Red Solstice - Two new Reviews

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Here are two reviews for the The Red Solstice:

Brash Games:

The Red Solstice Review
The Red Solstice is a tactical action RPG with all of your favourite features, minus all the unnecessary crap. Nkidu games is known for their solid releases that never (up until now) disappointed the PC-gaming community and this game is no exception.

Mars, year whatever (something in the future), you're on a planet that isn't earth (duh), but has been inhabited by humanity (I think it's Mars or something). A catastrophe happened and now everything is in shambles and full of ugly creatures that are just waiting for you shoot them down. So yes, there is a story, but let's face it, it won't compel you, which - to be honest - fits the genre quite well. You know what else fits the genre? Everything else. The characters are visualised stereotypes, starting with the buff commanders who talk with a deep and ever so manly voice (I don't think I need to mention the obligatory cigar in the splash picture) and ending with the petite females doing all the healing (they would make such caring mums). Neither visually, nor story-wise the wheel is being reinvented, but hey, why change something that works, right?

While some games of this kind get boring after a couple of missions where you use more or less tactics to run and gun your way through different kinds of hostile waves, TRS mixes the pace of the missions very well. A slow and hard tactical mission, where it will take you a fair amount of time to fight through the map is followed by an easier mission where the use of heavy gunners replace the need for tactics a fair bit. In most of the missions you will also have to face distinct challenges that need to be considered and worked around.

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The Red Solstice delivers. You get what's advertised and that is perfectly fine. If you enjoyed titles like XCOM, Diablo and sometimes think back to 2004's "Full Spectrum Warrior" with a warm nostalgic feeling, then you will undoubtedly enjoy this game and it's tactical RPG-styled gameplay. Amongst all the indie games and open software The Red Solstice might just be the most well-rounded and solid piece of software installed on my PC.

Score: 7/10​

Unstoppable Gamer:

Full Review
Being a marine on Mars has never been a particularly easy job. There's always demons or resistance fighters swarming over the barren landscape, or, in the case of The Red Solstice, there's both resistance fighters and a virus sweeping through an outpost turning everyone into violent monsters, and it's your squad's job to find out what's going on and how to stop it.

The Red Solstice is a top-down, tactical game where you guide a squad of four marines through a Mars base while monsters assault you from all sides. The action is mostly in real time as your marines automatically shoot incoming enemies, but you always have the option to slow time to a crawl and strategically position and micromanage your soldiers. I quite enjoyed this mechanic and it worked quite well with the difficulty, as it forced me to assess whether it was time to run and gun or entrench my troops and weather the storm.

There are also RPG elements which allow you to customize your soldiers' classes, stats, and weapons as you level up, though the stat boosts are so small they go mostly unnoticed.

The main campaign isn't that long, consisting of ten missions, but there are quite a few difficulty levels and a side campaign that can be heavily customized and played solo or online. The matches consist of a grace period in which you explore the map and gather items before sending waves of enemies against the players while they attempt to survive, guard objectives or capture territories.

Despite its real time nature, its mobility accessibility is quite good. The hearing accessibility, too, is fine in-game, though it lacks subtitles for the few cutscenes. The largest problem is with the visual accessibility, as the font for subtitles and ability descriptions is small and difficult to read.

Score: 70%

Positives

• Challenging, tactical gameplay
• Many useful game assists offset the mobility issues of real time maneuvering
• Heavily customizable side missions and multiplayer campaign

Negatives

• Cutscenes lack subtitles
• The font is miniscule and difficult to read
• Some unnecessary uses of the keyboard that complicate mouse-only play

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