Loot River
Review

Loot River (2022) is a puzzle fighting game where you explore labyrinths armed with the power of a relic that can shift the ground. This combines the combat with a Tetris-like tile shifting that alters the layout of each room to your advantage.

As you progress you encounter beasts, lost travellers and big bosses. To help you, you can gain new weapons and gear along with character upgrades. This double challenge, of fighting and tile sliding, can be jarring at first. With time, however, the two aspects of the game work together.

This enables you to find you own path through ancient abandoned fortress, choosing how and when to encounter the beasts. You develop your character in different ways but also learn to use the tile-sliding to affect these fights. These cosmic grottos offer a wealth of new weapons and gear to discover, as well as unholy knowledge to unearth for permanent upgrades.

Each time you play your journey is different. You can draw on other players runs, discovering their lost souls and devouring them to absorb the knowledge of their fellow travellers. It's a beautiful, hand crafted game with fluid animations with a combination of puzzles and action not found elsewhere.

Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Loot River 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 5 months ago.