What Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages is
Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages is a top-down space shooter with RPG systems layered on top. You fly ships through the Rings, universal super-highways, and fight through procedurally generated levels, backgrounds, and AI enemies, so runs stay different each time. The campaign runs about 30 hours and is based on a companion Sci Fi novel. You wake from brain surgery with key memory centers missing, replaced by Nero, a neuro-Hud with a taste for peanut butter, and he guides you through the Rings. Along the way you learn you are a Sage, someone who can rewrite physical laws with thought, while The Extinguishers, acting for the Consortium of the Inner Rings, hunt Sages down. Expect trench runs, gladiatorial fights, feuding trash moguls, and a war with casualties measured in galaxies.
How your group plays it together
The 6 scenarios work alone, cooperatively, or competitively through online multiplayer, and there is local co-op as well. Duo ships let a friend act as copilot, usable in multiplayer modes and in the second half of the campaign. Multiplayer supports drop-in and drop-out with seamless host migration, so nobody sits in a lobby waiting. The scenarios cover different flavors: Space Defense League plays like a lane-pushing game in space with cruisers, bosses, drone swarms, and power-up crates; Zombie Survival has you racking up kills against hordes while custom bosses grant Super Sage abilities; Wave Survival throws procedurally generated bosses, swarmers, and standard ships at you; Gladiator Mode is a gauntlet of generated bosses; Spire Battle is base versus base; Deathmatch has no teams at all. Remote Play Together is available if you want to share a session.
Before you start
Ships and skills are the core of the build. There are 60 customizable hulls across five archetypes with hybrids, acting as templates for over 400 skills, many inspired by fantasy games, and 30 prebuilt ships are ready if you would rather jump straight in. The Subrostrum holds classic arcade-inspired mini-games that earn you Sage abilities. Levels, backgrounds, and enemies being procedurally generated means the challenge list is effectively endless, which pairs well with a group that wants to keep coming back. The soundtrack includes 20 tracks and hundreds of original sound effects. The campaign is story-heavy and single-player focused until its second half, so a group starting out should probably begin with the scenarios and mix in the campaign as they go.