Yars Rising , from a humble fly to a cosmic adventure.
Evil corporations with hidden agendas, high tech future world, body augmentations, hip young people ignoring all the rules and winging every decision they make when they need to make it? All the makings of a sci-fi story are here in this new story in the YAR universe from Atari.
Yars Rising is about an ambitious young hacker named Emi Kimura who goes my the handle Yar. She has infiltrated shadowy Qotech corporation but not just to be bored with the daily office grind, no instead she is also working with a mysterious figure who paid her to hack the company and see what is going on beyond its corporate front. As a player you will Run, jump, sneak, and hack your way through the different levels MetroidVania style on your quest to unravel the mystery.
So how was this going to happen? WayForward has had some experience in building games with good gameplay and rich storytelling , games such as Shantae, River City Girls and more built a reputation for developing franchises featuring strong characters and rich storytelling. With their foray into Yars Rising, the studio opted for a side-scrolling Metroidvania adventure with lots of platforming action, backtracking, skill upgrades and a balance of stealth and combat gameplay. On top of that they sprinkled in mini hacking games that are straight up Yars revenge retro-inspired mini-games.
We can enhance her, we have the technology
Lucky for Emi and us the players, you will not be totally defenseless all the time as throughout the game you will end up finding super terminals that will give you a host of abilities and upgrades. The big changes are called augments that essentially re-write your DNA, and they allow you to do some great and crazy things. There are combat augments that will allow for you to defend yourself or even take the initiative in combat such as the Zorlon shot, a powerful blast from the tip of your fingers or the Trionic Nibble which Siphons energy from sources or enemies until they are drained.
Other upgrades effect traversal, allowing you to go past areas you were previously unable to cross such as the Grasshopper legs for amazing wall jumps or Mayfly gills so you can swim and breath under water. And of course, these are just a few of the many augments available.
Besides these Augments, you can also find many smaller terminals hidden throughout the world that provide smaller so-called bio hacks that can further enhance your abilities in different ways and there are dozens of them available, however you can only equip a certain amount at a time. Which ones depend on you by using the unique Tetris style skill tree where you puzzle the skills that fit best with your playstyle together. It is easy to use and fun to experiment with to see what the best combos are. There are 45 collectable Biohacks in the game just waiting to be discovered. Making the right choice will be a challenge all by itself.
Throughout the different environments in YARS you will encounter dozens of enemy types square up against five unique bosses. Using your collected powerups you never have to worry you will encounter a boss when you are not ready yet. If you can make it to their location, it means you have all the tools to defeat them. Watch for patterns, realize their weaknesses and apply your tools to whittle them down until they are defenseless. You might not be able to get this the first time around, but their patterns are easy to learn and adjust to, making it all about your skill.
Save some for later
The cyber punkish world where Emi roams is a full of twists, turns and danger, and in order to navigate it you have your handy Navi map guiding you every step of the way. Of course, nothing is easy and often a straight line is NOT the way to go in YARS Rising. instead, you need to unlock doors, crawl through vents or find the right powerup in order to proceed. In true Metroid/Castlevania style this means backtracking. And then Navi sure comes in handy. Along the way you find many dangerous encounters and it sure would be a shame if you lost your self along the way, for that the game has save points, beautifully represented by Atari's first arcade machine, "computer space" Look how beautiful it is just sitting there. The locations of these machines is pretty spread out, which makes it not always convenient if you mess up and have to start over, but there are plenty of save points around and well-marked on the map once you find them. That goes for all points of interests by the way, nothing is revealed until you do some exploration in those areas.
A beautiful mind
Final thoughts
YARS Rising is a very interesting successor to the classic Atari 2600 game that brings enough changes to the genre to be different without breaking it. The integration of the classic game as a mini hacking game is a brilliant way to throw back to its origins, if not inspiration but even without the YARS theme, I believe this game would still do enough to be a fun game to play. It is the easiest, nor the hardest of games. The bosses were fun to figure out and the backtracking usually came with new unlocked areas to keep them from becoming tedious, except maybe when I started taking the wrong turn.
There are plenty of power up and upgrades to play around with to try different ways to get through the game, allowing you to focus on certain playstyles and the team at WayForward found good moments to incorporate the need for such skills.
I was not expecting to like this game on first sight, but it quickly changed my mind with its fluid controls and unique design. The fact the little fly shooter game could have a deeper lore is pretty amazing and just a fun story that could easy be in a sci-fi tv show somewhere in another universe. Nothing groundbreaking but an enjoyable ride.
Yars rising shows that Atari is trying their darndest to bring new life into their IPs in new and unique ways and with this game they seem to definitely be on the right path.
Release Date: September 10, 2024
