Lootbox Lyfe+ from Ratalaika Games and Conradical Games is a light Metroidvania set in a fantasy world. Check our Lootbox Lyfe+ review!
Lootbox Lyfe is a Metroidvania with high-skill movement as the core of its gameplay. Save your species by exploring a desolate, interconnected world riddled with platforming obstacles.
Lootbox Lyfe+ is a Metroidvania that was initially released on the Steam platform in early 2020 and it’s now made its way to consoles. In the game, you’ll be in control of a shape that will need to uncover Lootboxes in order to unlock all of its features.
As your journey starts, you do not even have the Lootbox allowing you to move or jump, so you’ll feel like you’re starting at the basics. Once the moving and jumping lootboxes are found, you’ll unlock these skills along with a few other ones throughout the adventure, like allowing you to break objects below you or shrinking to reach narrow passages.
As I began playing, I quickly realized that moving was slow, and the platforming felt underwhelming. The level design felt generic and made to make you fall into every trap possible. There are often passages where you need to have near pixel-perfect jumps in succession; otherwise, you’ll fall to your death, which I thought was harsh. The level design was the weakest factor for me.
Playing the game normally, you’ll need a few hours to reach the end since your progression will constantly be halted by the requirement of finding a loot box allowing you to pass through the obstacles in front of you. In case you would want to ease your experience, there are “assist” options allowing you to either disable the water pits damage or up to full and complete invincibility – thus being a god mode.
As for the presentation, it is great. I liked the pixel art, and the background soundtrack is fun to listen to. There are a few different areas to visit, and each one has its own palette and setting.
Lootbox Lyfe+ wasn’t for me. While I liked the idea as a whole, the game’s presentation, and its background soundtrack, I didn’t like exploring the different levels of this game and being constantly blocked without being able to progress, mainly because I didn’t know where the next important loot box was hidden.
With that being said, I’m a fan of Conradical Games, and I definitively recommend you to play their most recent game The Outbound Ghost, which was one of my GOTY last year.
Disclaimer
This Lootbox Lyfe+ review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Ratalaika Games.
