RICO

What it is

RICO puts players in the boots of two loose-cannon cops with a single case and 24 hours to bring down a criminal empire, breaching doors in dramatic slow motion and clearing procedurally generated rooms full of enemies in a structure borrowing from both roguelites and classic arcade shooters. Developed by Ground Shatter and published by Rising Star Games, it released on 14 March 2019 at NZD 24.79, built around solo play or online co-op with a friend, wrapped in a heavily-outlined, XIII-inspired comic-book visual style.

Its review corpus, 276 in English, sits at a genuinely divided Mixed 62% (171 to 105), and reading through it in depth reveals a game whose reputation has shifted significantly since launch — early reviews focus on gameplay feel and content depth, while a large, later, independently corroborated wave documents something far more serious: the shutdown of the servers powering the game's headline co-op feature.

Genuinely satisfying shooting, undercut by repetition

At launch, this corpus's praise centered on moment-to-moment feel. "RICO is basically Hotline Miami meets an arcade shooter but with coop and mix in some SWAT 3/4," writes one detailed reviewer, praising "solid" gameplay and genuine roguelite variety where "no one game is exactly like the other." Another reviewer frames the appeal in cultural terms: "the game is basically Notorious B.I.G.'s song: 'Kick in the door, waving the four four'" — door-breaching slow-motion combat delivered with real style and weight. But even enthusiastic reviewers concede real limits: "the game is literally what it says on the tin: kick doors, shoot men. It's a gameplay loop that almost never changes and there's really no depth in the moment to moment gameplay beyond that," writes one detailed reviewer who still ultimately recommends it for what it does deliver.

A confirmed, independently corroborated server shutdown

The most serious, well-documented issue in this corpus concerns something far more concrete than gameplay repetition: RICO's online co-op infrastructure has been shut down, and this isn't a single disgruntled account — it's independently confirmed across numerous separate reviews. "Servers Offline !!! Not working to play: Daily Missions, 2 Player Missions and Co-op !!!" states one reviewer plainly. Another corroborates the same fact independently: "online servers have been shut down, which means you can't play online co-op or do any of the daily challenges." A third, more detailed account explains the practical consequence: "the co-op part of the game is dead because they shut down the servers... but the game is not solo able," describing a mission requiring three bombs defused in under two minutes that becomes "impossible" without a second player. This is a serious, factual, checkable problem that fundamentally changes what buying this game today actually gets you compared to what its launch marketing and store description promised.

A frustration compounded by earlier regional matchmaking problems

Notably, this corpus shows the co-op experience was already fragile even before the servers went offline entirely. "If you are from a low player region like Australia or Oceania, you won't find anyone to play with," writes one reviewer, describing repeated failed matchmaking attempts just days after the game's release. A separate reviewer flags a specific co-op-only bug on top of the population problem: "there's this annoying bug where you can't shoot or use menus when doing co-op, happens often, kind of a deal breaker." Together, these accounts paint a picture of a co-op feature that struggled with real technical and population problems well before its eventual, more complete shutdown — worth knowing for anyone assuming the current server status is simply a case of a once-healthy feature quietly aging out. That's an important distinction for prospective buyers weighing a purchase today — this isn't a case of a feature that worked well for years before finally being retired, but one that appears to have been genuinely unreliable for a meaningful share of the playerbase from very early in the game's life.

Enemy AI and general polish concerns

Beyond the co-op-specific issues, a detailed reviewer raises a more general critique of the game's depth: "I'm extremely conflicted about this game... it is very simplistic, and since it is all gameplay, I think you can see the whole picture pretty quickly," comparing the design ambition favorably to FEAR's combat while acknowledging a much smaller budget behind it. A separate reviewer specifically calls out enemy behavior as a weak point: praising "hilarious cheesy 'Bad Boys' concept," "good level design," and "great weapon versatility," before concluding "I just can't recommend it because the AI feels too lifeless" — a specific complaint that the game's presentation promises more tension than its actual enemy behavior delivers.

What the achievement data confirms

RICO's achievement data offers a useful, concrete confirmation of the co-op situation: "Two Player Operation" sits at 39.6%, a substantial share of the playerbase that clearly engaged with co-op while it was functional, now permanently locked out of completing that milestone going forward alongside anyone buying the game fresh today. Core solo-play achievements (killing enemies, slow-motion clears) sit healthily in the 40-70% range, while full-completion and hard-difficulty achievements fall to single digits — a pattern consistent with a game whose solo content remains genuinely accessible even as its multiplayer half has become permanently unavailable.

Verdict

RICO delivers genuinely satisfying door-breaching shooting wrapped in a distinctive comic-book style, and its solo content remains playable and reasonably fun in short bursts. But its online co-op — the feature most central to its original pitch and marketing — is confirmed, independently corroborated as shut down, fundamentally changing what today's buyers actually receive compared to what launch reviewers experienced. Treat this strictly as a cheap, disposable solo arcade shooter, not as the co-op experience it was originally sold as.