Relic Hunters Zero

This is very confusing. Relic Hunters Zero is a very well-made twin-stick shooter that has charming looks, excellent gameplay and, it’s free. It’s even open source, but not entirely, still, anyone can contribute to its development and evolution. What’s the catch?

Relic Hunters Zero is all about putting your gaming skills into shooting a variety of enemies to unlock access to some relics that the game tells you are important. Whatever they do, it matters later and until you get your hands on all three pieces that form one, you have a ton of fun shooting to go through.

This (curiously) free game features one of the best controller implementations you can want with twin-stick gameplay mechanics. There’s moving, aiming, firing and dodging, grenade tossing and dashing for cover behind destructible objects. Relic Hunters Zero is fast-paced and engaging, the AI is fairly clever and shooting couldn’t be any more fun.

Moreover, weapon drops are randomized, and you don’t get the luxury of infinite ammo, not even for the default gun. Arcade game fans with weak ambition and poor shooting skills should have their work cut out for them.

Most people enjoy dynamic gameplay that’s just the right kind of hard without it punishing you too much. It all plays out very well, and it makes you think about why is this game available for free. At some point, you expect some micro-transactions to kick in, but they don’t.

If someone doesn’t believe you that you’ve found such a game, invite them over because Relic Hunters Zero has two player co-op. Moreover, being somewhat of an open-source game, modding is open for the public. This little indie has a good deal of content and features to keep players interested and continuously asking themselves, ‘why is this game free?’

Relic Hunters Zero is one of the best free games that has made its way out through Steam this year. For once, its developers managed to keep things clean, working, and enjoyable.

We do hope that in the future it remains a solid free to play game and if it ultimately chooses to monetize from players, may it be blessed with a smart plan to do so. Until then, Relic Hunters Zero is a great business card for the guys at Rogue Snail. I don’t know about you, but seeing how this one turned out, I’m surely going to be interested in their next gaming endeavours.