Everyone wants a slice of the battle royale piece, but as I’ve said in the past: there are only so many seats at the table. Unless your name is Fortnite, Call of Duty, or PUBG, you’re going to have a hard time making much noise. Rapture Rejects is another game that aims to put its own spin on the formula to an interesting but ultimately forgettable effect.
Set in the Cyanide & Happiness universe, Rapture Rejects is a top-down spin on the battle royale with a decidely off-kilter approach. Assault rifles are replaced by those that spit out compost, shotguns become blunderblusses, and grenades have been swapped with a literal f-bomb. The rapture theme also helps it carve its own identity with the map dotted with dead bodies and signs cursing God.
To remind you that this is a C&H game, the player can choose from having a visible bulge, breasts, or both — the latter feels like the natural option for a game like this. There’s a tonne of other customisations available with me eventually opting for an old man wearing nothing but a chicken hat after dabbling in being a shark person. It’s a shame, then, that is just about the only time when the game really feels like it has nailed its license or stands out at all.
The top-down perspective feels unusual to begin with, but anyone familiar with dungeon crawlers will be in their element after a quick adjustment period. Your FOV is generous and can be expanded even further with drugs or through special radars to scope out the environment. Shooting is easy, though there does appear to be a severe imbalance in the usefulness of them — almost every encounter I had boiled down to a Compost Rifle fight.
The matches themselves are typically short and can range anywhere from five to ten minutes depending on the amount of players in the lobby and how closely the game dumps them to each other. Combat is entertaining enough; there’s a reason why so many battle royale games copy each other with staple ingredients. Players can find weapons scattered throughout the map with the most lucrative being held in chests, as well as healing items, armour, and air drops a natural inclusion.
There’s also the inevitable circle closing in, this time referred to as Armageddon, though it’s mostly negligible until the last stretches of a match. That’s where things tend to get more players vs the circle than PVP; it doesn’t really let up and can kill you quick sharp if you aren’t aware while you’re trying to fend off other survivors. It’s not so much a case of skill as it is who can be in the center of the circle — some balancing is probably needed.
However, Rapture Rejects needs more than just a few quick fixes — it also needs a playerbase. I was quite shocked to find just how hard a time the game has populating its lobbies considering how popular the license is. It peaked at fifteen for me during its free weekend to celebrate its launch into Early Access, but has been as low as six in the days since. It looks as if not enough people have been swayed into buying the game with its relatively high price often being mentioned as the major turn-off.
It’s still early days for Rapture Rejects with it only just having launched into Early Access, but it may need to change tack sooner rather than later. Whether it’s by leaning more into its sillier elements or making some balance changes, Rapture Rejects simply must do more to stand out. I enjoyed the time I had with it, but with so many battle royale games out there, something like Rapture Rejects has to really excel and it unfortunately does not.
Preview code supplied by publisher
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