Developer: Ironward Games
Publisher: 505 Games
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Red Solstice 2: Survivors – INSURGENTS DLC – Review
Red Solstice 2: Survivors is a game that generally got rated as reasonably enjoyable, but it also got backlash for the technical difficulties that players experienced and for how obscure some of the communication of the game was. When it came to the clarity of long-term goals, progression systems, or the general HUD, some players were at a loss. Over the last year, these things got partially fixed, while at the same time, the developers have been working hard on some downloadable content. One of these DLC packs is the INSURGENTS DLC. What can you expect from this one?
Story
SPOILER AHEAD. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK IF YOU STILL WANT TO PLAY THE BASE GAME FIRST. IN THAT CASE, SKIP TO “SOUND”
In Red Solstice 2: Survivors we learned all about the STROL virus. This virus wiped out life on Earth and replaced humans with mutated, grotesque creatures. Mars is sadly doomed to undergo the same fate. To counter these creatures and take back Mars, you play as the Executor, the leader of an elite squad tasked to take back the red planet. During the base game, you also learn about The Elysium Corporation, a corporation that seemed to have the best in mind for humanity, and you’ll also learn about the insurgents, who resisted the Elysium Corporation and claimed they were evil.
In the INSURGENTS DLC, it turned out that the insurgents were right. The Elysium Corporation was doing some sneaky and highly illegal research, and this time, you don’t play as the Executor but as the Governor. You will take the fight to The Elysium Corporation while you also still need to manage fending off swarms of mutants. This essentially brought you a new selection of human enemies on top of those pesky aliens of the original game. One of the things that we immediately noticed is that this DLC feels a lot more alive compared to the base game. There are more conversations going on between characters at the start, and the new enemies help to increase tension too. However, like the base game, the INSURGENTS DLC is mostly about the action.
Graphics
As this is a DLC, it’s pretty logical that the graphics are the same as those of the base game. It’s a polished game with loads of “fireworks”, meaning you’ll see many bullets, flamethrowers, and explosions. Some might want to watch those pretty lights, but obviously, this DLC also brings some new locations as you progress through the story, and there’s more of a focus on guns. This is because you can now modify your guns to improve them, which might give you an edge. The game simply already looked good overall, and the DLC did not change anything about that.
Sound
The music, combined with the voice acting and shooting, creates a nice cinematic experience. The background music is mostly bombastic orchestral music that’s backing up the fighting, but there’s also some mysterious thriller music when you uncover something new. It sounds like it’s professional, high-quality stuff, and honestly the same goes for most of the voice acting. The overall sound design is entertaining, and probably sadly more entertaining than the game itself, especially when playing the game for a longer period of time.
Gameplay
The gameplay in Red Solstice 2: Survivors and the INSURGENTS DLC is pretty straightforward. In this (co-op) action game you can run around from a top-down perspective to gun at aliens running toward you, while you need to make sure you complete objectives and loot some stuff to stay alive. If you want, you can also approach the game more from an RTS point of view, using options such as overwatch, an ability that lets your character automatically shoot anything that comes near him. This is essentially used to guard an area. At the same time, you can also try to create defensive perimeters with weaponry such as turrets and mines. The game has multiple difficulty settings and is most fun with friends.
That being said, the procedure written above is also almost all that happens during this game. While there is some resource management required, and you get to improve characters, guns, and your control over the planet by building satellite dishes and such, the core stays the same. In our experience, this results in you running around to shoot aliens, open doors, extract a civilian, and then relocate to do it all over again. Where in a game such as XCOM, there’s a similar system where you can fly around the world from mission to mission to gain more overall control, the core gameplay there is just more interesting and polished when it comes to upgrading your squad. In the INSURGENTS DLC, like in the base game, upgrading and flying around seems overly complicated for the repetitive action gameplay that you eventually get. It always feels like there are loads of things to do, but it’s a disappointing illusion as the same waves of aliens come running at you no matter what happens. In the end, you really play this DLC to get more story out of your game, not for more variation in the gameplay.
Conclusion
To conclude, Red Solstice 2: Survivors – INSURGENTS adds a neat new story to a game that already had proper graphics and great sound design. The main issue we have with the game is that, like the base game, the gameplay gets repetitive quite fast and you are just trying to survive and shoot your way from one place to another. Walking from point A to B to C to D while repeating the same actions over and over again has its limits, and it’s hard to be truly enthusiastic about DLC that continues this trend.
Red Solstice 2: Survivors - INSURGENTS DLC - Review,
No Comments