Rxcovery is a free RPG about battling modern healthcare

Rxcovery is a turn-based RPG about Ezo, an unconscious patient in a hospital I wouldn't recommend, and Recovery, an android nurse who's handy in a fight. Ezo is on life support, but his insurance will only pay for another 30 minutes of treatment. Unless he collects $400,000 in 30 minutes, he's dead. Thankfully, the powers that be accept Dream Dollars, which Ezo can earn in his sleep. 

Now I've never been on life support, so I can't attest to the validity of Rxcovery's dream economy. But I do know it's not easy to make $400,000 in 30 minutes—I've never successfully done it. And I imagine it would be much more difficult to scrounge up that kind of money while trapped in a labyrinthine abstraction of a hospital filled with demonic nurses, orderlies and bedbugs.

Rxcovery is an RPG first and foremost, but it's also a sharp-tongued caricature of modern healthcare. If only paying medical bills were as easy as hoovering up discarded gold and squashing a few monsters. 

I say a few, but in truth Rxcovery has a staggering number of enemies and characters for a free game. Ezo and Recovery aside, there are 24 recruitable characters of four different races: human, witch, beastman, and droid. There's also a fair few abilities, including weapon proficiencies which upgrade as you use them and seven schools of magic. Rxcovery's interface is primitive to say the least, but its systems are surprisingly robust.

The most interesting is its take on new game plus. Each time you die—because again, making 400 grand ain't easy—you start over with all your skills, money and items intact. "It gets easier every time," Rxcovery's Itch page says. Having played a bit of it myself, I'm not so sure of that, but I can say it gets more interesting every time. 

You can download Rxcovery for yourself on Itch. It's a name-your-own-price deal, so you can try developer L.O.V.E. Games' intriguing little game for free if you'd like. 

Thanks, Kotaku

Austin Wood
Staff writer, GamesRadar

Austin freelanced for PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and has been a full-time writer at PC Gamer's sister publication GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a staff writer is just a cover-up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news, the occasional feature, and as much Genshin Impact as he can get away with.

Latest in Gaming Industry
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
Monster Hunter Wilds' stockpile master studying a manifest
As layoffs and studio closures continue to deathroll the western AAA industry, analyst points out 5 of 8 major Japanese companies hit all-time share prices this year
A still from a video announcement of Game Informer's return, featuring the magazine's Halo 2 issue.
Game Informer is back from the dead: 'The whole team has returned'
Typing on internet search toolbar: What am I doing?
How a Microsoft exec managed to pitch Microsoft Word through the genius tactic of being able to actually use it in a 'type-off' demanded by clients: 'I was the only one who'd actually been a secretary'
Half-Life wallpaper - Gordon Freeman
Former Valve exec says the company struggled to sell Half-Life until coming up with the ultimate 'one simple trick' of marketing manoeuvres: slapping a 'Game of the Year' sticker on the box
Gabe Newell looks into the camera, behind him is a prop of a turret from Team Fortress 2.
Gabe Newell's cult of personality is intense, but a Valve exec who worked with him says his superpower is how he 'delighted in people on the team just being really good at what they did'
Latest in News
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened