[Redacted] from Striking Distance Studios and Krafton couldn’t be more different to their other game, The Callisto Protocol. One was an intense survival horror action title while the other is a roguelike very similar to the greats such as Hades and Dead Cells.
Is [Redacted] worth picking up then? Or should it be redacted itself? Let’s find out, shall we!
[Redacted]
The Callisto Protocol saw players take on the role of a survivor at the Black Iron Prison facility on the moon of Jupiter. Without spoiling too much, a lot of bad stuff went on at that facility and before you know it, it was overrun with monstrosities. Guards and prisoners alike were quickly turned into monsters and it was terrifying.
[Redacted] draws upon that setting but there’s way less horror here. The colour palette for this game couldn’t be further from the dark and grimy aesthetic of its fellow game. Players in [Redacted] will take on the role of a guard who needs to escape the Black Iron Prison facility. There’s only one escape pod left and it’s every man for themselves here.
Needless to say that causes some… issues. Since you’re a prison guard in a facility overrun with monsters and inmates vying for survival, there’s going to be some conflict here. And that’s putting it lightly. As soon as you set out, you’ll face off against monsters. Progress a tiny bit further and before you know it, you’ll encounter your first actual human survivor. This is when things start to get quite complicated but I’ll get to that in a bit.
Gameplay in [Redacted] involves using your melee weapon, your ranged weapon and your GRP device to deal damage to enemies in a top-down isometric 3rd person view. You can also dash and slide. The GRP device is essentially a gravity weapon that forces enemies back with a shockwave and has limited charges that slowly recharge over time.
Players will defeat enemies in rooms and then pick a door to go through which has an icon displayed above it. This indicates what reward awaits you when clearing the room ahead. Rewards are perks or buffs which you can select that give you additional abilities or augment your current damage output. It’s extremely similar to Hades however, the way [Redacted] does things is slightly different.
Hades focused a lot more on the storytelling and it was quite compelling to push onward and learn more about the world and its characters. [Redacted] attempts to do the same but it falls a little bit flat in the process.
The story of [Redacted] is told by NPCs and their dialogue. The prison facility manager talks to you as well and has a lot of snarky comments to make. So too do the survivors and when you encounter them, you’ll soon see that they are very cliché in terms of their personalities. There’s an Eastern European-sounding guy, a female chef, a janitor, etc to encounter and each of these survivors has their own backstory which is explained via redacted text back at your base of operations on a pinboard that gets unlocked the further you progress throughout the game.
Unfortunately, a lot of the writing in this game gives off a vibe that’s very similar to Borderlands and if you’re not a fan of what I consider to be cringeworthy conversations and sarcasm, you’ll dislike the storytelling. That’s not to say that it’s all bad. There are some genuinely enjoyable jokes and comments made by the characters and it grows on you over time. Just don’t expect it to be at the same level as Hades.
This brings me to [Redacted]’s major problem. The game is in a genre that has been almost perfected by Hades and as such, it draws a lot of attention and comparison to Hades. If you played Hades, this will feel like a watered-down game. Even the mechanic that tries to do something different just feels like it was shoehorned in and only makes things more complicated and frustrating. This mechanic is a sort of “race to the finish” aspect.
When you encounter a survivor, a progress bar will appear at the bottom of the screen which shows you how far away you are from the escape pod. You will have to race the survivors to the escape pod without dying. However, you can also use the prison’s security systems to hamper their progress by triggering traps and more. This involves charging a meter by clearing rooms then quickly inputting a specific button combination to trigger a specific trap or effect. This then applies to the survivor and it rinse and repeat until you either die in the process or escape.
[Redacted] also features boss enemies and environmental hazards along the way. This means that your run from the base of operations to the escape pod is fraught with danger and it’s by no means an easy task. There’s a lot of variation with the enemies and each area in the game has its own specific enemies which will need their own strategies to defeat. You can’t just run in and smash everything into tiny pieces.
You’re going to die doing that. Therefore some careful strategy in whatever perks or buffs you choose as well as how careful you play is needed. Patience is a virtue here and sometimes hanging back and just using your range weapon will keep you alive.
Additionally, there’s a mechanic where after a certain point, if you die, you can encounter your own corpse, revive it and then face off against it as a sort of mini-boss to recover a perk or buff you once had. It’s fun and challenging but sometimes, the risk is just not worth the reward.
Each run through the prison, whether you escape or not, contributes to your overall progress. You’ll earn credits, security cards, tokens and other resources which can be spent back at the base to upgrade your suit, your abilities and attributes and your weapons. With some upgrades being locked behind specific progression barriers. It’s a tried and trusted formula at this point and it works well.
Again though, this brings me to [Redacted]’s problem with being compared to Hades. As far as I can tell, there’s no way to switch off certain mechanics from triggering and once you’ve made enough progress, the game just becomes a lot harder than it initially was because of the additional survivors you’ve encountered. This immensely ruins the game experience because of the additional difficulty added.
What starts off quite fun, quickly turns into a frustrating experience and unless the developers implement a way to disable certain mechanics like how Hades did, this game is just going to infuriate gamers, hardcore and casual alike.
Graphically, [Redacted] is downright gorgeous. The colourful palette and graphic novel aesthetic and style is visually pleasing to look at and you’ll want to soak up the details of the environment whenever you enter a new area. It’s a very pretty game to look at and play that’s for sure.
The soundtrack of [Redacted] features some adrenaline-pumping electro music that fits the game’s fast pace and theme perfectly. The voice acting is also surprisingly quite good despite the actual dialogue being cliché at times. Sound effects are on point too and weapons and attacks sound convincing.
Final Verdict
[Redacted] ultimately is quite a mixed bag. The game starts off extremely fun and slowly but surely turns into a chore and becomes incredibly frustrating. As it stands right now, it’s worth picking up and playing if you want something similar to Hades while you wait for Hades 2 to exit Early Access – Or if you’re a fan of roguelikes and you’re itching to try a new one. However, be warned that it needs some significant balance patching and a bit of an overhaul to actually improve the overall player experience.
It’s by no means a terrible game but it’s a game that increasingly becomes worse the more you play it because of additional mechanics that complicate things and a difficulty curve that’s hard to deal with because of it. [Redacted] is a good game bogged down by baffling design decisions and strangely enough, so was The Callisto Protocol where it draws its inspiration from. Striking Distance Studios, please keep working on this title. It has the potential to be great with a few more patches and some gameplay overhaul and I really want to like it a lot more than I currently do.
[Redacted] Trailer
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The code was provided by the distributor.
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