Double Cross is a 2D adventure platformer developed by 13AM Games, the studio behind the award-winning Runbow. It was released for Switch and PC in early 2019.
Zahra Sinclair is an agent of RIFT, an organization that keeps peace throughout the multiverse. A recent attack on headquarters thrusts players into a thrilling new case where they must use their RIFT developed gear to sling, swing, fight and investigate across distinct dimensions, gathering clues to bring themselves one step closer to finding the identity of the attacker and save every variation of the universe.
Tropes:
- After the End: Reptarria. It was a version of Earth where the dinosaurs were never wiped out by an asteroid, and subsequently evolved into a dino dominated version of modern day Earth. And then it wound up getting annihilated by an asteroid anyway some 200 years prior to the events of the game, turning it into the Mad Max-esque wasteland you see it as when visiting, complete with a massive crater in the background.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Funderdome's backstory; robots overthrew the humans & turned their Earth into an interdimensional tourist trap.
- Alien Non-Interference Clause: Due to a risk of instability, RIFT does not allow interactions with Earths too similar to their own.
- Deconstructed over the course of the game. The fact that preventing interference with the less lucky parts of the multiverse has allowed a huge amount of preventable suffering to continue is repeatedly mentioned, and revenge for being left to suffer when RIFT could have easily helped is Suspect X's primary motivation. In the end, this rule is loosened if not removed, with RIFT reformed to allow humanitarian intervention in the worst parts of the multiverse.
- All There in the Manual: A handful of secondary facts about the backstory are give on the official website like details about the planets the various RIFT members came from.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Ripjaw. He's the most powerful warlord on Reptarria, and quite capable in a fight.
- Big Bad: Suspect X. Actually winds up being a duumvirate job, with Suspect X being an alternate universe Dash Sterling working with RIFT's Dash Sterling as the inside man. Their goal is to destroy RIFT in revenge for refusing to save their wife and son's lives from an illness they could have easily cured.
- Boss Rush: You have to fight the three major villains again during the final level. They have less health and fewer phases than before.
- Bubblegloop Swamp: Gootopia.
- Burn the Witch!: Director Sorgina Delabourde very narrowly escaped this fate in her backstory. She accidentally entered a portal to a backwards Earth (think the Salem Witch Trials) that thought she was a witch (she resembles a vampire/demon) and tried to burn her at the stake, and was saved by a RIFT agent. This is why she's a massive stickler for the rules.
- Driving Question: Who is Suspect X, the masked mastermind that bypassed RIFT's security and stole dangerous material? It's Dash Sterling, working with a doppelganger that suffered similar loss.
- Eco-Terrorist: Basically what Dr. Freya Gronnalva is. They hate the fact that RIFT messes around with the environments and lifeforms of various worlds, and joined up with Suspect X as a result.
- Evil Twin: A doppelganger of Zahra from another dimension repeatedly pops up to antagonize her, though she claims to be unconnected to Suspect X. It turns out her world was destroyed by Suspect X as a test of their RIFT-destroying superweapon, and while escaping she got a brief glimpse of Suspect X's RIFT ally giving orders, leading her to hate both the agency and Suspect X.
- Foreshadowing: There are plenty of hints about Suspect X's identity and other things to come. Rouge Zahra's plan to infiltrate RIFT is also hinted at during the third meeting with her just like the events of the Stinger if you listen to what the Big Bad is saying during his rant in the final battle.
- Fun with Acronyms: Both RIFT, which stands for "Regulators of Interdimensional Frontiers and Technology" and SPHERE, which stands for "Science, Physics and Engineering Research division".
- Grappling-Hook Pistol: Zahra is using her Proton Slinger (basically an energy grappling hook) to traverse various obstacles and reach otherwise impossible spots.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Turns out there's an entire council of at least four Dash Sterlings out there pissed off at RIFT. Dash does mention in the final battle that he visited more than one world trying and failing to find a version of his son that was still alive...
- Heel–Face Turn: "Rogue" Zahra teams up with Zahra in the final fight to defeat Suspect X & his own Rogue self.
- Hub World: RIFT HQ, from which Zahra can search for clues in parallel worlds Gootopia, the Funderdome, and Reptarria.
- Interspecies Romance: Between Ms. Ham, a human, and Agent Pineapple, a sentient fruit.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: After their refights, Ripjaw and Dr. Freya willingly admit defeat. Hancho isn't quite as noble about it.
- Lady of War: Helena Lycastia, RIFT's prison warden. Decked to the gills with various weapons, and always calls Zahra "Lady Zahra"
- Large and in Charge: Ripjaw again. He's very buff and extremely tall. It's hilarious when you see him sitting on the floor in his (undersized for him) cell after you arrest him.
- Lizard Folk: Reptarria is a dimension where the dinosaurs never went extinct, though a recent cataclysm has devastated the lands.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: While you have a health bar, you can turn it off with the Glass Canon upgrade. Defeating the final boss with it is even an archievement. You can still use the upgrade that gives you a regenerating shield on top of that to take at least one or two hits.
- Outrun the Fireball: The SPHERE Base on Gootopia has you outrunning a massive wave of deadly slime, three separate times.
- The Lost Lenore: Dash Sterling's wife & son both died from an illness that could have been cured with medicine from a very similar dimension, had RIFT allowed it.
- The Mole: It's suspected that Suspect X is this, as RIFT's security is top-notch. Dr. Freya Gronnalva is not Suspect X, but is working with them. There is also another mole.
- Red Herring: Initially, all the evidence points to Skip, but they turn out to be innocent. Quite a few other characters are suspiscious as well but evidence and/or circumstances clear them.
- The Stinger: Turns out there are a lot more than two Dash Sterlings working to take down RIFT...
- Villain Has a Point: Zahra admits that, while Suspect X's revenge is taking it too far, RIFT's Alien Non-Interference Clause has caused more danger than prevented. Even the administration admits it.
- Ripjaw submits a request to RIFT to transfer the remaining Reptarrians to other habitable yet uninhabited worlds, as while he's a violent warlord and weapons dealer he does seem to want the best for Reptarria. Director Delabourde turns his request down, to his anger.
- Voice with an Internet Connection: Skip Hollister, Zahra's handler.
- Walk the Earth: More like "Walk the Earths," but Rogue Zahra states that she plans to do this during the ending, after politely declining Zahra's offer to become a RIFT agent. She also says that she and Zahra will definitely be running into each other again in the future.
- We Used to Be Friends: Valery Wiseheart makes it pretty clear to Dash Sterling that they are now this during the ending.
