Rift Wizard 3

It's a tough game, but it allows you take it at your own pace. Don't overwhelm yourself with the amount of choices you have, and instead enjoy the process of discovery. When the game is at its peak, you truly feel like a wizard using every tool available to them in creative ways to get out of incredibly tricky and dangerous situations.

Rift Wizard just gets better and better with every iteration. The art and music are beautiful, and the mechanics of the game are very well-designed, even in early access. The structure of the game encourages improvisation and experimentation, as level rewards are variable. Spells and equipment can be synergized in myriad ways, making every run potentially unique. I'd say the only small flaw is the barrier of entry: you will die several times just learning how small nuances work, and knowledge of what's available (there's a LOT) to you is critical to success. However, the UI is perfect, and every bit of information is available to you if you know how to access it. Bravo!

I really enjoy trying to figure out synergies and adapting to the randomness! Have not made it to level 6 yet, but I greatly recommend to all who like to optimize item and effect interactions.

The most unfair poorly balanced game I've ever played. They keep making new titles and adding new "features" which are just complete reworks of systems that already work fine, instead of balancing the game so it's not punishing.

I never review games. This is my favorite game I have ever played. The builds are so fun and creative, the systems are fascinating in how they work together, and the complexity makes me constantly thinking about how to play next time. I also enjoy the crunchiness of the math and system interactions, I have never beaten it - but I try every day and will keep going. Please try it - if you like crunchy games, with math and tactics, this will delight you.

Love it, nothing like it. Everyone is going to have their own preferences, but I never clicked with Rift Wizard 2. I played a bit of RW1 but put it down after a bit. So RW3 is easily my favorite of the trio to date, to say the least. First, aesthetics. The art style and music have gotten a redesign that work well together while still tying into the previous games. The sprites are easier to read at a glance, and overall feels like a major evolution. Second, the smaller realm size is, in my opinion, perfect. The larger realms could be hard to read and tiresome to navigate. By reducing the size of the realms, occasionally needing to take a dangerous trek mid fight is still a risk, but chasing down the last spawner is more achievable. Finally, the crafting and spell systems. You decide your path a lot more directly compared to previous versions where you are more reacting to what you find. There's still a need to respond intelligently to the resources you find, but you have to find a way to craft your growth at regular intervals. If you don't have some firepower and something to help you survive by realm 5, it's going to be rough. If you can learn some of the basic 4 tag recipes to solve these problems and keep an eye out for the tags in the realms you choose, your chances of success will go up. Overall, a fantastic roguelike that is challenging and repeatable, that rewards creativity and planning without abandoning intensity, and a strong entry in the series.

IM ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ TWEAKING

Way harder than RW2, or maybe just different enough to throw off what little skill I had in that one. Lots of fun, though. The crafting system is great. Nice to have two resource types (SP and items) instead of just one (SP), so that you aren't always sacrificing one path to feed the other path. The (almost complete) lack of consumables was a tough adjustment from RW2. I appreciate getting two upgrades per spell instead of just one. (And more than two, if you find the right things.) I love the new art-style. The smaller maps aren't really "better" than the larger maps of RW2, but they suit the new gameplay well, I think. I like that the mancer trials restrict your equipment, too. I always thought it was weird that RW2's mancer trials put no restrictions on skill selection. The X-turbo speed setting seems to work a little better than it did in RW2. It's essential for some of the crazier synergies, it seems. EA, and loving the game so far. Can't wait to see how it improves still.

Immensly difficult but very fun, its most comparable to path of acra imo, just way more difficult. Sometimes you just find out how a spell interacts with another by suddendly dying in an explosion. Sometimes you have such a powerful build that you steamroll through the map only to suddenly die. The reason? Some random npc mind controlled one of your stronger summons which proceeded to oneshot you.