REDSIDE episode 1

[h1]Sum-Up[/h1] [h3]In-depth analysis further down.[/h3] [table] [tr] [th]🟩 [b]Pros[/b][/th] [th]🟥 [b]Cons[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] - Tactically-paced combat with a solid foundation, that rewards careful approaches and punishes rushing. - Very good weapon variety, with most guns handling and feeling different from one another. - Solid situational variety across missions keeps up the interest. - The visual design feels immersive and detailed, with emphasis on collateral damage. [/td] [td] - Terrible stealth that doesn’t work for how levels / enemy placements are designed, and doesn’t give any major advantage at any point. - The cover system is badly implemented and demolishes both balance and sense of realism. - Checkpoints aren’t kept if the game is closed, you’ll have to restart that mission from scratch. Had a crash, or power went out? Tough luck. - Comically useless AI-controlled companions that will regularly shoot into walls, run around weirdly, and also can’t die because of story reasons. - Low-quality English translation, with numerous errors and weird phrasing across the board. [/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr] [th]🟨 [b]Bugs & Issues[/b][/th] [th]🔧 [b]Specs[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] - Unable to screenshot. F12 opens a debug menu, and rebinding the key doesn’t work either. - Random, severe FPS drops during fights, that may sometimes crash the game. - Major issues with pathfinding and AI behavior of both enemies and allies. - Difficulty resets to Normal after each death. If this is only visual or not, I couldn’t determine. [/td] [td] - 3900X - 2080Ti - 32GB RAM - SSD - 1440p [/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr] [td][b]Content & Replay Value:[/b][/td] [td]It took me around 5 hours to complete REDSIDE on Hard difficulty. Each mission’s content is entirely linear, there’s no reason to replay once finished.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]Is it worth buying?[/b][/td] [td]Even with the convenient price point of 6,60€, I can’t recommend buying. The technical and game design issues make the experience frustrating and cumbersome most of the time. There are countless, significantly better top-down shooters you could invest your time into.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][h3]Verdict: Mediocre[/h3] [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2548409603]Rating Chart Here[/url][/td] [td]Despite a promising realism-oriented foundation and some good ideas, REDSIDE ultimately falls into mediocrity because of its evident game design flaws, technical issues and generic story.[/td] [/tr] [/table] [quote]Follow our Curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41449676/]Summit Reviews[/url], to see more high-quality reviews regularly.[/quote] [h1]In-Depth[/h1] [h3]Premise, Setting & Writing[/h3] Year 1996. In a (probably?) alternative reality, Finland is close to joining the still-standing Soviet Union because, and I quote, “the Finnish bourgeois class realized the beauty of comradeship in Communism”, thus massively altering the geopolitical balance. You’ll be playing as various Soviet operatives in a selection of high-risk conflict zones, all of them linked by a common plot. REDSIDE will take you across half the world, from well-known conflict zones such as the Middle East to less-known heat spots like Zaire, other than also undercover operations in Europe. Each setting is well-diversified and there clearly was some degree of research to make places look believable. The situations you’ll find yourself into are also plausible for the most part, even if there is some degree of infeasibility for the sake of the story. The story is not complex and rather straightforward: terrorist groups set up a potential supply line for weapons of mass destruction; find out who they are, dismantle the whole thing so that the Soviet Union is proven to be a first-rate world power in keeping order. Each character has some degree of personality and bits of backstory, although REDSIDE isn’t a story-focused game and most of the lore, dialogues will be related to the task at hand, operations and ROEs. [h3]Exploration[/h3] Let’s start with the fact that each of REDSIDE’s levels is linear and follows a rigid structure: you’ll be corralled through a determined path, with a more open world being only present in a specific mission. There won’t be a map to consult, however objective markers will guide you in most situations, and each zone isn’t complex enough to get lost in it anyway. As far as map design is concerned, REDSIDE does a good job. Despite the destructibility of many elements like crates, barrels, select buildings, vehicles and more, you won’t be able to plow your way through as you please “à la battlefield” - at most, you may tear down doors and windows. There isn’t really much to be found: no lore files, pickups or anything of value, apart from the occasional weapon crate or light switch to make some areas darker. [h3]Combat System[/h3] This is a title that emphasizes realism, careful pacing and positioning above all else in each and every fight. As well-trained your operative may be, you’re only human after all. This concept is conveyed well, with both you and enemies having a fast time-to-kill; headshots are a guaranteed death, as are random critical hits, most explosions - if you’re out of cover, at least. Cover is an important concept that allows your character to suddenly become the Man of Steel himself; stand near a large object such as a wall or a pile of sandbags to gain Full Cover, that will greatly reduce any damage sustained - smaller objects only provide Half Cover, while being in an open field will debuff you with the Exposed status, lowering your accuracy and making you take extra damage. On paper this concept is great, but it’s implemented horribly. The main issue is that cover is granted in all directions: have a house wall on your back, but they’re shooting you from the front where you have nothing? Doesn’t matter, full cover it is. I can’t understate how broken this becomes on more than a few occasions, makes no sense whatsoever. Enemies don’t seem to use cover or be influenced by this mechanic at all, same goes for your (immortal) teammates. The pathfinding of all NPCs is so bugged and horrendous anyway, that even if cover worked it wouldn’t do much good. In combat you’ll be able to carry two weapons and six grenades: while the former have unlimited ammo, grenades are limited, and for good reason: they’re extremely powerful, able to be thrown above obstacles at ludicrous distances, with high AoE and enormous damage. Some weapons have special properties like being silenced or able to pierce walls: the former have heavily reduced damage and aren’t very useful, while the latter are overpowered, allowing you to stay inside buildings and shoot through walls as if you had wallhack (especially because you can still see outside while inside buildings). [h3]Stealth & Vehicles[/h3] Some missions desperately try to promote and emphasize stealth, which works by putting yourself in either a dark area or in bushes that conceal your person. Enemies that see a body (you can’t move bodies, by the way), hear shots, see you or see a death will alert everyone else immediately, making them converge on your position. Generally enemies are placed close to each other or in a way that makes stealth unfeasible or impractical - just going guns blazing is faster, better and has no consequence whatsoever, apart from aggroing more enemies - you won’t lose because of it, maybe make your life harder (or easier, since more enemies are better than having to deal with this half-broken system). On rare occasions, vehicles such as armored cars, UAVs or mobile AA can be used to lay utter devastation upon enemy ranks. Heavily armored, with unlimited ammo and powerful weapons, these beasts will enable you to plow through anything with ease - although being reckless will get you killed all the same, eventually.