REDSIDE episode 1 Reviews

An intriguing techno-thriller game that's definitely worth playing, though it’s not without its flaws. Starting with the positives: 1. A mature, well-crafted storyline set in an alternate modern world. It's genuinely interesting to see what happens next. 2. Engaging game mechanics: mines, drone control. 3. Solid narrative. Character lines are always on point. 4. Great level-design. I'm definitely know what to do and what to expect on the each part of map. However, the downsides are quite serious: 1. Completely inadequate shooting mechanics. The spread of any weapon is simply outrageous. Whether you hit the enemy or not is purely random, which takes away any sense of victory and forces you to lose even when you didn't make mistakes. It feels like nothing depends on you. In a shooter, the shooting is the main mechanic, and here it’s done terribly. 2. Additionally, the AI constantly shoots from outside of the visible map, making the only viable build “sniper rifle + machine gun.” You look off the edge with the sniper rifle (you still can’t hit anything with it anyway), then spray random long bursts from the machine gun. Luckily, ammo is infinite. It feels completely unfair and like an artificial difficulty. 3. Horrible sound design. The gunshots are just ridiculous "clicks", on any weapon. Combined with the poor shooting mechanics, it really doesn’t add up to anything. There's virtually no environmental sounds. The music is just like a generic. The enemies give you no info with their sounds. No reason to not play with the sound off at all. Still, the potential is there, and I’m looking forward to the second episode (hopefully, the project hasn’t been abandoned). I hope the developer does something with the shooting mechanics: if they do, the game will be completely different.