The Red Star

By Tom Bramwell Published 11 August, 2004

It's not often these days that we get to play scrolling beat-'em-ups or scrolling shoot-'em-ups. In The Red Star, we've found both.

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Although plenty of comic book properties have made the transition from paper to game disc or cartridge over the years, only a few stick in the mind as being any good - and at this particular moment, we can't seem to find their sticking spots. In other words, we can't think of any. Fortunately, The Red Star, based on a comic drawn by a chap called Christian Gossett, seems to be heading in that direction though, so if we're ever forced to retread this meandering introduction at any point in the future, hopefully we'll know where to go. (What were we talking about again?)

Shooting Star

'The Red Star' Screenshot 1

The idea behind The Red Star is simple - we're following a trio of ex-military types on a quest to find a lost husband and bring down a tyrannical despot. What's slightly unusual is the setting - the URRS, an alternate [dyslexic? -Ed] future version of Russia, in which the dominant Red Fleet controls the skies with their advanced technology and weaponry, and Sorcerers using 'protokol' (er, magic) savage anybody who steps out of line - by moving the floor out of from under them and replacing it with fiery doom, judging by the slick comic-tinted introductory movie.

It's into this world that our trio is thrust, and the result is a bit like a cross between Streets of Rage and Ikaruga, if you can imagine such a thing. Not in the sense that there are black and white alternating roast chickens lurking beneath barrels suspended in the air; rather that we get to control one of the three characters as they trek through a series of side-on and top-down levels - some of which mesh views together - slashing at hordes of enemies and dodging lasers and bobbling plasma projectiles as battleships and turrets attempt to strafe us out of existence.

It's a curious mix; an enjoyable hackandslash and an enjoyable shoot-'em-up all at once, borrowing some nice ideas from both camps. The controls are simple - with just lock-on, melee, projectile, block and spell buttons to worry about - and building up combinations using simple three-stroke attacks and more devastating juggle attacks all comes very easily. But in a sense it's not really about combos - it's more of a question of methodically dispatching hordes of enemies decked out with distinctive attack patterns.

Dancing in the starlight

'The Red Star' Screenshot 2

In some cases, enemies have shields that need to be broken down before they can be destroyed, and charge attacks that can be devastating if you don't keep track of when to block; others have projectiles, whether that's straightforward repeating lasers (often easily repelled with a few blasts from your gun) or something more individual like a rotating lance that pummels you repeatedly if you don't keep your distance. But none is an enigma for long and all can be read and dispatched efficiently with a little practice.

Best of all, doing so is fairly entertaining, particularly as it isn't so much broken up by shoot-'em-up segments as thoroughly integrated. At first, you'll tackle things separately - melee combat against a few foes will keep you going, as you scythe through them with the cumbersome but powerful Kyuzo's lance or slash them repeatedly with the fleet-footed Makita's blades, and occasionally hurl them up into the air and smash them down again, getting in a few more hits while they're on the ground. And then every so often you'll have to stay on one screen as a battleship or another larger foe encircles you with various instruments of death and you're forced to dodge streams of neatly organised projectiles whilst hammering weak points with your own ranged ordnance.

Before long though, the two styles start to overlap, and you're trying to tackle roaming enemies - impaling them on Kyuzo's lance and hurling them at others to try and knock them off aerial walkways - whilst simultaneously dodging neatly arranged laser blobs and trying to shoot out turrets. This is where The Red Star seems most ingenious and fresh, and where it best rekindles your interest in the genres that developer Acclaim Studios Austin clearly picked over for inspiration.

Hack and Smash TV

'The Red Star' Screenshot 3

As a result, and thanks to some rather stingy health pack placement, the game can be a little tough at times, even early on. But once you settle into the rhythm of not simply mashing the melee attack button whenever an enemy walks onto the screen (clearly we picked up some bad habits from that abysmal Turtles game), and start to treat enemies as they need to be treated, the combat is almost balletic - particularly when you have a pair of players co-operating, and attacks influence one another mid-execution for fierier results.

There's also a third character, Maya the sorceress, to take into account. Once unlocked, she's quite a handful - relying almost solely on magical abilities (even her ranged weapon is some sort of ethereal gun she conjures out of the air). And with pages and pages of upgrades to unlock depending on your performance - like the ability to decrease your gun's recharge time, add a better rate of fire, grab a new attack, and so on - it seems like The Red Star could have a fair degree of replayability about it, although it would be nice to see some individual stages for each character rather than simply recycling the same ones. We're also told that the developer is chucking in a Smash TV style arena mode, which would be super and, er, great.

One thing we can't accuse Austin of recycling, however, is the visual side of The Red Star. Polygonal, highly detailed - it looks like the sort of scrolling fighter or slasher that we would be playing if the world and its dog weren't trying to sell us third-person action games at the moment. The explosions are frequent and, well, explosive, the crispness of the texture work elevates the occasional heat haze or depth of field effect to prominence, and the environments are fairly atmospheric - also thanks to some mazy camerawork, which sees the game switching from one perspective to another fairly regularly.

Red fiction

It's not the most inventive game we've played this year, then, but at this stage it's blending favourable ideas in an absorbing manner. It's easy to pick up, responsive, nicely thought out, and unashamed of its simple arcade ideology, which is, as the makers of Viewtiful Joe or Ikaruga might tell you, sometimes the best way to be. If there's anything negative to say, perhaps it's that we fear for its sustainability, and - ironically, given that we knew virtually nothing about the game other than its comic plot before we picked it up this week - that the presentation of the storytelling is a bit scattershot. On the whole though, The Red Star is gleaming. We just hope the rest of the game manages to shine.

The Red Star is due out on PS2 and Xbox this autumn.

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Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Big-Swiss #1 8 years ago

    I don't kn wo about this one, but I'm first

    any comparnes to other games?

  • Spanky #2 8 years ago

    I've been following the buzz for this game quite closely. Its looking very good.

    One thing you don't mention is the music? How is it? I'm expecting some rampant communist techno :D

    There is a demo of this on the OXBM this month isn't there... gonna pick that piece of overpriced muff for lunch.

  • groovychainsaw #3 8 years ago

    Cadillacs and Dinosaurs in the arcade. Great side-scrolling beat em up/shmup based on a comic book..... add that to your intro, if you like....

  • Teeth #4 8 years ago

    I'm well up for this.

  • valli #5 8 years ago

    Sounds very cool and original, something we don't get to see enough of these days.

  • CyberClaw #6 8 years ago

    This sounds like Metal Slug should have involved... I mean, there is nothing weong with Metal Slug 5, but what is the enovation in it? It's still the same gameplay... And I allways liked Metal Slug, because it had the etic frantic gameplay of a side scrolling space shooter, but with the gravity applyed to it (you didn't wander on the screen freely, but are allways near the ground). Metal Slug is master in it's own right, but I guess it's about to be dethroned... Can't wait to try this game.

  • Frank #7 8 years ago

    This sounds like the mutt's.
    I hope they can develop this into a fuller game, it seems a little thin at the moment.
    Yes! Action!
    No stealth...

  • gibbondrives #8 8 years ago

    the demo on OXM this month was pretty cool. The combat is simple yet effective, and the boss stages are certainly inspired by Shoot-em-ups.

    Having never heard of the game or comic before playing the demo, I completed feeling it could turn out to be a good game.

    I hope that the game comes out a reasonable price though, i'm not sure it's worth £40.

  • CyberClaw #9 8 years ago

    Frank, I honestly hope you are pulling some satire over there... A game sounds thin because it doesn't have stealth in it? It's called action game... Sheesh for all Metal Gears and Splinter Cells and clones alike...

    I'll give you the benifit of doubt though, since it's hard to detect satire online...

  • CyberClaw #10 8 years ago

    Like complaining that Outrun has alot of arcade driving but lacks the "simulation" of a realistic driving experience... meh, lol :D

  • tiddles #11 8 years ago

    CC - I think Frank is saying he's happy that there's no stealth.

  • Frank #12 8 years ago

    Yes CyberClaw. My online satire mode is temporarily malfunctioning.
    I'm glad it's action, I dislike stealth.
    To be honest I don't know why I really mentioned it now.
    I am a fucknut.
    But the game does need a bit more depth to compete these days.
    A story, some different characters and clever interplay between them.
    Something else to do other than shoot, like collect shiny things.
    Unless they do it right and make it balls out gun toting chaos, robotron-style. If it pure insane arcade shooting, it'll work and I'll buy it.
    But from those screens it doesn't look that busy.
    Let's here some more comments from people who've actually played it.
    Not time wasters like me!

  • duke of earl #13 8 years ago

    have tried the demo - was pretty good.

    Made me all teary eyed with the old skool-ness of it. Though there weren't nuthin old-skool about the graphics.

    Am looking forward to this one.

  • Menace #14 8 years ago

    I want this game now, dammit..

  • pjmaybe #15 8 years ago

    Looks quite sweet ! A bit of Green Beret, mixed with a bit of Loaded...

    Could be excellent. PS2 definitely seems to be having its fair share of superb shmups lately..

    Peej

  • magicpocket #16 8 years ago

    Played this at E3 and player it again and again and again and again and again - brilliant, good-old fashioned solid gameplay. Can't wait to get my hands on a copy and blast my way through it

  • rez606 #17 8 years ago

    looks like a 3d gunstar heros, and OMG if its anything like that game were in for sumthin special....

    Is it actually coming out in europe tho, cause there seems very few quality shooteres on ps2, jus got r-type final which is ok but no ikaruga or radient silvergun..... :(

  • Ruhen #18 8 years ago

    Fad Marar Dushe Guriya!!!

  • faselei #19 5 years ago

    I saw this in Game yesterday. I loved the comics, but they stopped halfway through.

    Interesting. I'm buying it.