[h3]RANKING:[/h3]
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[h3][b]AVOID[/b] | [strike]FLAWED | MAYBE | WORTHWHILE | COMPELLING | UNMISSABLE[/strike]
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[h3]SYNOPSIS:[/h3]
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[th][b]ASSESSMENT:[/b][/th]
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The Redstone Job is a tarnished gem of an adventure. What could have been a wonderful marriage of nostalgic 80s audiovisuals & a plot straight from The Magnificent 7 is spoiled by flawed execution.
Influences from Jagged Alliance & Hong Kong cinema define a large, populated gameworld, full of interesting NPCs & activities to conduct. Countless vendors sell an extensive array of items & upgrades for a party of simple, pre-made archetypal heroes. However, its difficult to get into. Narrative presentation is slow. Encounters feel orchestrated, arduous & unbalanced. TBT combat is promising, but suffers from many inconsistencies.
Despite the positives, sadly right now its too painful an experience. One to [b]AVOID[/b]. Though not a lost cause, if it receives a overhaul.
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[td][b]STATUS:[/b][/td]
[td]Released without enough quality control. Lofty ambitions did not bear fruit. Will need incredible patience & perseverance from constantly reloading to get anything out of this game
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[td][b]APPEAL:[/b][/td]
[td]For fans with a penchant for 80s style adventures, Hong Kong movies, their tropes & basic TBT combat
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[td][b]VALUE:[/b][/td]
[td]Currently not worth the aggro, nor the asking price
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[quote=]Key provided by the developer through curator [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/][b]INDIEGEMS[/b][/url] | Video reviews are on our [url=https://www.youtube.com/@IndieGems2][b]YOUTUBE CHANNEL[/b][/url][/quote]
[i]More info below....[/i]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3490978057
[h3]CONTENT:[/h3]
🔴 Has a solitary adventure GAME MODE with no difficulty options.
🟡 The story-driven ADVENTURE is full of quests, presented in a linear format. No optional branches. Splitting up the party to undertake separate quest lines & mixing the composition of these, varies the experience surprisingly well. Some are experienced as flashbacks.
🟡 Main QUESTS are easy to find and navigate. Their composition ties in well with a movie plot. Most are simple, but do not have time limits. Navigation can be problematic without indicators. Interaction with every NPC & terminals is needed to find side & random quests that blend into the background.
[h3]ATMOSPHERE:[/h3]
🟢 The SETTING possesses great character through a blending of cyberpunk & modern Far Eastern inspired architecture. A surprisingly alive & open GAMEWORLD is filled with NPCs, terminals & events.
🟡 The STORY is a throwback to old Hong Kong movies from the 80s. WRITING is passable, but presentation needs to be better & less verbose. There are some translation & grammar errors.
🟡 Pixel VISUALS are in line with the nostalgic aesthetic. The 80s midi SOUNDTRACK combines the hypnotic with oriental tunes. Basic SOUNDEFFECTS match the visuals.
[h3]EXPERIENCE:[/h3]
🟡 GAME LOOP is interesting due to a combination of exploration, talking to NPCs, interacting with world objects, gambling & more.
🟡 GAMEPLAY has its moments. Despite a scripted nature there is freedom to explore the city. Investigating locations is interesting. Mini-games & item collection provide distractions. Too much emphasis is put on buying equipment that is vital to get any purchase on progress.
🔴 TBT COMBAT takes forever & feels painful due to severe imbalance & flawed hit chance. A static battler format. Sequence determines attack order. Stats determine hits or crits. Characters have a few tactical skills & a small selection of inventory/support to choose from. Which give it a little depth. Encounters feel overly orchestrated & plagued by combatants with high health, high rates of misses &, dodging or armour that nullifies any damage the party is able to inflict. Who are always outnumbered.
🔴 CONTROLS are k/m. A lack of standard convention makes them inconsistent. Some aspects like inventory, mini-games or gambling use the mouse/pointer. Others don't. Its possible that interacting with some objects will sometimes lock the UI.
🔴 UI is very basic and needs work. Quest info should be on the main screen. Quest destinations need indicators. Dialogue could be better laid out & badly needs a skip option. In combat the font used for health is unreadable. Highlighting interactable objects would make them easier to locate.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3489836271
[h3]MECHANICS:[/h3]
🟢 MINIGAMES in arcades & games rooms offer additional rewards for spending on upgrades, items and weapons. They include; a sliding portrait puzzler, dice, Wheel of Fortune, a top down Galaxian style shooter & UFC style betting.
🟡 To much emphasis is placed on farming CREDITS. Needed to upgrade characters & inventory urgently. On the plus side there are plenty of places to go to earn or win it. Combat and quest rewards should be expanded to include Inventory.
🟡 CHARACTER CUSTOMISATION is limited to a menu choice upon recruiting of a solitary strength & weakness or neither.. Party members can be upgraded with inventory, implants, prosthetics, reading books or getting tattoos, to boost combat stats. An expensive endeavour.
🔴 SQUAD MGMT is non-existent thanks to pre-made NPCs. Groups are automatically split up into bands for different quests & cannot be altered. There is no deployable option in combat or even the chance to prepare the squad before an encounter.
[h3]CHALLENGE:[/h3]
🟡 ENEMIES are cyberpunk themed. Come in a compact variety of forms. Use melee or ranged attacks. Will inflict combat states & use their limited skills. There are some special mobs which are incredibly unfair & unbalanced.
🟡 The AI is a simple mechanism. Targeting is inconsistent. Tends to focus attacks on one character. Is tough to beat, though this is more an issue with having so many factors unfairly stacked on its side.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3491775489
[h3]COMPLEXITY:[/h3]
🔴 ACCESSIBILITY is poor. Apart from quests the player is left to their own devices to trial & error. Guided only by the quest log, map labels & reloading when the party wipes. A more in-depth tutorial is badly needed.
🔴 DIFFICULTY is brutal. There is no easing into a groove, as it should be. Coming up against enemies that can kill with on hit, while needing x80 attacks from the one character able to hit is in no way fun.
🔴 BALANCE is all over the place. Encounters are overly contrite, with the squad always outnumbered &/or outmatched. Many need substantial preparation & are unannounced.
[h3]STAYING POWER:[/h3]
🔴 REPLAY VALUE is serverely limited by a lack of squad choices & linearity of the main quest.
🔴 LONGEVITY is minimal. Nothing beyond the main story. No story branches or alternate characters to recruit. Nor achievements to aim for.
[h3]PRODUCTION:[/h3]
🟡 QUALITY varies. The most jarring issues are the inconsistencies in design. There are significant bugs such as disappearing quest entries, esc and tab keys stop working after the warehouse quest. Badly needs QoL & polish.
🟢 OPTIMISATION - Runs around 45-55 fps.
🔴 STABILITY - Crash occurred during a fight at the Shadow City warehouse. Suspect there will be more, due to a lack of quality control.
[table][tr]
[td]Click for:[/td]
[td][h1][url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/TheIrregularGamer/discussions/0/592898892338582579/]Full Review[/url][/h1][/td]
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[td][b]REVIEWED
WITH:[/b][/td]
[td]Build v Date of play. Default difficulty
INTEL i5 6600 3.3GHz, 8GB RAM, GTX970 4GB @ 1280x768 fixed window, EVO850 SSD
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[quote=]Thank you for reading | Click to follow my curator[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40556040-The-Irregular-Gamer/] THE IRREGULAR GAMER[/url][/quote]
