Rift Fighter

Rift Fighter opens in monospaced white text on black, with pixel monsters idling around the menu and its own line beneath the title: type your skills, survive the horde. The controls are listed there too: WASD to move, J to confirm, K to cancel, Tab for the bag.

A run drops you alone onto a dark brick floor seen from above. Enemies close in from every direction, each one that falls leaves a pale blue experience gem, and walking over those gems is how you level up. Two bars across the top track experience and health.

It moves fast. Forty-three seconds in, the level counter had gone from one to two, the floor was littered with gems, and the health bar was down to a sliver, with damage numbers popping up over the character.

Death is not the end of the session. The screen reports how long you survived and what level you reached, then offers the camp, a sandy hub where a Portal Keeper, an Altar Keeper, a Martial Master, a Blacksmith, a Mentor, an Archivist and a Steward are waiting. Defeat bosses, it says, to earn skill points.