Title: The Red Solstice
Developer: Iron Ward
Officially Released July 9th
Steam Page: http://bit.ly/1HRTceI
Hey what’s up, Serpentine here taking a
look at the Action RPG, The Red Solstice, the first title developed by the team
at Iron Ward. After a devastating virus wipes out the population on Earth it’s
your mission to stop the outbreak from spreading any further on Mars,
humanities last hope. To top it all off one of the worst weather storms in Mars
history is occurring known as the red solstice.
For each mission you will take control of a
4 man squad with control primarily being given over the commander of the squad.
The controls of the game are what you would expect: right click to move, left
click to attack and hotkeys for abilities. To take control of the other squad
members you will have to enter a slowed down tactical mode were you can move
them individually and use their unique abilities. Admittedly not being able to
take direct control of the other units and their abilities outside of the
tactical mode is a little strange but it does put an emphasis on the commander
of your squad and the times that you would want to take direct control you
would probably already be in tactical mode. Inventory management and healing
with the medic however would have been nice to do outside of tactical mode.
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| Tactical Mode |
Speaking
of classes, there are 8 classes available including Assault, Heavy Support,
Medic, Recon and more. For the single player missions you will be locked into
that squad’s specific classes but you will be able to switch out their weapons,
abilities and upgrade their attributes before you head into a mission. For
multiplayer missions though you will be able to choose whatever class you want
but first you will have to unlock them all with experience with the more niche
classes like recon being unlocked later on down the track. As with the single
player mission you will be able to set your soldier up with guns, a primary and
a secondary, an ability set and passive boosters. The same kind of experience
unlocks occur here too in what could be compared to how killing floor does
their progression system with more power and better abilities unlocking the
further you progress a class allowing you to take on some of the harder
difficulty levels.
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| Classes |
The multiplayer mode has you squad
searching for an anomaly located somewhere on the map that you will eventually
find out to be a boss creature you have to kill. Heading straight to the
anomaly isn’t the best idea though as you’ll need to gain a few levels
beforehand thus unlocking your abilities to stand any chance of defeating it
also you will need to hunt for valuable supplies like med kits, explosives and
ammunition from inside the buildings. As with most wave based games the wave’s
start off fairly easy and slowly get harder and harder so picking the right
time to attack the anomaly boss is essential so as not to get overrun. Picking
a good team competition before jumping into the mission is extremely important too
due to some of the classes’ special abilities for instance the medic can
obviously heal but it can also generate med kits, anti-venom, bandages and
stimulants that you and your teammates can take advantage of. Similarly the
heavy support can generate ammunition which is extremely important as you’re
likely to run out before the mission is over and you don’t really want to be
running around inside of buildings searching for it. The final boss fight is a little
underwhelming unfortunately basically being a bullet sponge, this is one area
of the multiplayer that could have been improved upon and would have made the
experience so much better but as it is now all you do is click on the boss and
dodge its attacks.
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| Multiplayer |
The gameplay difference from single player
to multiplayer is fairly small but they do make the two modes feel
significantly different. Single player missions requires a lot more focus on
squad management and strategy specifically setting up a defensive perimeter
while taking full advantage of the slowed down tactical mode. Multiplayer
however loses some of that strategic element with no tactical mode nor the same
kind of level design as single player that allows for more defensive set-ups.
Instead multiplayer is more about continually moving so as not to get overrun
by the horde and if you get split up somewhere on the way well, that’s pretty
much game over for you until you can respawn again.
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| Surrounded!! |
There is one final game mode called
survival however this is basically just the multiplayer mode but for single
player, so you take control of a squad of 4 on one of the multiplayer maps
regaining the access to tactical mode. However due to the level design and the
way multiplayer is set-up, Survival mode is a strange combination that doesn’t
really work all that well and is definitely the weakest of the 3 game modes. If
you wanted to play single player then the single player campaign is definitely
the way to go.
Other features of the game include a stat
sheet that keeps track of your multiplayer contributions like kills, deaths,
and damage dealt. For multiplayer there are numerous options that you can
enable and disable for an altered experience including fast mode were the time
between waves will be sped up, Swarm mode were more zombies are spawned etc etc.
There are also 6 different maps to play on with 4 difficulty levels to test
your team against.
Altogether The Red Solstice provides a
great strategic campaign with maps that are well designed and fun to play with
an interesting story going on in the background. The multiplayer changes it up
with a faster, more chaotic play style that relies heavily on good teamwork and
communication to succeed. The game feels like a more squad focused version of StarCraft’s:
Wings of Liberty campaign in terms of the actual combat so if you liked that
kind of gameplay then The Red Solstice may be for you. Otherwise if you’re like
squad based strategy games or you like horde based gameplay, The Red Solstice
is worth a look.
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| Bombs Away! |
Anyway, that’s been my player preview for The
Red Solstice, the game released on the 9th of July and is currently available
to purchase on Steam. If you want to find out more about the game check out the
links above. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you guys next time.
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