Red Trigger

While I do recommend the original version, the remake gets a huge thumbs down due to innumerable bugs and glitches that transform the fun of the original into nonstop frustration. It's odd that the free version of the game is vastly superior to the remake, which you have to pay for. The free version had no technical issues at all and was awesome, but the remake is riddled with glitches and several game-breaking bugs.

I cannot recommend Red Trigger as it exists currently. When I first played Red Trigger, it was completely free and despite the lack of polish, was a mechanically sound puzzle platformer. This changed in an update that was released in late 2023 which remade the game and introduced the current price point. This remake is a side-grade at best and absolutely does not warrant the current price of the game. TL; DR: The remake is clunkier than the original, visuals are barely an improvement and tanks performance, the new story is out-of-place and the voice acting is bizarre. [h3]What is Red Trigger?[/h3] Red Trigger is an extremely short puzzle game designed with speedrunning in mind, both versions of the game can be beaten in under 10 minutes on a repeat playthrough and there is even an to be earned achievement for doing so. The puzzles are pretty simple even on a first playthrough: you shoot the red things in the right order, sometimes in the air – the real challenge is getting through them quickly. The original game’s visuals were very basic and the story was non-existant; but these were hardly serious issues since delivering beautiful graphics and a thrilling story were not the goals of the game. The remake’s graphical improvements aren’t unwelcome – they do make the game look a bit nicer, but there’s still nothing stunning to be seen here, you’ll still see white corridors and rooms with only the barest of detail – certainly nothing to warrant the sudden increase in price, or the massive drop in performance. [h3]Story[/h3] With Red Trigger’s short length, it would be difficult to get attached to any story or lore relating to it, even if it was decent – but the remake’s story is especially inane and underdeveloped to the point that it genuinely makes the game worse. The protagonist is now voiced, but make no mistake – that doesn’t mean she has personality. Her only notable aspects are having amnesia, an inability to feel pain and not knowing what a gun is for. This isn’t helped by the poor delivery of the lines by the voice actors for the game; I don’t like criticising the acting because it is very difficult to get voice talent for an indie game such as this, but the way most lines are delivered is almost comically strange and unnerving. Asides from the protagonist, the only other voiced characters are found within audio logs, which are so painfully long that you can complete multiple levels in the time it takes to listen to them. They all talk about the creation of a drug that permanently cures pain; there are vague hints to something bad happening because of the drug, but nothing more than that. None of the logs relate to the actual events of the game either so they just felt completely out of place. Finally, the remake also added a scanning mode that allows you to read about objects in the game. If you were hoping the “lore” from scanning would help connect any of the other story elements together you’ll be very disappointed – the scanner mostly just tells you what things do, and even reading that is a pain since trying to scroll the text box to read everything will just close it entirely. [h3]Gameplay and UI Changes[/h3] If you were hoping the gameplay was at least unchanged in the remake then you’d also be mistaken. While some levels have gotten changes that make them a little better, this is offset by the noticeably clunkier movement, worse performance and horrible UI. I hope you like guessing what your settings are because all you get is a few grey checkboxes and sliders on a slightly darker shade of grey, with a horrible scan-line filter over everything to make it all just a bit harder to see. [h3]Is it worth it?[/h3] No. Overall the remake is just a worse experience unless all you care about is the slight graphical improvement. The fact that it also adds a £6.00 price tag onto a previously free game is just the rotten icing on a mouldy cake. Nowadays you can get Portal or even Portal 2 for nearly the same price, don’t waste money on this.

It is my civil duty to report how bad the paid version of this game is. I played the game when it was free and it was enjoyable. The paid remake, however, is unplayable. Bug#1: My first play through ended when I got soft locked between the last two levels. Between Level 7 and 8 is an elevator that must be used to beat the game, but mine was filled with water which instantly kills you when touched. Luckily I had multiple saves I could reload Bug #2: The saves don't work. Every save spawned me at the end of level 1. Luckily, the autosave file let me spawn at the end of level 2. A 30 second time save. I attempted to replay the game from level 2 when I got softlocked again. Bug #3: There is a door on level 3 or 4 that must be opened to continue. When I hit the button to open it, nothing happened. No matter how many times I reloaded the save, the door never opened. Eventually, the load save function completely broke. Bug #4: I attempted to load the autosave and was spawned inside a wall, proceeded to clip through the floor, and fall through the map, triggering the intro cutscene and resetting my game. Please do not buy this game, its not worth the money. If, for whatever reason, you do buy it, just play the original 2016 version. It still runs well and has no game breaking bugs, at least to my knowledge.

A mí me daría vergüenza lanzar un juego así. Se suponía que esto era un juego de puzles/aventura, no un plagio barato de Cyberpunk 2077 el día de su lanzamiento. Bugs, pésima optimización, puzles mal diseñados. El juego estaba bien hasta que el desarrollador tuvo el capricho de lanzar una actualización innecesaria "remasterizándolo" (se ve prácticamente igual). Los dos sistemas nuevos que implementó son una porquería. El escaneo es molesto, te la tenés que pasar escaneando cosas que no tienen ninguna relevancia, y son demasiadas para lo corto que es el juego. Los registros de audio intentan añadir lore al juego, pero es tan cliché y poco interesante, con un desarrollo casi nulo, que es preferible una atmósfera silenciosa y solitaria que le permita al jugador elaborar sus teorías en base al mundo que lo envuelve. Para concluir, miren esta basura: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3354128886 Miren lo bugeado que está: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3354171119 No podés cobrar 4 dólares y dejar un error justo al final que te imposibilita terminarlo: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3354210099 Este juego es la clara muestra de que, en el mundo de la computación, si algo te funciona y no tenés ni %&#$ idea de lo que hacés, no lo tenés que tocar.

I think there's a lot of great choices in the premise and style here, but I cannot bring myself to finish. I continuously have the world loaded in wrong somehow and I hit invisible walls which forces me to reload the game. I think the devs have something going for them if they can iron out the bugs, but for me, it's unplayable.

I played the both versions of this game. The newest version is still too buggy and made the game unfinishable. If you decide to buy this, play the 2016 version instead.

If you click the Save button on a Save slot twice by accident, it wipes your progress (happens when you see the playtime counter increasing far beyond what you actually played).

* TLDR: Play the 2016 version first, if you can. It's a more mechanically polished experience than the new version, and mechanical integrity is what I assume you would be looking for in a short indie shooter like this, rather than pretty graphics. It's a nice, short experience regardless, but the additions and gimmicks in the new version are haphazardly implemented, if not unwelcome. * If you were fortunate enough to get this as freeware back when it was released (as I did, and proceeded to forget about for 8 years), count yourself as one of the lucky ones. You've got yourself a solid, if short, little fps puzzle platformer. That is, at least, if you play the version you received for free back in 2016. It's very impressive for a student project, and the game is mechanically sound. No frills, simple and straightforward, with a central mechanic that feels fresh enough to carry the short runtime. Highly encourage you to give it a try and see what you can make of it; I enjoyed it thoroughly! However, the recent Remake Update, as they call it, is something I would not recommend. At the very least, I would not recommend playing it first, as they have graciously provided the 2016 freeware version as a launchable version when starting the game. For lack of a more apt term, I would consider the Remake Update a "demake," in every practical sense. Here are the bullet points: Pros: - The obvious visual overhaul does look quite nice, if a bit generic. The style is mostly consistent and is the only thing I can definitively agree to be a "remake" in the newer release. The old art style was excusable in its simplicity, considering the time and manner in which it was made. - The scanvisor was actually a very welcome surprise! I love the idea of it, even if its implementation feels ill-suited for a game this short and story-agnostic. Metroid Prime lovers will enjoy it, simple as it is here. - The QOL features and Speedrun mode do a lot to improve the general experience, with the "preview trigger" option being a standout accessibility feature that, while I personally did not use much, could easily be make or break for some players. Having the ability to skip cinematics is a nice touch as well, even though it still doesn't skip all cinematics, namely the cinematic in which you obtain the trigger gun still requiring you to manually skip (which is extremely slow). Cons: - The story elements, if they could be called such a thing, are ostensibly generic action game lines, sloppily and illusion-breakingly smattered throughout the game's runtime. The scanvisor portions were okay, but much of the dialogue ("Red's" voice lines in particular) feel obscenely basic, and in multiple places even conflict with each other. For example, "Red" simultaneously states that she both "was expecting to feel pain" and "doesn't experience pain" in the same section of a level. - There are various bugs, even after the March 2024 patch, which vary wildly in impact on the game experience. For instance, the save system, while a good idea generally, is obtuse at best and completely destructive at worst. I did not actually want to play the 2016 version first when I first tried this game; I was forced to out of frustration after trying to save early on in the Remake Update version and watching the levels get reset, save reloads spawning me in completely different locations (often the very start of the game), and even save files themselves becoming broken to the point where the level's geometry failed to load at all. - There were also a few mechanical changes from the 2016 version as well, the most glaring of which are the changes to the movement system. The movement system in the original was far from perfect, but it had a very satisfying momentum to it, serving well to a game leaning so heavily into the speedgame playstyle. It was satisfying learning which combinations of sprints, jumps, and triggers would allow you to carry your momentum. These abilities and interactions are largely absent in the Remake. - Also, there are some frustrating and gimmicky changes to how you navigate through these levels outside of your momentum. The "tiered shelf" sort of trigger platforms partway through level 4 are particularly insulting, as triggering the bottom one immediately (which I assume a player would typically do by instinct, as to land on the lowest platform) boots you off of the landing spot you were supposed to be standing on with no chance or time to correct your mistake. - There seems to be a double-jump feature, of sorts, added in the Remake as well? It's strange and very much feels like either an unintentional or accidental inclusion. When making a jump, if you very nearly miss a ledge, it appears that spamming the jump button will allow you to gain a very small amount of height and prevent a fall. Its implementation makes it feel extremely cheap, to the point where I often feel conflicted to use it. Overall, the game on display here is very enjoyable at its core. I genuinely enjoy games that can lose you in the flow of its design, which I experience in some moments while playing this one. The trigger mechanic is easily the standout feature, with its Portal-esque implications being lost on no one familiar with the genre, I'm sure. The later puzzles, while potentially frustrating, reward patience and out-of-the-box problem solving, which is EXACTLY what I like to see in games like this. The contrast between fast-paced triggers and leaps and methodical and intentional manipulation of those same triggers is a very big highlight. The game is just hindered by the ambition of a free-spirited indie game trying to be something more than which it began, but being either too lackadaisical or too meek to commit to that change enough to make a meaningful effort towards that goal.

어? 분명 무료로했었는데? 어?

Not Portal. It's much more an action platformer than a puzzle platformer. Most rooms are timed, the movements are not fuild, when we turn it feels like moving on a grid. It's not a bad game, but it certainly isn't the experience that Portal provides, either. Personnally, it wasn't pleasent, and the story, if we can call that a story, was so predictable and slow that it was sleep inducing, and the same goes for the acheivments. Not my cup of tea. But since it's $6 bucks. If you don't have any modern platformers in your library and really want this more than you want Portal 1...