ReCore

ReCore is an action-adventure and platform game played from a third-person perspective. It centers around Joule Adams and her three robotic machines known as corebot companions, who aid her in combat and puzzle solving; these types of machines can be improved, should players find the blueprints and materials to do so, which grants upgrades to their attack and defense. The machines' cores can be swapped between them, changing their abilities in succession, and their frames are rearrangeable. Players can level up Joule's weapons and vitality.

Ranged weapons have three kinds of ammunition that take down an enemy with a matching color: red, blue and yellow. Furthermore, if one of Joule's corebots matches the color of an enemy, it will thus inflict more damage in combat. Joule also wields a grappling hook that she uses to extract her enemies' energy cores after a certain amount of damage is done. Joule must dodge, jump or dash quickly to avoid taking damage.

ReCore is set roughly 200 years in the future. In the course of the early 2020s, a disease called the "Dust Devil Plague" began to ravage the Earth. An organization named Mandate led global efforts to fight the disease. As the Earth became uninhabitable, Mandate launched several missions to a new planet known as Far Eden.

Far Eden was discovered many light-years away in the first decades of the 21st century. Several thousand corebots were sent to build atmospheric processing facilities on Far Eden, and the first group of colonists was sent. The colonists were to hibernate in cryo-sleep for 200 years while the terraforming process finished. During this period, many of the colonists vanished, and the corebots became corrupted.

Development started in early 2014 and took 14 months to go into full production. The concept was contributed by Keiji Inafune, who wished to convey the idea of surviving in a world verging on human extinction. The developers first came up with the robots, whose anatomical design problems would later be solved by the insertion of cores – essentially robot souls – to explain their propulsion. Writer Joseph Staten resolved to create a simple story to enhance an emotional backdrop more grounded in complexity.

ReCore was designed by Comcept, which is a development studio founded by former Capcom employee Keiji Inafune. Partnering with Comcept was Armature Studio, formed by leaders from Retro Studios who worked on Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and the prior Mega Man X series spin-off concept Maverick Hunter. Dividing labor between the studios into each their expertise, Armature Studio developed the technical assets while Comcept maintained the base philosophy of the world, characters and story. Using the Unity game engine, Armature Studio collaborated with Unity Technologies to advance its animation state machine system, Mecanim, for its application in ReCore.

ReCore received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. The game was the fifth best-selling retail video game in the UK in its week of release, according to Chart-Track. It was nominated for the 2016 Unity Awards in the category of Best 3D Visuals and for Xbox Game of the Year at the 2016 Golden Joystick Awards. Brett Makedonski of Destructoid had a mixed response to ReCore.

Though describing the game to be "brimming with ideas", Makedonski criticized the design for being injurious to its foundation. He felt the fetch quests were repetitive and over represented as part of the gameplay experience, and that it failed to do justice to the narrative. Makedonski praised the game's controls, but had issues with the combat for its tedious nature and inability to advance. Keri Honea of Game Revolution showed little enthusiasm for the game, considering the dungeon raids "formulaic", boring and repetitive.