Rob reviews Red Solstice 2: Survivors on Steam...
Red Solstice 2: Survivors takes a typical sci-fi action horror story and turns the dial up to 11. In the distant future, humanity has reached out to the stars and in doing so has colonised Mars. However, terraforming the Red Planet has awoken a pathogen dubbed STROL, which in turn has ravaged the human population. Now as bloodthirsty mutants wander the landscape, your team has been sent in to clean up the mess and save the day.
Red Solstice 2: Survivors is a curious mix of X-COM, mixed with a twin-stick shooter, then sprinkled with an RTS. Each mission is a desperate battle through mutant-infested locations as your three-man team attempt to complete various objectives. Whether you activating orbital super weapons, rescuing survivors, or slaying mutants - it's very easy to get swept up in the variety that Red Solstice provides. However, it's not all smooth sailing as while the game does a lot of things right, it equally falls flat at the same time.
When you first boot up Red Solstice 2: Survivors you'll be thrown into the game's tutorial. It's here where developer Ironward introduces you to the ground combat side of the game, as you get drip-fed various objectives. As tutorials go, this one is up there as one of my all-time favourites. The mission is to regroup with your squad and then destroy the base with an orbital WMD.
Your character is thrown into the dark, dimly lit corridors of a mutant-infested base with only their weapons as a company. Death is all around you as torn bodies and blood litter the environment. The only light source comes from your suit - as well as the red hue of the emergency lighting.
What then follows is a desperate game of cat and mouse as you work your way through the base to regroup with your squad. Throughout you'll be introduced to the fundamentals of the game, whilst given options to how you want to play. If you want it, there's a fair amount of automation to how your 'Executor' fights. Hitting the E key activates overwatch which essentially allows you to auto-target everything that comes into view. This is pretty simple as it allows you to concentrate on micro-managing your squad, whilst the A.I. does the nitty-gritty. Away from this and hitting Caps or Shift will activate a free aim cursor, whilst Q switches to your more heavy weapons. CTRL also act as a hot bar for using your unlocked skills and equipment.
While your Executor is essentially YOUR character in this world, they're not very customisable. Aside from choosing a starting class and armour colour, any form of customisation comes from what skills you unlock. XP points are your primary currency for upgrading your Executor, and thankfully you'll be earning this in buckets as you battle the STROL virus.
While Red Solstice 2: Survivors kind of excels with its combat, it's brought down to Earth with its lacklustre base management. I call it base management, but to be fair it's more man-management. Much like that seen in X-COM, time advances as you perform actions on the world map. Researching new items is also tied into this process which means you'll generally have to play the game
to make any progress. Sounds like a fair deal! Anyway, there are never any real consequences for wasting this time, which is handy as there's a vast amount of travelling around the map. While it's handy to speed up research tasks, having to physically travel between missions just to see what they are is a bit of a bore. It's not a quick process either and not being able to hover over the mission to see its description slows down the pace.
The mission structure is fairly varied, however, you do start to see the same objectives repeated as time goes on. While some missions are easier than others, most end up involving you out-gunning the incoming swarm. Unfortunately, once the swarm has been triggered it's a never-ending onslaught until you either complete the current objective or die. When it comes to rescuing missions, the swarm is slightly more manageable as your VIP's come equipped with their loadouts. Yet if you get caught out during a supply run, you may as well give up. It's here where the game hits you with its poor objective placement, which sees you running down the clock as you traverse the environment to reach the next drop. There's a lot of backtracking involved which starts to feel like a ploy to always trigger your impending doom.
Death is also a bit of a non-starter too. The characters under your command aren't bullet-sponges and as such, they will eventually succumb to the mutant hordes. Yet, death isn't the end. There's no permadeath mechanic to juggle, and even if you fail the mission - you're not penalised for doing so. While this may seem to take the strategy element away from the game, when you factor in that your teammates are dumb then it becomes a blessing.
If the A.I. isn't your thing then you're also able to invite a friend to experience the pain with you. The whole campaign can be played via other players dropping in or out, and the dedicated servers make for quite a refreshing experience. Naturally playing other humans aims for a vastly better experience than it does with the A.I., and with a competent team, you can explore the tactical side of the game.
That being said, another strong point that Red Solstice 2 provides is a ridiculous amount of enemies to fight. No matter how good you think you're doing it's only a matter of time before the STROL virus takes over the Red Planet. As such you'll start to see more and more different varieties of mutants during your missions. While most of these perform the same style of attacks, the sheer number does mean you'll get overwhelmed pretty easily. But this also falls back to the basic premise of the game. While you can be prepared as best you can be, it never feels good enough. Granted you are fighting against an overwhelming force, but it would be nice to catch a break now and again.
All in all, Red Solstice 2: Survivors is a pretty decent game, that could have been a lot better. Even with the mentioned issues, I did enjoy my time on Mars. It has just enough strategy elements to scratch that X-COM itch, yet also manages to steer away from being an outright clone. If anything Red Solstice 2: Survivors is a brilliant game to play with others. However, being stranded with the A.I. isn't any idea of fun...
Rating: 7/10
Red Solstice 2: Survivors is available now and can be purchased on Steam by clicking here.
A code was kindly provided for this review.
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