Platform: Steam
Genre: Real-Time Tactical Strategy
Completed: 06/03/2024
I'm grateful my brother knows I love the real-time tactical strategy genre. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have known about this title until possibly much later.
I have played quite a lot of RTTS games. Some were good, like the Commandos and Desperados franchise. Others hadn't impressed me as much, such as Star Trek: Away Team or -shudder- Desperados 2 and Helldorado. When I was younger I tried all the ones that I could. Which reminds me, I must return to Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood and Korea: Forgotten Conflict (if I can get them to work properly). For a long while, there had been an absence of this genre so when it was revitalized some years back with Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun I have been eagerly watching for new titles.
You'll see some more modern titles crop up in this challenge now and then.
As soon as my brother sent me the link to Red Glare I knew I wanted to play it. The inspiration behind the game was clear from the start. There was a hint of Commandos throughout. Some of the character portraits were reminiscent of their counterparts, though slightly different. For example, the "Sniper" was now the Spy, and the "Green Beret" was the Trapper.
Also, while it has been a while since I played Commandos, I recognize the similarity in the character's movement dialogues: "I'm going!"; "Need a target."; "In a minute...".
But that doesn't mean I didn't like it or it gave me a bad impression of the game. If anything it made me feel nostalgic. Also, Red Glare isn't just a carbon copy of the Commandos game. While there are similar elements - which will be found in most if not all, RTTS games - Red Glare had its own mechanics that set it apart from other titles.
While other RTTS games generally have a day or night mission, Red Glare is the first that I have seen with a day/night cycle. This allows for different tactics to come into play. But also different dangers. For instance, enemies can spot footprints in daylight but not at night. However, at night, spotlights are activated, which can call enemies to your location if spotted.
Another difference is that enemies can spot blood and come and investigate. Very often I have played these games and found it amusing that another soldier would somehow miss the massive splot of blood on the floor where mere moments ago was a comrade. Some games may notice that the comrade is missing which would cause the soldier to initiate a quick search. But the blood was generally ignored. Until now. So sometimes, removing enemies via strangulation rather than blades was even more worthwhile. Quieter and less conspicuous.
I liked how the character skills weren't simply generic copies of other titles. Obviously, you would have your knife throw; cigarettes; enemy uniform; and fire weapon (though in this case, each character had their specific weapon). But some new skills added a fun mix to the strategy. First was the wire rope, which effectively was a lasso. It allowed me to yank unsuspecting guards out of sight to be eliminated. Another was the explosive toy, which was an item that would be picked up by distractable soldiers and you could detonate at any time. Very effective if that person is leading a group of five soldiers.
There were some minor nuisances though. In the forest missions, I could barely make out the footprints my guys left behind. Enemy soldiers however could. So sometimes I would alert a patrol when I thought I had snuck past. Also, during the night phase, while I could see the spotlights, I had a hard time seeing the actual light on the ground. Because of this, I would often mistime some of my movements. But, in the end, it worked in my favor. I enjoyed luring unsuspecting fools to their doom.
I did encounter some bugs also, but in truth, this is where I was impressed. Now normally, I would look online for any solutions, but being a new game there wasn't anything to help me. So, I decided to try my luck in posting on the Steam discussion boards. The developer did not take long to answer and was quick to try and resolve the issue. You could see he cared for his game and wanted others to enjoy it. I could see also that he was taking onboard feedback and adjusting the game accordingly. Knowing that he was there to help with any issues and that he was actively updating and improving the game, made it easier to push on when I encountered a frustrating bug. During my playthrough, there were a couple of updates that improved the experience.
There are a couple of things that I would have loved to see in the game - nothing massive. The first would have helped if, on the in-game map, there was a form of marker to show where there were items to pick up. Sometimes, I would have to scroll across the map to see if there was anything I may have missed. Another thing I would have liked was to see a summary page at the end of each level. It didn't need to have a ranking (I would have hated that in fact) but it would have been nice to see how long it took to complete the mission; what my favored skill was; how many saves I took. Things like this.
Overall, while the game was rough around the edges at times, I did enjoy it and I felt it was one of the decent RTTS games.
Next up will be - Styx: Master of Shadows
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