Repel the Rifts Review : A Roguelite Tower Defense That Has Strategic Depth With Map Exploration

Repel the Rifts is a roguelite tower defense game by the indie gamedev RefinedBearGames, published by Goblinz Publishing. In this game, you take on the role of a commander stranded on an alien world, surveying the tilemap, upgrading your towers, discovering alien Artifacts, defending against waves of inter-dimensional creatures that pour out of mysterious “rifts.” This indie title is in Early Access, with a planned full release after ~0.5–1 year of development.

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Gameplay & Core Loop

Commander Selection: At the start of a run, you pick from different commanders, each with their own unique starting towers, passives, and special abilities.
Map Exploration: Each “wave” expands the terrain — you survey new ground, and the geography impacts which towers will be more effective.
Tower Building & Upgrades: After defeating a wave, you can purchase tower upgrades from a market. These upgrades don’t just boost stats — some change how the towers operate, enabling a wide variety of strategies.
Artifacts: Throughout your runs, you collect alien artifacts that provide powerful, often synergistic, effects to boost your defenses.
Waves & Survival: You must survive successive waves of enemies coming from the rifts. There’s also an Endless Mode for players who want to test the ultimate limits of their defense.
Meta-progression: A “mastery tree” (tech tree) allows you to unlock permanent upgrades, improving your future runs.

What Works Really Well

Strategic Depth
Because of the mix of tower placement, commander choice, and upgradable towers + artifacts, Repel the Rifts offers a rich strategic layer. Players can experiment with very different builds depending on their commander and available upgrades.

Replayability
The roguelite structure, combined with many upgrade paths and artifacts, makes each run feel fresh. The addition of Endless Mode provides even more incentive to master and refine your strategy.

Commander Variety
Different commanders change how you approach a run: not only do they give you different starting towers, but their passive abilities and playstyles encourage branching strategies.

Positive Demo Feedback
The demo has been very well-received — on Steam, it has a “Very Positive” rating. Players have praised its strategic challenge and the balance of tower upgrades vs. resource management.

Developer Engagement
The indie gamedev RefinedBearGames is very open to community feedback. There are active discussions about balancing, camera, and quality-of-life improvements. Also, recent updates have added features like camera panning, hotkeys, and more. To us at Indie Games Tavern, this is the most important task for an indie developer to help their games have a better chance to be viral.

Areas for Improvement & Considerations

Balance Issues
According to player feedback, some upgrades can feel overpowered late in a run. For example, a “+1 damage per kill” upgrade combined with certain high-damage towers can lead to extremely powerful combos. This suggests balance tuning is still a work in progress.

UI / Zoom Controls
Some demo players have requested a zoom feature to better view the battlefield, especially when placing towers or managing defenses.

Upgrade System Complexity
Because there are many “build-altering” upgrades, it’s possible to get combinations that don’t synergize well. One player noted it would be nice to “banish” certain upgrades from appearing to avoid build conflicts.

Technical & UX Bugs
In the demo, a few bugs have been reported: for instance, menu issues and some camera/panning problems. However, the developer has already addressed some with recent patches.

Early Access Limitations
Since the game is in Early Access, some features are still missing (or planned): more tower types, more artifacts, additional commanders, a richer tech tree, and more game modes. Players who want a “complete” tower defense experience may need to wait.

Story / Narrative
Based on developer comments, there is very minimal plot. If you’re hoping for a heavily narrative-driven roguelite, this may disappoint.

Final Thoughts

Repel the Rifts is an ambitious and thoughtful take on the tower defense roguelite genre. Its strengths lie in its strategic depth — with commander variety, upgrade market, and artifacts all combining to allow for meaningful build choices — and its replayability. The alien-world setting and concept of rifts bring a fresh twist to typical tower defense fare.

To us at Indie Games Tavern, as with many Early Access titles, it’s not yet fully polished. Some balancing is still needed, and UI/UX features (like zoom) could make the game more comfortable to play. But the developer’s responsiveness and the strong positive reception of the demo suggest that Repel the Rifts has a lot of potential.

Who Should Play It?

Tower Defense Enthusiasts: Especially those who want more than just “place towers, survive”; fans of deep strategy will enjoy it.
Roguelite Players: If you like repeated runs with evolving build paths, commander choice, and meta-progression, this is for you.
Strategists: Players who derive satisfaction from optimizing tower layouts, build synergies, and resource allocation.
Indie Game Supporters: This is a solo / small-team project, and community feedback feels like it matters here.
Sci-fi Lovers: The alien world and inter-dimensional rifts give the game a strong thematic identity.

Who Might Wait or Skip It?

Players Expecting Narrative: If you’re looking for a story-rich experience, the minimal plot may come up short.
Performance / UI-Sensitive Gamers: Because the game is still being polished, some players might want to wait for more refined controls or zoom functionality.
Completionists: If you want a “full” AAA-level tower defense roguelite, waiting for 1.0 might be wiser.
Those Who Dislike Roguelite Risk: If you don’t like death or heavy meta-progression, the roguelite structure might not appeal.

Repel the Rifts Review by Indie Games Tavern.

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