It’s no secret that most titles published by Ratalaika Games are one-and-done type affairs. If you’re into trophy/achievement hunting, you’ll know the company’s games are synonymous with having easy platinums, usually giving up their goods long before you’ve reached the endpoint. But Replikator, one of Ratalaika’s newest releases, offers up something a little different. This roguelike twin-stick shooter has us forgetting about the lure of trophies altogether, instead drawing us back time and time again in the pursuit of success.
A sci-fi space shooter, Replikator throws you into a space station filled with enemies to take down. Big and small, they all have one thing in common: they’re relentless in their quest to kill you. The turret type enemies are the worst, spewing different kinds of projectiles at you which prove tricky to avoid. And with a limited amount of health under your belt, failure comes all too fast if you’re not quick on your feet.
But once you get into a rhythm with Replikator, moving from room to room, cleaning each one of enemies becomes quite the joy. There’s plenty of bonuses to be had, too, making exploration absolutely essential for those on the quest for better weapons and abilities. Gun upgrades are plentiful, and you’ll also find a number of blueprints for items that can start showing up in future runs.
As tricky as taking down some of Replikator’s enemies can be, though, your foes aren’t your biggest problem here. Instead, it’s ammo – or, rather, the lack of it. You can pay to refill ammo at various points in a level, and enemies will often drop you smaller ammo pickups. And so, in the course of a regular level, it’s not too much of an issue. If you find yourself running out, you can usually turn around and hunt down a pickup or refill point. But when it comes to a boss, it’s a different story.
Related: The Best Roguelike Games on PS4 and PS5
You simply can’t hold enough ammo to take down a boss – at least, not until you’ve completed enough runs to massively upgrade how much ammo you can hold. You can hold two guns at once, and if they both take different types of ammo, you might manage. But if they use standard bullets – as most of your starting weapons do – you’re in for a tough time. Twice now we’ve had to resort to finishing off a boss with our measly melee attack. Less than ideal for a twin-stick shooter. There really needs to be a basic gun with unlimited ammo to see you through those situations.
Still, it’s not enough to put us off playing Replikator. Quite the contrary, in fact: we’re now intent on upgrading our ammo count so that we can eventually take down a boss with no problems. It helps that it plays so well, too: we’re having a great time making our way through the maze-like levels, seeing what waits for us in each room.
If you’re a fan of twin-stick shooters, make sure Replikator is on your radar. It’s available on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC – and costing less than a tenner, it’s well worth every penny.
