Developer: Sobaka Studio
Publisher: Koch media
Platform: PS4, Switch, Xbox One, PC
Tested on: Switch
Redeemer: Enhanced Edition – Review
Redeemer is a top-down brawler brought to us by Sobaka Studio and Koch Media, and attempts to kindle the same flame that games like Diablo have done before. This also means it has some pretty massive shoes to fill. Will Redeemer be able to stand its ground and topple the giants? Let’s find out.
Story
The game starts off with Vasily telling us he was looking forward to this day since it would have been his thousandth day in peace, but faith did not favor him as masked soldiers attack the monastery, breaking his cycle of peace. The temple of the Vanishing Star is where our hero spent his days, which has been hidden for many years. He found his home there, a new family and purpose. His life now revolved around doing fulfilling work, that brought peace to his mind and body. Or at least, that’s what he would have wanted. The reality of the situation is that in the background he could still hear war, chaos, and destruction. He was an addict, an addict to the calamity that war brings. Every day was a struggle to suppress his addiction, hoping he would never hear a gunshot again, hoping that the animal within him would stay dormant for the rest of his life. You then make your way through the monastery, fighting off countless soldiers who all scream that you are a traitor. Almost every monk that you lived and trained with has been killed. Vasily decides to avenge his fallen brethren and sets out to destroy the corporation that attacked them.
The story is told to you in slides that move in-and-out of the screen, with minimalistic movement. There is a dynamic between the images and the camera that moves around. Vasily tells you the story that transpires as it plays out.
Graphics
The way the story is portrayed by the images is really great, the art style is awesome and not only is there minimalistic movement but the camera also moves which creates a good dynamic feeling. The game looks pretty good despite the fact that it struggles with the frame rate in the more crowded areas and when the environments have too many details. One of the coolest things this game has, is the executions that you can sometimes perform. When you do these executions, the camera zooms in and everything goes in slow-motion, really giving you a good look at the brutality on display.
Sound
The narration that Vasily provides over the cutscenes feels really great and adds some eighties action-movie feel to it. Going through the levels, enemies will yell tons of things at you and your fellow monks scream for help as you desperately try to find a way through the dungeon. Sometimes Vasily will talk to himself during your runs through dungeons, wondering why life always forces him into chaos.
Gameplay
Redeemer is a top-down brawler where you continuously go through dungeons and face hordes after hordes of enemies. While this is a fairly straight-forward recipe, Redeemer also allows you to utilize firearms in combat. Even though this sounds great, the biggest guns that you will use are probably your left and right fists. Or you can play local co-op and have a friend join you to beat up baddies with an extra set of guns.
It’s very clear from the get-go that this game took inspiration from some of the greats as it tries to capture the same magic Diablo has, where you scour through countless dungeons. You can execute enemies in a way that might feel a bit like Mortal Kombat by ripping out their throat, breaking their backs or even piercing them on sharp objects in the environment.
Melee weapons and guns can be found, either on the ground or dropped from enemies. This allows you to play whichever way you would like as long as you have ammo for the guns. In the beginning, they drop with a fairly low amount of ammo, but as you progress throughout the game the amount of ammo you get is increased. Along the way, you will collect manuscripts that will allow you to choose a perk and others to upgrade a perk. These will grant you more combo options, charge attacks, and even skills for weapons that will increase ammo or improve durability on melee weapons.
There is a stealth system that starts out promising but there is one major flaw with it, it becomes near obsolete as you progress through the game. In the beginning areas the mobs you face are all weak and easily dispatched of, this all changes when you reach deeper areas this game has to offer. The enemies are much tougher and there are so many enemies walking around that you generally won’t use the stealth kills since you could only do one kill before being spotted.
It has to be said that the game feels rather sluggish and very clunky at times. Overall the game really does not play that smooth or fluent at all as Vasily really doesn’t move around that great. There’s a lot of potential left untapped here, which can hopefully be redeemed in some sort of DLC or next installment in the series.
Conclusion
While Redeemer showed great promise, it didn’t deliver everywhere it could and left a lot to be desired. Sometimes it feels like a chore to go through a level rather than something you would enjoy, as the controls were rather sluggish and clunky. The narration in the storytelling was appreciated as it adds some depth to an otherwise lacking game. While being fun to play in the beginning, the game will get so cluttered with enemies to the point where it can’t keep up its own pace and struggles as a result of that.
Redeemer: Enhanced Edition - Review,
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