out!
The game will throw you into a tutorial dungeon so that you can get the hang of things. You’ll learn how to move around, moving forward and backwards, left and right as you sidestep hazards and dangerous bottomless pits. You’ll then be given a sword to defend yourself and will get a chance to do so against some stationary barrels. After you’ve had enough with the barrels, you’ll end up in a small holding block where you’ll get a taste of battle. A single skeleton will stand in your way, teaching you that you should be careful of all enemies, always moving around as you attack and exit their attack range.
If you are defeated by a monster, or if you’re not careful and enter into a trap, you will lose a life – lose all, and it is game over. This is why it’s important that you save your game at the fountains specifically set for said purpose. On top of this, if you’ve lost a life or two, be sure to grab the health vials that will restore one life to your count. If you’re low on lives, you’ll be dangerously close to a game over because danger lurks around every corner in the dungeon.
A word of warning: when you pause the game, you’re not really pausing the game – you’re only accessing the game’s menu. Why is this important? Because if you’re in the middle of a battle and decide to “pause,” you’ll end up very, very dead. Same goes for “pausing” the game while in a room with, say, deadly fireballs flying towards you. They WILL continue to move, and they WILL kill you.
The game features a full trophy count with a Platinum trophy at the end of your quest, and the best thing is that none of the trophies are missable! There are only three trophies for collectibles that might give you trouble if you’re not careful, so if you find any notes, skulls, and idols, grab them as soon as you see them!
You’ll need to complete the game twice (once in Normal to get the hang of things, and once in Nightmare difficulty) to get all trophies, but even then you’re looking at around 12-15 hours at most. You could technically start in Nightmare difficulty and do a single run, but due to the game’s overall challenge you’ll probably end up frustrated due to the many traps and enemies you’ll encounter – without knowing how to defeat them or what to do with traps, a single Nightmare run will end up being very hard!
Crystal Rift is a game that pays homage to old-school dungeon crawlers, and it shows in its gameplay mechanics, dungeon layouts and puzzles. It’s a fun diversion on PS4 that has a few wrinkles here and there that keep it from being a more solid release. Trophy hunters will love the relatively straight forward trophy list with no missables, as well as its budget price. PS VR support is definitely a plus and something that does add extra value to this release.
Disclaimer
This Crystal Rift review is based on a PS4 copy provided by Psytec games.
