Blast across the galaxy with friends in co-op shoot’em up Riftstar Raiders, coming 2017 to PS4

Do you remember these Wednesday afternoons spent at the arcade with your friends, using up your pocket money? No? Well, we do and we want to share that experience with you.

Some of those games were about competing against your friends and rivals, others were about cooperating. At Climax Studios we have a fond nostalgia for those times, those games, especially the shoot’em ups! So we asked ourselves “What would a shmup made nowadays, focused on cooperation, competition and using modern game mechanics feel like? How could we relive the feeling of fun we had playing with as well as against each other?”

And that’s the challenge we took on with Riftstar Raiders, to deliver a unique and original experience by offering a perfect mix of modern multiplayer, top down shooter with skill based combat and retro shoot ’em up tropes based on the instant fun aspect of the Japanese arcade’s golden age.

Riftstar Raiders is a 2.5D top-down, fast paced shoot’em up made by a team who love the genre and want to push it further. Unlike the majority of recent shooters though, Riftstar Raiders gives players a more natural feeling, physics-based gameplay which takes practice and skill to master; your ship will react to the realistic forces applied to it, so maneuvering through an asteroid field or around a nebula takes real piloting skill.

You and up to 3 friends take on the roles of rogue pilots who’ll accept any type of mission as long as there’s cash on the table… no questions asked! Together you’ll be swept up in an all out interstellar war between 4 factions, across 9 hand-crafted missions in order to become the best smugglers, pilots and outlaws that the Far Reach has ever known!

 
In Riftstar Raiders it’s all about the loot. There’s a lot of perks to loot and, when combined with their unique tech trees and upgrades, lets you craft and customise new weapons, shields and boost drives. This lets you create the ship systems that match your play style and role within your squad: Want to be the tank shielding your team-mate? Or are you more the striker hammering enemies? Maybe you want to be the healer or support class in order to help your team survive tough situations? There are tons of possibilities for you to discover and experiment with. That’s without even mentioning the cosmetic customisations you can apply on your Raider spacecraft: change hulls, skins, banners, enough to make it your own.

Every single play session is rewarded with dropped loot and currency allowing you to constantly craft new systems, improve your play style or simply try new combinations out. Be prepared to hear “Come on, let’s play one more” a lot.

Cooperation times Competition equals Coopetition!? We believe that everything is better with some friends – first to help you save the galaxy and second to steal each others loot (because it always taste sweeter for you to get the reward when someone else has done all the work). This is why on Riftstar Raiders we’ve put the emphasis on the multiplayer experience. Even if you’re enjoying it on your own, we highly recommend you call in your friends and team up. Use big guns, quick wits and your piloting skill to pull off heists and thrilling heroics! If you’re lucky you might even save the galaxy along the way.

So tell your friends, team up and fight for victory, and loot. Mostly loot. A lot of loot…