Tie-in games have had something of a bad rap. Often seen as a cheap, hastily produced time wasters that attempt to do nothing more but to literally tie into the film’s success, hence their names. It makes the rare cases, where tie-in product actually bucks the trend and provide a thoroughly entertaining experience, all the more reason to celebrate. By combining the distinctive style of the R.I.P.D. universe, with the tried and tested gameplay of survival based-wave-based Third Person shooters, you’ve got a winning combination, R.I.P.D. The Game does just that.

You start the game by selecting either Roy or Nick, the protagonists from the franchise, and your choice of two weapons. You then select a level, from a variety of recognisable scenes and then you’re off. The gameplay is pretty simple, you spawn in, and are attacked by swarms of Deados (as you may remember are the souls who don’t want to leave). Your task is simple… survive.

As you mow-down Deados, you get given mini-challenges to complete, such as kill 10 Deados in a minute or so forth. These are used to earn bonus points to improve your score. but to aid your quest for survival you also get certain abilities to deploy as you rank up kills, but ramp up in usefulness as you build up the meter, strategy being when to deploy these feature, skilfully mixing risk and reward. The game has an impressive visual style, electing to go for a charming comic book aesthetic as opposed to photo-realism, not only is this a clever tribute to the films comic-book origins but a stylish way to keep the graphics looking pleasant, years after release. That being said, I was impressed by the level of detail found in the character designs and the sets. This is accompanied by the soundtrack which has an interesting alt-rock feel that encapsulates the feel of the franchise.

Extras are aplenty in this tie-in game, your play unlocks an abundance of still images, concept art, by collecting gold in the game you can upgrade and unlock new weapons to suit your preferences. Ultimately giving you many reasons to come back and improve your score, not just the absolute cathartic fun of survival based wave shooters, that R.I.P.D. The Game does well.

R.I.P.D. The Game is a surprisingly fully fledge arcade action extravaganza. A strong co-operative experience that is surprisingly crammed full of detail. R.I.P.D. The Game provides the same feeling of a fun buddy-cop film, that you’re in the driving seat of. It is also true that it feels familiar to previous games that came before it, yet like the film its personality and charm help it shine into something both unique and thoroughly enjoyable.

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