Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages

But it doesn't run easily on WINE, including Steam Proton, Lutris, and PlayOnLinux. The dependencies are well-known and it should work (dotnet40, dsound, directmusic, xna40, and a few others listed on winehq) but it's poorly compiled in Visual Studio (e.g. with the programmer Paul Dryere's own user directory having been hard-coded into filepaths) and in vanilla Windows as well the sound and graphics hardware support is pernicketty and out of proportion to the actual artistic quality of the game. It's an old style of game, updated for the audiences of 2013 (or whenever it was), but a lot of the enjoyment is watching each ship's weapon's special effects. Not to disparage it, it's well-balanced with loads of ship types, but the game engine ought to boil down to hitboxes flying around and colliding in a 2D space, it ought to run on anything - and it would except for the special effects. Multiplayer was fun if it's still live - the roles of each ship have to co-operate a bit but it's concealed PvE, the teams are competing to do damage to each other's turrets and bases more than each other. It's probably still one of the best games of its type if you absolutely must have a fast, attractive side-scrolling (4 directions) shoot-em-up. I just wish they would recompile it more considerately, it's probably a very quick job for them to rebuild it for Unity or more recent versions of directx.

Still getting used to the controls, but they are decent. You have the option between mouse aiming or using the keyboard. I am going with mouse aiming. Lots of 2D freedom in this game from first impressions. Story is OK with you waking up and not knowing what happened, followed by an escape from an exploding space station? The story won't win any awards, but it is good enough to describe why and what. Linux users: Saw reports of it not working well, but I am not experiencing the same. It works great on my machine via Lutris using the 7.2.2 runner. The only thing I had to install was xna40 via Winetricks. Nothing else was listed in the log files, so after the xna40 installation, it worked great! No performance problems. OS: Manjaro.

The game is great, a slow burner, for sure. There is a lot going on in this game, deep customization and a varied multiplayer modes. The ships are very different from each other and the weapons are a blast. It's a lot of fun and a very fulfilling experience. Give it a try!

I have several AAA games that I recently bought waiting in my library, but I just can't stop playing this game. It's really fun and it has great writting and a great sense of humor. It is a bit difficult at the beginning, but not unfair. Just keep in mind that it is a 2D game. My only complaint is that there is no explanation regarding how to set up your spaceships and I found that very confusing. Other than that is a great game. Highly recommended.

Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages is an unknown gem- didn't even have a steam release at launch. I had never heard of it prior to the day of its launch here on GoG some years ago. A mere ten dollars, I gambled on it and it payed off in spades. It's a lovingly crafted 2D, top-down space shooter with some heavy RPG elements. At the center of the experience is a brilliantly written campaign full of twists and dry humor about a distant future. Ring Runner offers a compelling, fast paced and tactically diverse gameplay experience, including about sixty different ship hulls across five distinct ship classes and grouped by power level into five tiers. There are a number of hulls that are hybrids of two or even three classes, and a special set of "Duo" ships that allow for two player local coop, with one player steering the ship and another operating an independent turret. Each class also has passive "veterancy" bonuses earned in-game for getting kill streaks, but reset if you get blown up. There are hundreds of different components, allowing you to customize your loadout to an intense degree. In any game mode, including the campaign, you earn "plex" to spend on researching and purchasing new ship hulls and parts from the lab, which act as a sort of experience meter: reaching certain net worth milestones unlocks new prebuilt ships. Add to this a beautiful backgrounds and visual effects, fully-functional Newtonian physics, an excellent, atmospheric soundtrack, and steam workshop support so that you can share your ship setups with others, and you have a recipe for a game that is, I think, one in a million. If you enjoy space shooters or action RPGs of any kind, you cannot afford to miss Ring Runner.