For years many people have maybe thought that challenging games had gone the way of Virtual Reality. Yet recently, just like VR, we are privy to a bit of a resurgence. The combination of successful Xbox Live Arcade titles, the indie gaming scene and the high sales of AAA game’s like Dark Souls, has led to the rise in popularity of difficult, or as some would say, punishing games.
If you were to ask me “What is The Red Solstice?” I would have to pause, because this game is many things. It’s a challenging co-op real time action strategy shooter that is set to have epic multiplayer games with up to eight players and a single player campaign. At the moment, the early build of this game allows multiplayer and a short prologue mission to introduce you to the game’s controls. Even with that, this is a game with a learning curve and new players are going to feel a little lost at the beginning.
There’s a lot of depth here with many different classes, weapons and customizable options and abilities, which also translates to gameplay wherein you must decide how to spend points in the middle of a game and on what abilities. Do you want morphine to heal yourself or do you want greater accuracy for your weapons? It’s certainly a lot to take in, so it’s better to get into a lobby with other players, because even on the easiest difficulty setting, you will die. A lot.
On top of all the different options for your characters, there are also various mission types. Wave Defense appears to be a little bit easier than objective based missions, but regardless of what you choose, this game will kick your ass. The controls are more Dota than Alien Swarm like some people thought this game would be. However, even though the right mouse button is used to move and left mouse locks onto a target to fire, you can manually aim and shoot by holding down the left shift key. There’s also an auto-aim feature if you need to shoot and manage other abilities, but this isn’t as effective as aiming yourself.
A small concern I have about this game is that it might be spreading itself too thin. There are many different gameplay elements that appeal to different crowds but I’m not certain that will to bring them together. Of course this is just an early look into what the game offers so there’s a lot yet to be seen. It can be hard not to but if you pick it up on early access try not to judge too quickly! If you were a fan of Alien Swarm or top down twin stick shooters, I can’t recommend this as that’s not what this game is. If you are a fan of pure strategy games, I can’t recommend it either, because also, it’s not that. That’s not to say you might not like it… The Red Solstice just isn’t that sort of experience.
I feel that fans of old school games that have players managing resources to overcome the situation, rather than centering a screen and pushing a button, will enjoy The Red Solstice. I certainly don’t doubt Ironward’s passion. The amount of work they’re putting into this game with little budget will impress anyone.
The game is available as an early access title on Steam and currently has no set release date for the finished product.
“It will be in Early Access until we’re ready to release it. We’re anticipating at least a few months.” – Ironward’s Steam Page.
