Born to Rise

"Born to Rise" is yet another of literally thousands of 2D retro platformers infesting Steam and lowering the average quality of all video games everywhere. But where the difference lies is that this is a student project from ESAT and I suspect not everyone in the class passed. First up, absolutely the students behind the visuals and art assets got an A+ and I really hope they have gone on to full time employment as professional developers so their obvious talents can be put to good use. The game really does look great. Which in some ways is why it's such a shame the problems surrounding the game render it not worth downloading. I must say, though, the high visual quality of this platformer must be leaving amateur devs who can't work out how to do 3D graphics shook. The game has been in Early Access since 2023 and while it's still getting updates, it's deep in Development Hell. It was supposed to be published last year but it's still in development, long beyond their committed date to deliver the full game. There's no reasonable expectation that this will ever be completed. Whether the developer lacks the time, funds, or skill/talent required to complete a video game isn't really something gamers should be expected to accept as an excuse. In this case because it's a student project, well, I wouldn't expect the students to stay behind another year just to finish the game. This is a shame in many ways, but ultimately, Steam is not for game students to learn what they did wrong, it's a marketplace for gamers, and we must always, always put gamers first. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the game unplayable for differently-abled gamers, left handed gamers or gamers using AZERTY or other international keyboard layouts. "Born to Rise" didn't appeal much to the people who own a copy of the game, either. It has achievements, and they show us a very clear picture that the game didn't really capture any interest from gamers. The most commonly and easily attained achievement is for beating the first level, trivial to get, but less than 32 percent of players bothered to get that far before uninstalling the game. Hardly a success story, gamers just weren't all that interested in the game. The game never really caught on with the millions of gamers on Steam, with a very low peak player count close to launch, and then just a handful of players launching this game every couple of days. This is undoubtedly caused by factors such as those raised in this review. It's always helpful with buying decisions to consider how popular and successful the product is, and unfortunately while this did accumulate a few participation trophy reviews, overall, people just aren't using it. So, should you download this free game? The game is completely free, as it's a non-professionally developed student project. It's difficult to say it's appropriate for colleges and schools to publish every bit of work their students produce (whether the students pass the course or not), because this is of questionable value for the most important people in the gaming industry - the gamers. Regardless in many ways, even if this is a student project, it's better than much of the pollution on Steam (asset flips and other shovelware/cash grabs). Unfortunately because this is a student project, and not a professionally developed game intended for gamers, and because of the defects outlined above, it's impossible to recommend this.