Red Solstice 2: Survivors, the tried
Red Solstice 2
This weekend we enjoyed the playtest of Red Solstice 2: Survivor, the sequel to that The Red Solstice received in a rather cold way on these same pages now six years ago. The title throws its roots among strategic action games with an isometric view, making it clear, however, from the outset that the online component must act as a backbone for the entire gaming infrastructure. If with the first chapter things from this point of view did not go exactly in the right direction, due to an inactive server population, the situation this year could be different, given that the Croatian developers of Ironward have decided to put in the hands of 505 Games for publication, probably hoping to get exponentially greater echo and interest.Also this time the game wants to propose a campaign guided by the narration and a substantial online component but the desire to have the server and stability of the co-op missions tested in this phase suggests how much, once again, it will be proper this is the cornerstone of the gaming experience. We then spent a few hours online in the company of friends and strangers in what could be called a hardcore battle, where communication is fundamental and even the smallest planning errors can cost the failure of the entire mission.
A weekend of playtests to convince the public
Flamethrowers are the best way to keep the hordes at bay create a fanbase that plays regularly and forms a living community. So the best way to give something to discuss is surely to throw a demo in the hands of anyone and let them taste what the final product will be able to offer. Although peer to peer servers are a sentence, usually, during this playtest we were lucky enough to never run into sudden disconnections or ragequit, almost always managing to see the end of the game or at least the early departure of the team at the hands of the hungry beasts. aliens.In case you have played The Red Solstice the sequel will seem extremely familiar but the entire technical sector has been fixed and embellished. In fact, the first impact with the lighting effects left us pleasantly struck, the real flagship of the production that adorn a dark metropolitan setting lit only occasionally by explosions and by the tracing trails of the bullets. In short, the atmosphere is claustrophobic enough and is perfect to create that immersion that is essential to let the player always feel hunted and lost, although the only map available was not particularly large in terms of square footage. Yet in that square with well-known borders, moving correctly between the deserted streets and uninhabited buildings was not at all easy as Ironward managed to maintain a rather high difficulty curve, ready to punish the too bold soldiers. To be successful in the missions it was therefore necessary to plan properly the composition of the party first, trying to create a good amalgamation in the teams of up to eight players by exploiting the full potential of the four classes available.
The doctor with his drones able to heal the front line and bring back the fallen comrades to life is indispensable, just as we have found the support of heavy artillery and grenades offered by the other classes to exhaust the enemy inevitable before the inevitable battle with the white weapon. If you have played Left 4 Dead or you play hordes you will already know what to expect roughly and from those titles Red Solstice 2: Survivors also inherits the need to always keep spare magazines at hand or to plan at least a path that includes a supply of bullets and secondary gadgets.
In the darkness aliens of all kinds await you Catapulted into the center of the map so you will have to be able to resist as many waves as possible while you wait patiently for the extraction moment, but not before having completed a whole series in the meantime of randomly generated secondary objectives. There will be a missile battery to be deactivated, energy generators to restart and so on for games that are still quite varied, if not in the structure at least in the mission objectives.
For something more linear, however, the single player campaign could be for us but to be able to test it we will have to wait for the full version on June 17th. However, there are still things to fix, first of all a management and character growth interface that is not really user friendly to use with very unintuitive and difficult to read menus. The experience and talent points earned during missions can be spent in lobbies to improve different aspects of the various classes, as well as gain access to increasingly deadly weapons and skills, in a continuous loop that we have seen work particularly well in these circumstances. The lack of immediacy in the menus still left us dumbfounded, given how well it seemed to us during the first appearances of the project last year, a step backwards that certainly left us off guard. On the other hand, the variety of aliens that will jump on you both in shape and in size is excellent, from the classic zomboid bipeds to abominations as high as palaces. In short, the fun should not be missing.
A title of those tough to approach, determined not to leave room for caciarone tactics and far-fetched tactics. Red Solstice 2: Survivors requires commitment to be dealt with properly and can be difficult and punishing at the right point, rewarding those who manage the various missions with an injection of pure satisfaction. The title visually looks good and the technical sector rises above the average of the genre, making Red Solstice interesting to play and beautiful to see. The only very big question mark, in addition to the depth and solidity of the campaign, therefore remains on the populousness of the servers, an element that could easily define the success or failure of production on its own.
