A Game Made For Fans
I want to start by saying that I've never seen this show. I know it is wildly popular with the Achievement Hunter/Rooster Teeth community and I'm sure there is good reason for it. This review will have no prior bias to the show obviously, and that being said, I must say that this isn't an awful game. I didn't have much hope when I first booted it up but it certainly was better than I expected. To be honest, it definitely has piqued my interest in giving this show a fair viewing shot as well. Read below to find out how I feel about RWBY: Grimm Eclipse!
I have to begin by saying like my title of the review states this game is definitely made for the fans and for good reason. The game has no backstory to introduce any of the characters or the world you are in. As soon as you start the game you have 4 characters to begin with (4 more are available if you get the DLC pack) and after selection you're immediately dropped into the first level with no preamble. The game doesn't even give players any sort of tutorial on how the play the game. Granted, it's not overly difficult to figure it out quickly but it was kind of jarring that there wasn't even a quick intro. If you have no idea about the RWBY universe, you'll be in the dark like I was as to what was going on.
All of the characters, even the DLC ones are unique in look and gameplay. They all have their basic light, heavy, and ranged attacks but the cool thing is that all of those individual attacks are different. Some characters shoot a wave of energy that stuns foes, another runs at an enemy and shield bashes them, and a third even shoots grenades from her very own grenade launcher. You're also able to level up each individual character via skill trees. They aren't terribly large but it's a nice addition to the characters personalities.
The game offers 4 difficulty settings but they are poorly balanced and not worth the effort of playing through the hardest difficulty unless you are doing it for fun. You don't gain more XP for playing on a harder difficulty and the enemies hit harder but that's about it. Kind of disappointing to be honest considering the breadth of the character selection. The overarching gameplay is fairly boring. You're tossed into an arena and you fight betwen 3-5 waves of varying enemies. If you die during an arena encounter you'll be treated to a completely new rotation of enemies which is very neat. You also have sections where you defend an object from enemies and that's about it. Beside having a final boss fight there is no variety beyond that and again, it's kind of disappointing because it feels as if the developers left gameplay out of the final product.
I had a fun time playing through RWBY. It didn't take me very long (about 5-6 hours) and I think that's for the best because I think it was beginning to wear on me. You have the option to play co-op with 3 other people by going through the campaign or fighting off waves in horde mode. Nothing new or exciting but with the variety of characters I believe it would make mixing and matching pretty fun. Overall I'd say give this game a shot if you can get it cheap and if you have some friends who want to play as well, invite them along because I think it would be a good time.