Ripout is shaping up to be a space bounty hunter’s dream, a concoction that heavily drinks from Doom and Halo to create a fast-paced co-op shooter experience with roguelike elements thrown in for good measure. While the atmosphere is suitably gloomy and filled with monstrosities, the horrors that you face are mostly there to serve for target practice, but the sights are nonetheless gross and interesting, at this stage of Early Access.

In Space, No One Can Hear Your Pet Chew Enemies

Designed to be played fast and furious when you’re not inside your ship upgrading your arsenal and exploring the new suits, Ripout doesn’t hold back, including some timed missions where urgency is even more crucial. The procedurally generated levels make sure that the derelict ships you are exploring never look the same apart from the overall theme that combines metallic structures with grotesque alien mass, but the structure of the missions doesn’t differ that much – retrieve some item and return to the shuttle, slaughtering every type of creep that gets in your way.

A reasonable concern surrounding games with randomized maps is that a certain sense of monotony may settle in. With the repetition of tilesets and environments that are different but don’t give you the complete feel of being in another location, gameplay may become tiresome after a few hours, so hopefully more variety will be added before the full launch.

One of the highlights of Ripout is the cooperative play up to three players, although you can play solo and still enjoy the frantic gameplay. The scaling difficulty will keep the challenge fresh, and in our experience it was noticeable how the game became more taxing when venturing with a partner. Playing solo allows for additional peaceful moments, at least until the latter part of the missions when all hell breaks loose.

Your main weapon is far from conventional, labelled as the Pet Gun. The twist here is that you can aim the pet at an enemy and it will jump at it, facehugger style, but the downside is that you can’t shoot your main gun until the pet returns a few seconds later. It’s a mechanic that makes you consider your options in the middle of a firefight – shall I send the pet or keep firing the gun – and the addition of pet mods adds some depth to it, as you turn the pet into a temporary turret, or add a scanner for points of interest.

Weapon diversity seems to be slim as of yet, with your standard tropes including the assault rifle, shotgun, and long gun. One trivial detail I don’t quite grasp is why the weapon isn’t locked while in your spaceship hub, allowing you to fire around like a madman, naturally without consequences.

Gunplay is fairly solid right now, with good sensations for the weapons, apart from the secondary pistol which seems to lean too much on the lighter side. When you unlock other options such as the attack claw, things become more immersive, almost as if taking a little turn into The Darkness territory.

While somewhat repetitive and lacking diversity in monster types, the exploration of the derelict ships can be fun if you are fully aware of your surroundings. At times, Ripout seems to overuse the environmental hazard damage, from electricity to toxicity and steam pipes, not all of them exactly easy to spot amidst combat or while running through some dark corridors. Attacks from the alien dogs – for lack of a better name – also drain your health in the blink of an eye and feel unfair, being just a couple of examples where the game needs better balancing.

Chew and Tear

Ripout shows some promise and a solid foundation to build upon, shooting for the same space where GTFO is currently one of the leading titles. The Pet Gun idea is interesting and gunplay is already above average, but right now the game is lacking content, enemy diversity, and more varied mission types. With a full release vaguely planned for 2024, this is a shooter that can go places and we’re curious to see just how much bite it truly has when the time comes.

MP1st was given access to a preview build of Ripout for our hands-on session. Ripout is currently in Early Access and launches during 2024 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X.