When you start Rapture Rejects, you’re thrown into a lobby of players farting and thrusting at each other. That juvenile mood disintegrates to the familiar blood-lust of battle royale. The rapture is coming and only one of you is going to heaven. That naked rascal you spent a few minutes blowing kisses towards in the pregame lobby is now fully armed and he intends to take you down.
When you start Rapture Rejects, you’re thrown into a lobby of players farting and thrusting at each other. That juvenile mood disintegrates to the familiar blood-lust of battle royale. The rapture is coming and only one of you is going to heaven. That naked rascal you spent a few minutes blowing kisses towards in the pregame lobby is now fully armed and he intends to take you down.
Rapture Rejects is a game based on the popular web series Cyanide and Happiness and it serves its source material well. The entire game, even in its early alpha state, feels like a love letter from the developers to those cartoonists. The game is jam packed with so many unique elements that it feels like one of the best, most unique battle royale games in a long while.
Why 2D works
A 2D top-down game, the player can see action from all corners of the map without turning around. You’re given an abundance of items to take spatial advantages that other battle royale games just don’t give you. There are items that you can pick up which will extend your range of sight on the screen, and there are structures that you can interact with that will give you the same temporary advantage.
Distance isn’t the only key factor to victory, however, as the developers have added a simple mechanic that really makes Rapture Rejects a unique take on the battle royale formula— camera rotation.
While it sounds obvious at first, the ability to rotate the camera makes every possible hiding space, every camping spot, and every corner obsolete. If you run past a building without rotating the camera manually to make sure no one is waiting around the corner— and you get shot— then it’s your fault.
Gone are the days of playing third-person camera mode matches on PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds where a player can hide behind corners, pop out, and hit you point blank with a shotgun for a quick ambush kill. Rapture Rejects practically gives you the tools to see from every angle, eliminating the frustrating gameplay that’s often exploited in other battle royale titles.
During our sessions with the alpha build, we were in a hectic firefight with two different players, constantly swirling the camera to keep tabs on them. The option feels intuitive, almost second nature, and gives you a fair fighting chance every match.
Just because Rapture Rejects goes its own way doesn’t mean that it doesn’t lease a lot of ideas from other battle royale games. The game uses bandages to heal while alcohol acts like PUBG’s energy drinks to heal health over time. Also like PUBG you can only hold two main weapons at a time.
Plus there’s that ever-shrinking circle bringing players together for a final showdown—it still ticks all the boxes.
What else about the game is so appealing?
Having only 50 players in a single game might feel off-putting at first until you realize how small the maps are. The game is built around looting fast and fighting almost instantly with matches finishing promptly. The pace is a lot faster compared to other battle royale titles like PUBG, where players might spend a large portion without seeing each other until nearing the end.
The in-game map also gives players handy icons on where they can find loot, items, and key spots. It instantly gives new players hints towards nearby spots while also offering veteran players a chance to get their bearings and quickly find what they are looking for.
Rapture Rejects also takes ammo management to the next level by simplifying the system. There are only two distinct ammo types that you need but you are limited to how much you can carry. Every shot counts.
All these features combine to create a unique experience brings something new to the battle royale genre. Being a pre-alpha game, it still has a lot of bugs and glitches that deter from the full experience but these are to be expected. Even in its earlier stages of development, Rapture Rejects could shape up to become the challenger to bigger battle royales in the ongoing battle royale between battle royales.
