The Red Star on the PlayStation 2
Previous days' entries can be read HERE
When people started eulogising ‘Nier Automata’ a little while back, many of them were talking about how it cleverly mixed brawling with ranged combat and used various camera angles to mix up the gameplay… I was sure I’d heard this before but couldn’t quite recall when or for what. It transpires that it was for this; ‘The Red Star’, a comic book tie-in game that does all of those things - although it would take a person of quirkier tastes than I to suggest that ‘The Red Star’ is as good a game as Taro Yoko’s modern masterpiece.
Selectron™ actually gave me 'Love & Destroy' on the original PlayStation to play today but I tried and, contrary to the advice I was given when I bought it, I was missing far to much through my inability to speak Japanese. The menu and options text is all in English but the game is brimming with spoken Japanese - on another day I might press on because the actual game was good fun, I just found it frustrating on this occasion to not understand what I was doing or why. So Selectron™ was called upon again and came up with 'The Red Star'.
‘The Red Star’ was originally lost in the fallout following the death of Acclaim in 2004, only to be resurrected and released in 2007 by serial truck racing publisher XS Games.
I must admit, despite having a fair interest in comics around this time, I have no knowledge of the source. Suffice to say the plot of the game has you as one of two rebels in an alternative-universe future Russia, who are battling the bad guys throughout some rather nicely designed levels that take you from snowy tundra to vast desert and industrial fortresses.
The simple polygonal characters and enemies have aged well thanks to a strong, consistent design style that leans towards blocks of colour - it’s not quite cell shading, but it’s not too far away either.
As I mentioned at the top, the game likes to move the camera around, but generally you’ll be watching the proceedings either from above or from an almost side-on isometric perspective. From this vantage point you guide your chosen protagonist as they battle swathes of varying enemies using both melee and ranged combat. Each type of combat makes use of a lock-on system that enables you to either strafe indiscriminately, or focus on a single enemy for special attacks.
Everything from your weapons to your cool-down rates and health bar can be upgraded between stages and these “RPG Elements” (I’ve never understood why they’re called that) help to alleviate the repetition that can creep into this type of game. This is further kept at bay by having some enemies immune to certain types of attack, meaning you have to mix up your approach on the fly.
Additional variety is provided by a liberal sprinkling of boss and mid-boss battles. During these encounters the camera will usually switch to a directly overhead position because, at these points in the game, it stops being a brawler-cum-shooter and instead transforms into a fair approximation of a bullet-hell shoot-em-up.
Now as much I love a good shmup I must confess that I prefer those requiring the player to be aggressive, and these tend to be those that aren’t bullet-hell in composition; it’s hard, after all, to attack anything when you’re weaving through a 2 pixel wide gap is plasma fire.
Luckily, for me and anyone else of similar tastes, the lock-on function really comes into its own in these skirmishes as it allows you to weave through the enemy fire whilst simultaneously dealing some serious damage to the big bad. Hardcore shooter fans might despair at this, but there’s a time a place for the purest forms of danmaku and I don’t think ‘The Red Star’ is it.
Besides, the challenge is maintained with your weapons’ cool-down timer, and even your shield, which is pretty useful against a melee attack, is depleted in an instant under a barrage of fire from any of the bosses.
The Red Star is essentially three genres in one, the potential for disaster, especially considering the circumstances of its release, was incredibly high. But, against the odds, everything comes together to make a really enjoyable game. It could probably do with mid level checkpoints, and once you find a combo that works you’re likely to be repeating it a lot, but the challenge really stems from the crowd control and boss battles - and it excels at giving you great tools with which to approach those. It has replayability built in with gradings for each level, and a third character who’s only unlockable upon completion of the game. It’s just a great little action game that deserved a much better chance than it received.
The Red Star - Challenging, stylish, and a whole lot of fun. It’s a real shame this was saved only to be largely ignored.
When people started eulogising ‘Nier Automata’ a little while back, many of them were talking about how it cleverly mixed brawling with ranged combat and used various camera angles to mix up the gameplay… I was sure I’d heard this before but couldn’t quite recall when or for what. It transpires that it was for this; ‘The Red Star’, a comic book tie-in game that does all of those things - although it would take a person of quirkier tastes than I to suggest that ‘The Red Star’ is as good a game as Taro Yoko’s modern masterpiece.
Selectron™ actually gave me 'Love & Destroy' on the original PlayStation to play today but I tried and, contrary to the advice I was given when I bought it, I was missing far to much through my inability to speak Japanese. The menu and options text is all in English but the game is brimming with spoken Japanese - on another day I might press on because the actual game was good fun, I just found it frustrating on this occasion to not understand what I was doing or why. So Selectron™ was called upon again and came up with 'The Red Star'.
‘The Red Star’ was originally lost in the fallout following the death of Acclaim in 2004, only to be resurrected and released in 2007 by serial truck racing publisher XS Games.
I must admit, despite having a fair interest in comics around this time, I have no knowledge of the source. Suffice to say the plot of the game has you as one of two rebels in an alternative-universe future Russia, who are battling the bad guys throughout some rather nicely designed levels that take you from snowy tundra to vast desert and industrial fortresses.
The simple polygonal characters and enemies have aged well thanks to a strong, consistent design style that leans towards blocks of colour - it’s not quite cell shading, but it’s not too far away either.
As I mentioned at the top, the game likes to move the camera around, but generally you’ll be watching the proceedings either from above or from an almost side-on isometric perspective. From this vantage point you guide your chosen protagonist as they battle swathes of varying enemies using both melee and ranged combat. Each type of combat makes use of a lock-on system that enables you to either strafe indiscriminately, or focus on a single enemy for special attacks.
Everything from your weapons to your cool-down rates and health bar can be upgraded between stages and these “RPG Elements” (I’ve never understood why they’re called that) help to alleviate the repetition that can creep into this type of game. This is further kept at bay by having some enemies immune to certain types of attack, meaning you have to mix up your approach on the fly.
Additional variety is provided by a liberal sprinkling of boss and mid-boss battles. During these encounters the camera will usually switch to a directly overhead position because, at these points in the game, it stops being a brawler-cum-shooter and instead transforms into a fair approximation of a bullet-hell shoot-em-up.
Now as much I love a good shmup I must confess that I prefer those requiring the player to be aggressive, and these tend to be those that aren’t bullet-hell in composition; it’s hard, after all, to attack anything when you’re weaving through a 2 pixel wide gap is plasma fire.
Luckily, for me and anyone else of similar tastes, the lock-on function really comes into its own in these skirmishes as it allows you to weave through the enemy fire whilst simultaneously dealing some serious damage to the big bad. Hardcore shooter fans might despair at this, but there’s a time a place for the purest forms of danmaku and I don’t think ‘The Red Star’ is it.
Besides, the challenge is maintained with your weapons’ cool-down timer, and even your shield, which is pretty useful against a melee attack, is depleted in an instant under a barrage of fire from any of the bosses.
The Red Star is essentially three genres in one, the potential for disaster, especially considering the circumstances of its release, was incredibly high. But, against the odds, everything comes together to make a really enjoyable game. It could probably do with mid level checkpoints, and once you find a combo that works you’re likely to be repeating it a lot, but the challenge really stems from the crowd control and boss battles - and it excels at giving you great tools with which to approach those. It has replayability built in with gradings for each level, and a third character who’s only unlockable upon completion of the game. It’s just a great little action game that deserved a much better chance than it received.
The Red Star - Challenging, stylish, and a whole lot of fun. It’s a real shame this was saved only to be largely ignored.
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