Risk System Review

In the future, the human race has discovered a way to replicate matter through the use of a Dimensional Gate. This discovery has revolutionised industry and of course, chaos and war broke out. Soon after, the factions at war agree to stop fighting, and unite to work together. After a few years of peace, parasitic forces have taken over the Dimensional Replication Gate using the same technology the humans created, and are using it against them. The energy emitted by these parasites quickly takes control of all those exposed to it.

There is one person who seems resistant to the parasites’ energy, Alys, who previously was missing in action but returned immune to their control. It is up to you, playing as Alys, to pilot the experimental ship known as RSK9. The RSK9 was created from materials that existed before the gate and have the ability to absorb the energy that the parasites give off. Her former squad members are being mind-controlled by these parasites and must be defeated to destroy the enemy and be guaranteed victory. Alys is the only one who can carry out this risky mission and save the human race.

At first glance, Risk System looks like your typical 2D horizontal shooting game. But you will quickly discover there is one huge difference: your ship does not shoot. There is no button to hold to fire at the enemy; instead, your ship, the RSK9, will absorb energy from the enemies and shots fired at you and use it to automatically fire shots towards the enemy. The greater the risk you take, the larger the reward. So the game encourages getting right up close to the parasite enemy and shots fired at your ship. The closer you get, the more energy you will gain. The problem is you have limited shields, so you can only take three direct hits before your ship is destroyed.

It will take a lot of masterful manoeuvring to avoid all the shots and enemies you are getting uncomfortably close to. Luckily the RSK9 is able to do upward and downward barrel rolls which definitely helps if you have quick reflexes, and the enemies you do destroy can drop health tokens (that look like + signs) for you to restore some of your shields. When you gather enough energy to fill your Barrier Breaker meter you can unleash a large attack that will hit all the enemies and shots fired at you that are currently on the screen. The stages have checkpoints in them, so when you do get destroyed you don’t have to start at the very beginning of the level. Once you do manage to get to the end of the stage there is a boss waiting to battle you. The bosses happen to be members of Alys’ former flight crew, so each battle begins with a short interaction between the two of them. If these bother you, you can turn them off in the main menu options.

I can honestly say the boss battles in Risk System are definitely some of the most difficult ones I have ever come across in a game like this. Even the boss for the first training/introduction stage took about 45 minutes for me to defeat. Having to get so close to the enemy and all the shots coming at me was hard. If you totally avoid them it will take you forever to fill up your Barrier Breaker meter, and only using the small normal energy shots just isn’t effective enough. You have to take risks, and figure out the exact distance you need to be away from these obstacles to fill the meter but not take damage at the same time. Using the Barrier Breaker shots will give you a chance to fly through the attacks being fired at you while the explosion from the shot is happening. This was the only way I was able to not take extensive damage and totally destroy myself. You will need to constantly be trying to recover the energy so you are able to fire off another large shot, especially when you have the boss flashing red. There were so many times I had the enemy knocked down and would be close to victory but I failed to get up close to refill the meter for that final hit and I died. The only good news about that is when you do die you restart right before the enemy appears so you don’t have to worry about doing much backtracking.

Risk System is a beautiful-looking game with good music and sound effects. Considering how many times I have been defeated, I’m still not tired of hearing the same music which is a good sign. The bosses are large and impressive looking, with each of the stages having a different environment and colour scheme, keeping it feeling new and fresh. Control-wise you don’t have to worry about having to use a ton of different buttons, you only have two directions of barrel rolls, the button to fire your big Breaker Shot and the D-Pad or the thumbstick. Since your ship fires energy shots automatically, you don’t have to worry about holding down a button to shoot.

Risk System is a fun twist on a genre that I have played a lot of. The game only has six stages, but with the difficulty of the boss battles, it definitely was long enough for me. Being stuck on the same boss for easily over an hour, I don’t think I would want it much longer. I definitely felt very frustrated at times and had to walk away for a break. Getting right into the enemy's space is a hard task!