I am not going to say that every FPS released in the past decade or so is garbage, but the genre has lost its way since the days of Doom or Wolfenstein. The heavily scripted set pieces often provide a great backdrop to the action, but at the end of the day, regardless of whether you’re playing one of the previously mentioned shooters or any of the more visually striking additions to the genre, you’re just shooting stuff. If you’re like me, you are limited on time due to the daily struggles of being an adult and just want to sit down and pop a cap in a few bad guys to relax, and sitting through lengthy cut-scenes where you’re taking no part in the action feels like nothing but wasted time. RICO pulls no punches in placing you right into the action and never letting up. Well, almost.

The game boasts a mild narrative in which you are a problem cop that has an issue with most suspects coming back to the station in body bags, and is recruited to help a shady government agency looking to take out some of the biggest and baddest criminals on the planet. This is conveyed through a short scene that is shown each and every time you boot the game. It is worth mentioning that if you’re a stickler for lip-syncing, this short segment will drive you bonkers as the facial animations have the personality of a broken animatronic Chuck E Cheese band member.

There are a few modes of play offered, which only differ slightly in the length and rewards earned. Since this is a rogue-lite at heart, featuring procedurally generated levels and missions, every game will be different regardless of the mode. The biggest aspect of the game is the Case mode, which is essentially a randomly generated story mode in which you work your way across a rather large map taking down low level targets as you work your way up the criminal underworld. Each mission will have its own primary objective (almost always collecting evidence) as well as smaller optional objectives (clearing every room, X number of headshots/melee kills, disposing of bombs, among a small number of others). Upon completion of an objective, a number of the objectives will cause reinforcements to swarm on you, injecting multiple layers of risk vs. reward into the gameplay.

Upon completion of the primary objective, you’re left with two options: hoof it to the exit as quickly as possible to avoid being overrun, or you can complete each of the optional objectives, all the while exploring the level for the much needed health pick-ups. The latter tended to be my choice, as you do not recover any lost health between missions, and raising the stakes even further, any points you receive for completing the objectives must be used to upgrade your arsenal or pad your health via health kits and syringes. Much like the majority of the game, the upgrades offered are at random (outside of the health options, which are a staple of the store), with some of my runs offering high priced artillery early on, and others featuring nothing but attachments for guns I hadn’t unlocked. Death in the Case mode carries quite a high price – you’ll lose all mission progress as well as earned weaponry (this will be retained for use in a few of the less meaty modes), leaving you with no option but to start a new story. My biggest gripe with the way the permadeath is handled isn’t the loss of progress, but the requirement to start the mode over, with the initial tutorial with no option to skip it.

There is an XP system in place which carries over between modes and Case runs, allowing you to select up to three perks which are referred to as traits. This system is a bit grindy, however, the rewards you earn are often game changing, providing various buffs to accuracy or damage output in addition to some less interesting options (I’m looking at you Sunglasses). These work two fold in making subsequent runs more accessible as well as encouraging experimentation.

Outside of the Case mode, there are the standard daily runs and quick match options available, which work as advertised and don’t really change up the formula in any meaningful way. The only “different” mode is a survival mini-game, which feels like a complete failure. As of this writing, I have only been dropped into a parking garage with little cover available and enemies that constantly make a bee line for you, voiding the tactical approach that the other modes make use of almost exclusively. The only saving grace to this mode is that you can select from any weaponry that you unlocked in previous Case runs. Regardless of the mode you play, this can be played solo or in local/online co-op, with the only omission being the single player daily runs that offer leaderboard bragging rights and little else. I would like to comment on the online aspect of the game, but as of this writing, I have yet to successfully connect with another player, even when they were on the same network as me, resulting in my only time with the co-op being played split screen (this really irked me considering I have two setups in my home). The co-op mode increases the difficulty just enough to keep both players engaged and really sells the whole “buddy cop” theme the overall game is aiming for.

Much like Call of Duty, I’ve taken my time to get to the meat of the action – the gunplay. Where some shooters simply stick a gun on the screen and hope you immerse yourself in their world, RICO actually makes it feel like you’re in control and pulling off the badass John Wick-esque over-the-top action moves. While the overly sensitive aiming takes a bit of time to get used too, it is quickly resolved once the bullet time kicks in and becomes second nature. Unlike other games that have driven this mechanic into the ground, your slow motion ability is limited to when you kick in or slide through a closed door, allowing you to focus on killing as many enemies as possible within the allotted time.

Still images of the game paint a rather detailed picture of the action, but sadly, it suffers from some minor performance issues and frustrating bugs here and there that could have been resolved with some additional polish. The amount of detail is commendable, especially when looking at the reflections and unique animations of the huge arsenal, where each weapon looks and feels like you’re holding a slightly stylized version of it right before you. Muzzle flashes and debris scattering as you tear through the weaker objects really add to the immersion, which is unfortunately broken time and time again due to clipping, pop-ins, and poorly generated areas within the world. On a few of my Case runs, I found myself with a frighteningly low amount of health, only to find a stash of pick-ups blocked in the corner of a room by a strange grouping of assets that I couldn’t squeeze around (see graphic above). While we’re on the topic of the presentation, I found it odd that there was no BGM to be found within the game, leaving it to feel a bit empty aside from the crunching doors that fold like paper and the almost constant sound of gunfire and enemy grunts and groans as they are filled with lead. The sound effects are typically spot-on, with the only weak link being the melee berserker style thugs that make a rush for you screaming like the suiciders from Serious Sam. The sounds they emit not only come off as overly robotic, but can be heard from miles away and never give you a proper idea of where the enemy is coming from.

This may sound like I am nitpicking, but I also have a deep seeded disdain for the game’s menus. Clunky does not even begin to describe them, which makes editing your loadout, selecting an avatar, and modifying your weaponry to be much more difficult than it should be. This is in part due to the multiple clicks it takes to do literally anything within the menus and only becomes more frustrating when you notice that a number of the options are hidden in the upper left, just outside of your monitor’s safe zone and of course, no option to edit this within the menus.

It’s far from perfect, but RICO offers everything it advertises, and then some. This captures the same feel of Tom Clancy’s: Rainbox Six terrorist hunt without the hardcore mechanics that have made the newest entry almost unplayable for the less skilled, and provides tactical action that can be played in short spurts without wearing out its welcome and secures itself as a worthy entry in the FPS genre.

9 out of 10

Pros

• Quick Paced Tactical FPS with an Arcade Feel
• Crisply Rendered Visuals
• Infinite Replayability
• Local Co-op

Cons

• Cumbersome Menus
• A Fair Amount of Bugs
• Needing to Replay the Tutorial on Each Run

RICO was developed by Ground Shatter and published by Rising Star Games. It launched on NS, PC, PS4 and X1 on March 13th, 2019 for $19.99. The game was provided to us for review on X1. If you’d like to see more of RICO, check out the game’s official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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