Break the Loop
Break the Loop
Game
Game2025
Repel The Rifts
Developer RefinedBearGames
Repel the Rifts is a roguelite tower defense game where you lead a commander through an alien world, uncovering new terrain each wave, drafting powerful upgrades, and constructing defenses to hold back the chaos. From the Steam store page
194 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Nov 5, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
82
LovedLoved
146 positive · 32 negative
95% range 76–87%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 146 | 32 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 1 | 1 | 14 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
170 of 206 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
84% recommend · 140 yes, 26 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 166 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (318 of 377 positive).
Players praise the game's fun gameplay, pixel art, and music, calling it a great tower defense title. [1][2][3] Some reviewers note the game lacks content and depth, feeling repetitive after a few hours. [4][5][6] Many recommend trying the demo first, as the early access version offers limited variety. [7][6][8]
Liked
Representative posts
- [6]
Don’t buy the game, just play the demo! That’s the whole content! There isn’t anything interesting or more beyond the demo! I really loved the demo, so it was an instant buy at the release, because I thought there will be more stuff to do. You have 4 characters, I believe 12 towers, and 25 waves, that’s it. Yes, there are upgrades outside and inside the game, but I still feel I play the same game/map over and over …
- [1]
I played the demo for over 6 hours so you bet I RAN to steam to buy this game ASAP, I've never enjoyed a tower defense game like I enjoy this one. The pixel art is pure fire, half the reason I enjoy the game so much is the awesome track that plays when you get attacked lol, the synergy between the towers just makes it so much fun to play and watch. I only just got started with this early access game and I'm loving …
- [4]
While I'm giving the game a thumbs up, I do believe the game needs more content for this price. That said, it is only early access, so I'm hoping there's more level varieties/locations/objectives added in the future. Because as it is, once you beat the demo, the game itself isn't really any different. You do get to unlock additional characters, but you're only going to be doing the same basic surveying mission every …
- [5]
While I give this a thumbs up as a serviceable tower defense game, it comes with caveats. It is very, very simple. There isn't super deep strategy going on here. This may be a turn off for some people wanting a lot of depth. There are also only 4 playable characters, which is also very limiting. The biggest issue is that there is no progression/story or additional levels. It's just a single run, and you win or lose. …
- [2]
Soft recommendation: I love the gameplay (as a fan of tower defense), I love the art, I love the music. Definitely can get repetitive as it is right now, but for an early access it's very promising. I'd love to see techs to make 3 of the non-Pathfinder commanders do more during battles, and PLEASE for the love of god add an Undo button during deployment.
Summarised from 34 of the 180 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 13, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Players who liked Repel The Rifts talk about great pixel art and music enhance the experience; those who didn't talk about limited content and repetitive after a few runs. Which matters more to you?
Reactions
60 of 194 · most liked firstThis is a fine game, but so many of its design elements seem to be inspired by Into the Breach that it makes me think the developer and/or the publisher made a conscience choice to create confusion between the two games. If I did not think that this was connected to Into the Breach, I would not have bought it. Beyond that, it is a passable take on Rogue Tower where the biggest differences are that you have classes and a market where you can buy tower upgrades mid-game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Don’t buy the game, just play the demo! That’s the whole content! There isn’t anything interesting or more beyond the demo! I really loved the demo, so it was an instant buy at the release, because I thought there will be more stuff to do. You have 4 characters, I believe 12 towers, and 25 waves, that’s it. Yes, there are upgrades outside and inside the game, but I still feel I play the same game/map over and over again. There isn’t anything wrong with this game per se. Somebody copied quarter…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ethical localization isn't an alien concept. 👽 Repel The Rifts is a roguelite tower defense game from @refinedbeargames.bsky.social and @goblinzstudio.com where you lead a commander through an alien world to hold back chaos. 🛸 LocQuest set phasers to stun in five different languages on this one!
neutral · AI labelView post →🚨 NEW GAME ANNOUNCEMENT + DEMO: REPEL THE RIFTS 🚨 A roguelite tower defense where you lead a commander through an alien world. Uncover new terrain each wave, draft powerful upgrades, and build defenses to hold back the chaos. 💥 🔗 Try the demo today: store.steampowered.com/app/3861580?...
neutral · AI labelView post →Severe balancing issues regarding teleporting enemies/certain enemies in general. The game has a bunch of potential, but after a few hours it's just irritating. Needs a balance pass desperately. Edit for the dev: I'm basing my experience on the 1.0 release. Teleporting enemies just bricked me on night 19, when I was absolutely steam rolling the other nights. I had SIX UPGRADED blockades in front of my engineer, and teleporting bats killed me within 15 seconds. They are broken, and until you…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Interesting but limited. Once you've unlocked the tech tree, there isn't much left to do. Limited tower types, with no diverging upgrade paths, and not *much* variety between the 4 starting setups, so: limited choices. You can't build any sprawling death mazes, because once you hit "endless" (after 25 nights), you don't ever get to expand again. Either you die early, or you end up in a "well, I can run this to night 100 and beyond, but what would be the point?".
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I played the demo for over 6 hours so you bet I RAN to steam to buy this game ASAP, I've never enjoyed a tower defense game like I enjoy this one. The pixel art is pure fire, half the reason I enjoy the game so much is the awesome track that plays when you get attacked lol, the synergy between the towers just makes it so much fun to play and watch. I only just got started with this early access game and I'm loving it 10/10.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →you know if you'll love this by looking at the screenshots here. Its exactly what it says on the tin. and made in Godot Engine! Yay!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I put a lot of time into the demo and this was something I just could not wait to be released. This is probably one of the best tower defense games I have played in a long time, There is a fantastic variety of builds you can go with the towers and the commanders you can use and it will always have you experimenting. The meta progression feels good but some of the upgrades do not directly apply to the towers, you can only find them in the shop and it just feels weird. I do wish the meta…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TL;DR: Play Tower Dominon instead of Repel the Rifts. Technically and objectively speaking, there's nothing wrong with the game. It works well and seems to be well balanced. I played several runs and won a few. With two different characters. I also played the endless mode, which is why the playing time adds up to four hours. And it's just relatively lame. By wave 80 or so, I had managed to get the waves to barely come out of their portals, then they came a little further, but not even halfway,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Repel The Rifts does not have a fishing minigame :(( #repeltherifts #indiegame #gaming #videogames #fishing #fishingminigame
negative · AI labelView post →Soft recommendation: I love the gameplay (as a fan of tower defense), I love the art, I love the music. Definitely can get repetitive as it is right now, but for an early access it's very promising. I'd love to see techs to make 3 of the non-Pathfinder commanders do more during battles, and PLEASE for the love of god add an Undo button during deployment.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like the artstyle and its generally fun to play, even tho some characters seem not well balanced to each other. What i dislike is when the boss is like twice as strong as the last wave before that. So all waves I kill easily and suddenly the boss just walks into your character with still half his HP left. That also seems like it needs finetuning. Generally I like the roguelike aspect and hope they expand on rewarding unique combos the player can create in a run. I hope they keep improving it…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unfortunately, I cant recommend purchasing this game. The demo was awesome, and I had a lot of fun playing it, so bought the full game only to find out that there is BARELY any more content than what was even in the demo. Just play the demo and you'll have played the full game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I can see the potential in this game, but right now it just feels like it doesn't have "right/interesting/fun" content. By that I mean something that keeps me wanting to play more and more. POSITIVE: What I really like is the energy system and how different maps give heroes different skills. It actually creates those tower defense moments where the player can step in and influence the outcome instead of just sitting back and watching everything play out on its own The economy is pretty…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →👽 EXTERMINATE 👽 Repel the Rifts, the space-based roguelite tower defense from @refinedbeargames.bsky.social and published by @goblinzstudio.com is finally out. 🎉 🛡️ And LocQuest sure put our defenses to work, localizing the game in 5 languages. Command your armies on Steam now ⚙️
neutral · AI labelView post →Repel The Rifts by @refinedbeargames.bsky.social NOT sadly, we've got a fun #roguethingie #towerdefense #indiegame! Send a survey each wave to uncover more of the map. Choose different commanders to lead the defense & find alien artifacts to bolster it. Includes an endless mode! #indiedev #gamedev
neutral · AI labelView post →Our game is for ROGUE TOWER FANS, algorithm PLEASE FIND THEM! Our game is for ROGUE TOWER FANS, algorithm PLEASE FIND THEM! Our game is for ROGUE TOWER FANS, algorithm PLEASE FIND THEM! Our game is for ROGUE TOWER FANS, algorithm PLEASE FIND THEM! (Repel the Rifts - EA Nov 24
neutral · AI labelView post →A really fun tower defense game, it take the mapping layouts of Rogue Tower and the art style of Into The Breach and blends them in a really nice mix. I do like the progression and upgrades in this game waayyy more than Rogue Tower though. Upgrades feel like they actually do something (duh. but if you don't understand how upgrades in Rogue Tower works, they are miniscule) so a real upgrade is always nice. A few different characters drastically changes the way you play too, giving more replay…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun but way too easy and way too simple. Only a few towers and after playing the demo any tech tree points I beat he 2nd highest level first try only spamming the AOE and eventually 2 or 3 frost things, then I beat the highest difficulty in 3 attempts using a similar strategy (suceeding when i refused upgrades and made sure to spam enough towers to get through the early waves). Only 12 towers and every unit is a similar swarm with maybe a small gimmick, dont expect giant enemies, speedy…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While I'm giving the game a thumbs up, I do believe the game needs more content for this price. That said, it is only early access, so I'm hoping there's more level varieties/locations/objectives added in the future. Because as it is, once you beat the demo, the game itself isn't really any different. You do get to unlock additional characters, but you're only going to be doing the same basic surveying mission every time. Perhaps having each character unlock a new location exclusive to that new…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was going to recommend this on price point alone, but I can't even do that. I only got about 3 hours out of this game (rest is afk). I wanted to like this game, but there is not much content at all. Different commanders, different abilities but none too captivating. The tower pool is low. The 3x speed is somehow exhaustingly slow. The game is in desperate need of more towers, more interesting passives/actives, faster speed-up times, more interesting tech upgrades. I bought this on sale for…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really good game that pays homage to old-school tower defense while mixing in modern rogue-lite trends. Very fun and look forward to future updates!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →the game is good but teleporting enemies need to be nerfed or deleted even if you kill every other wave at ease once they come they teleport till your base and end the run
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →wtf is this balance?! it goes well for a long time then all of a sudden 1 wave lose instantly, full HP bar gone in seconds... Edit: or you just get fucked before you even had the chance to do anything Response to dev: Not sure, been doing some runs and its not allways the same enemies
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I recommend this game, with some caveats. It's fun and I enjoy it, there's just not much depth or content, especially at the full price (I paid around $12 for it, a better price would be about $3 in its current state). Most of the upgrades are just % increases to different abilities, and many of the upgrades or characters are so clearly bad they're not worth considering (for example, upgrades to commander health or the class that uses money for meh abilities... it's so junk I forgot the name of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cool game, but definitely not enough content for a game that costs €13... I know it is still early, buuut.... After a few plays the game is too repetable and overall feels like cheaper (but apparently more expensive ^^) version of other games. Meta progress feels kinda poor and kinda needs to be changed every time, a you want to choose different hero Easily find cheaper, better game on Steam. Tho, I would love to change the Review, if more content will be added. Game has potencial and will…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Decided to download this game after seeing it's ad on Reddit, can't say I'm disappointed. For a product that cost me $5usd(Regional pricing and -25%launch discount), I'd say the game is more than worth it's price, My first impression of the game was mobile game, the game is quite lite as each run takes about 15mins to reach expedition end(25 nights), so the game feels more suited on a steamdeck/phone. Things that I enjoyed: Classes/commander,: Each of the class plays very different as their…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Usually, I don’t leave reviews with only a small amount of playtime, but in this case I think it’s worth doing just to give the game a bit more visibility. As always, if there’s a demo available (which there is in this case) I strongly recommend trying it first. But if you played the demo and enjoyed it, I can definitely recommend supporting the game. I believe this title has massive potential. Even though it just launched in Early Access, it’s already very playable and I’m sure you can sink…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've played the demo A LOT and couldn't wait for the full release <3
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Say thanks to Goblinz Publishing if you wonder why this review is even here. Ask them ;)
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good TD game with roguelike mechanics and progression. Things that would imo make this game closer to perfection is the tech tree's design. Unlocks and upgrades for different towers are grouped under the same upgrade chain. There doesn't seem to be a sense of grouping where similar types or archetypes are under the same chain, but it seems arbitrary. Let's say you really want to get the final upgrade down a chain, you'd have to choose prerequisite upgrades and some of them wouldn't even be…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm not usually into tower defense, but the great pixel art and the fast pace grabbed me. Overall, Repel the Rifts is an impressive first effort from this developer. There's a nice variety of commanders and towers, and I've enjoyed messing around with just about all of them, as well as progressing through the skill trees. The game never feels unfair; most every time I died, it felt like a skill issue. If there's a knock on this game, it's that once you figure out the synergies and win on the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →With my 2.8 hours played I have played pretty much all the available content in the game. The game is super easy even on max difficulty and the gameplay loop is very repetitive. The full game compared to the demo doesnt even add an extra hour of play time.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A nice, short classic tower defense with a rogue-lite twist! With an amazing soundtrack!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a pretty good tower defense game, but as others have said, it defnitely needs some kind of campaign or more levels. (In the absence of other ideas, a Dariusburst: Chronicle Saviours-style mission board does wonders for a free-form campaign.) I'm looking forward to seeing how the game evolves.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Vampire survivors but td
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While I give this a thumbs up as a serviceable tower defense game, it comes with caveats. It is very, very simple. There isn't super deep strategy going on here. This may be a turn off for some people wanting a lot of depth. There are also only 4 playable characters, which is also very limiting. The biggest issue is that there is no progression/story or additional levels. It's just a single run, and you win or lose. Then start a new run, same thing. While levels are made different because…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really want to like this game but it has optimization problems, frequent lag spikes, and a few bugs that just ruin the game. At one point I could no longer collect artifacts and when I entered endless mode the game couldn't continue since I couldn't claim the artifact
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →🔥🕹️ #RepelTheRifts )Early Access) by @refinedbeargames.bsky.social #indiegame #indiegames #videogames #gaming
neutral · AI labelView post →Got hooked on this one back with the Next Fest, it's an absolutely delightful tower defense roguelite. Overall, it's a tower defense game where you are consistently given a limited choice of options on how to develop your build, and this doesn't include just some occasional upgrades, but also expansions to the path enemies come from, and what new towers you unlock, and over a single game a lot of different unique paths to develop a build pop up. Also it's a pretty fast-paced fast-loading game…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Is this seriously in early access? It already has so much content.. Honestly cant wait for what it has to come. Edit : i hope the developers can see this, i checked the roadmap and whilst it looks good, no sign of more turrets or skill tree and unlockables or more commanders is a bit sad :(
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Devs, please do something about the teleporting enemies. Absolutely ruins the fun of this game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun towerdefense, a bit easy except for the teleporter wave that will oneshot you
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really enjoyed this game and played it solid for a couple days. Beat it on hardest difficulty with all heroes. The different heroes create different strats and I think they are well designed. This TD falls into the same trap as others of it's kind, you get penalized for picking new towers! It is much better to stack all tower buffs on 1 type and use the others for support. Think about it, 4 tower types with +25% damage or 1 tower with 100% damage and gets the anomaly spots (bonus placement).…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I absolutely love this game and im hooked. Dev, please fix left side audio of your game being a little bit higher than the right side, its driving me crazy.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Quite fun. But get's repetitive fast. It's gud for number go up dopamine though
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →art style is peak, but the gameplay just isn't there yet.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Love the game and the creator. Worth the $.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Enjoying so far. A very pretty game with a variety of unique weapons/towers. It's still early access but the developer seems really dedicated to improving the game and listening to players! Looking forward to seeing how this game progresses.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Repel The Rifts is a delightful turn-based roguelite tower defence game *breathes*. It's a mash-up of genres that somehow works beautifully. Part of that is the cool retro aesthetics and music. Part of it is that the game is accessible (anyone can beat it on the easiest difficulty after a couple of tries) but also deep (there is a lot more challenge on the highest difficulty, and there is a diverse range of buildings to build). I thoroughly recommend this game. (I won a free copy and am not…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sorry, it doesn't have the depth, skill expression and smart trade-off plays I was looking for. You could build an intricate selection of towers and struggle, or you could build and level one singular splashing Cryo tower to wipe out all the enemies. The sprites, particularly monsters, are really cute, for sure.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The most fun game I bought this year. ⭐ Plus, the graphics are stylized like Into The Breach, which is a dream come true.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great Roguelite game! A tower defense with a nice mix of puzzle elements. Excited to see where the game goes because it is already incredibly polished.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Awesome game can't wait to see what else they add.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun and simple tower defense game that seems very challenging at first, but becomes fairly easy to play once you start to really get a grasp of the game's mechanics and start putting points into the game's upgrades. This game seems best aimed at people who aren't complete newbies to tower defense games, but aren't hardcore veterans of the genre either. Once you dig a little into the meat and potatoes, somewhere around five hours in, you'll realize that the game lacks replay value unless you're…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Highly recommend to support them for the amateur of tower defense. I've been looking for a good tower defense for years, this one fits perfectly can't wait to see where they bring the game, Congrats devs !
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great tower defense game! I have been wanting to play a good TD for a long time now, and this one scratches the itch. Very addicting, and I love the roguelike elements. The character skills don't feel crazy like some games, and the towers, and their upgrades, are fun. Great game!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →love the game. Excited to see if it receives additional support in the future. I would love to see some playable dlc characters and new enemy types and upgrades!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Overall this is a really solid game! It feels well balanced and rewarding for beating runs. The endless mode is also super satisfying which is rare for games like this because it increases in difficulty really fast. There have been quite a few runs where I think I am doing so good and beat the final boss without much issue but then die on the first wave on endless. I can see how trying to get really far in endless could be a fun thing to do after unlocking all the content. Overall the total…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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