R.I.P. Reincarnation Insurance Program launches in Early Access

R.I.P. - Reincarnation Insurance Program is out today in Steam Early Access, and it wastes zero time explaining what it wants to be: a top-down roguelite shooter that mashes bullet-heaven pressure with loot that actually matters. The pitch is simple and shameless in the best way. Huge swarms. Loud screen effects. Gear drops that keep you chasing the next upgrade because the numbers and affixes feel like a build, not a sticker.

If you grew up on arcade shooters, twin-stick chaos, or the era where games had the confidence to be a little dumb and a lot fun, this one is going to trigger that part of your brain immediately. Not because it is retro in presentation, but because it treats action like the point, not the garnish.

Table of Contents

A bullet heaven that cares about loot

Most bullet-heaven games live and die on the meta-progression drip and the moment-to-moment upgrade picks. R.I.P. does that too, but its standout angle is how hard it leans into Diablo-style item chasing. You are not just stacking generic power. You are trying to assemble an identity.

That matters because bullet-heaven combat can blur together after a few hours if every run feels like the same soup with a different spice. Here, the soup changes depending on what the game hands you and what you decide to commit to. When the screen is full of zombies and you are juggling cooldowns, movement, and incoming damage, the difference between "I have a few upgrades" and "I am building a monster" is the whole hook.

The game sells the fantasy of being an "elite agent" in a world overrun by corrosion viruses and undead tides. It is nonsense, but it is the right kind of nonsense. The excuse exists so you can liquidate entire crowds into ash with divine tech and then vacuum up the rewards.

Moment-to-moment: controlled panic

The combat rhythm is familiar if you have touched anything in the Survivor-like space. You kite, you manage angles, you look for safe pockets, and you try not to get body-blocked when the swarm decides it hates you personally.

Where R.I.P. feels especially satisfying is when your build turns from "I am surviving" into "I am farming." The best bullet-heaven games hit that gear shift where you stop reacting and start routing the map. R.I.P. is built around chasing that feeling repeatedly, run after run, until you are hunting higher difficulty, better drops, and more degenerate combinations.

It is also clearly aiming for a more readable, action-RPG flavored loop than the most minimalist entries in the genre. The presentation is not trying to be tiny or abstract. It wants explosions, chunky effects, and a pace that looks good in motion.

Builds, power spikes, and the early access question

This is where Early Access matters. Games like this live on balance, and balance is a moving target. If loot drops too generously, you reach godhood too early and the run loses tension. If it is too stingy, the fantasy collapses and every run feels like unpaid overtime.

Early Access is basically a promise to keep tuning that curve while layering in more reasons to keep playing. The Steam community hub already points at near-term additions like new modes and more areas, which is the kind of roadmap you want from this style of game: more systems to test your build against, more spaces where your routing and itemization choices matter.

If you buy in now, buy in for the ride. The core loop is the selling point today. The long-term value will come from how fast the developers add variety without bloating the run with chores.

Where to buy it

If you want to jump in on day one, the cleanest path is the Steam page: [Buy R.I.P. - Reincarnation Insurance Program on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/3985950/RIP__Reincarnation_Insurance_Program/. That is also where you will see the current Early Access status, price, and any launch discount window.

The weird, real nostalgia of the name "RIP"

This is the part that is going to hit certain PC players right in the memory. The name "R.I.P." is not new, and if you are the kind of person who still remembers digging through bargain bins, shareware folders, or older Steam catalog oddities, your brain probably did the same thing ours did when you first saw this title: wait, RIP?

There is an older set of games literally called RIP, including a bundled release on Steam called RIP - Trilogy. Those games are not from the same publisher as Reincarnation Insurance Program. They are not related. They are not a reboot. They are not a remake. But the overlap is unavoidable, and honestly, it is kind of perfect.

The older RIP games are very much of their time: top-down arcade shooter energy, a slightly Halloween-ish attitude, and that classic "pick a character and blast through levels" structure. They also have the kind of premise that reads like it was scribbled on a notepad next to a Monster Energy can: Death, Halloween, and Rock-N-Roll as antiheroes, mowing through enemies across dozens of levels with vehicles, weapons, and pure arcade momentum.

That era of games did not care if the lore sounded ridiculous. It cared if the shooting felt good and if the next level gave you a new reason to keep clicking.

So when a modern bullet-heaven roguelite shows up with a similar name and a similarly shameless love of chaos, the nostalgia is not about direct reference. It is about attitude. The sense that the game is not embarrassed to be a game.

Why the comparison is fair, even when the games are not related

It would be easy to dismiss the name overlap as coincidence and move on. But there is something interesting in how the vibes line up anyway.

The RIP - Trilogy era is built around arcade structure: clear levels, clear progress, and a straightforward power fantasy. The modern R.I.P. is built around roguelite structure: runs, resets, and meta-progression. The shapes are different, but the heartbeat is similar. Both lean on the same pleasure loop: get stronger fast, turn enemies into loot, and keep moving.

The nostalgia is also mechanical. Top-down action has a specific kind of readability. Your brain maps threats quickly. Your hands settle into the dodge-kite-fire rhythm. When it is done right, it feels like you are playing the screen as much as the character. R.I.P. understands that. It is not chasing realism. It is chasing flow.

So if the title made you think of the older RIP games, you are not crazy. You are just old enough to have that folder in your head labeled "top-down shooters that were way better than they had any right to be."

Who this is for

R.I.P. - Reincarnation Insurance Program is an easy recommendation for a specific kind of player: someone who wants a bullet-heaven game with more texture than just passive upgrades, and who gets genuinely excited when loot drops can change the entire run.

If you hate Early Access on principle, wait. If you want a fresh build-chasing loop with zombies, divine tech nonsense, and the promise of more content soon, this is exactly the kind of game you buy early and watch evolve.

And if you saw the name and felt that little flash of "RIP? like RIP?" then yeah, you are the target audience for the nostalgia too. Not because it is the same thing, but because it scratches the same itch: loud, fast, unapologetic top-down mayhem.

R.I.P. - Reincarnation Insurance Program | EA Launch Trailer