INTRODUCTION
I’ve been the mood for shooters a lot these past few weeks, and I was given the opportunity to review Offensive Combat Redux by the developers. I figured what the heck, let’s give it a shot. As it was installing, I looked up some trailers and screenshots. It looked like a lot of crazy fun, so I took the plunge one evening and settled in for a night of runnin’ and gunnin’. Sadly, I was very disappointed by the evening’s end. Let’s look at why.
STORY
Let me be frank: I didn’t see any semblance of a story in Offensive Combat Redux. If there was one, it was removed. Instead, I think the game focuses on it’s gameplay. If I had to put a story together, I’d say that a bunch of people were dropped onto different battlegrounds, given weapons, and told to fight until one was left standing. Honestly though, for a multiplayer shooter you don’t really *need* a story, but when most games have one, it’s really not that hard to come up with one…even if it’s really basic. It helps connect players to the characters and worlds they run around in.
GAMEPLAY
This game plays like most shooters. Take your guns, run around to find your enemies, fill ’em full of lead until they drop. Simple. What make’s this game funny though is that once you kill an opponent, you can perform what’s called a PWN. You know how online someone will teabag you after they kill you? That’s a PWN. And that’s in this game, along with several other forms of PWNs. Getting kills and performing PWNs earn you XP and Gold, which you can use to enhance your weapons and buy customization options for your character.
The character customizer is arguably the best part of this game. You can choose from dozens of head, chest, arm, and leg parts to build your perfect avatar of destruction. You need to purchase most of these first, but the starting options are pretty decent. The downside is the higher tier options are expensive, often costing 500,000 (XP) or more. Gun customization is pretty linear. There are a few options you unlock for each weapon, costing a few thousand XP per upgrade. Stuff like increased clip size, less recoil, and more. You have to unlock those in a specified order. There is no pick and choose there.
Overall, the single player aspect of this game is okay, except for one thing: the bots. The bots seem to vary day by day in their behavior and difficulty. Last week they fought each other and I was able to take them down no problem. This week, they hunt me down mercilessly and do not fight amongst each other. They just target me. I don’t think this is supposed to be a thing, but it happened a lot. The multiplayer is nearly dead. I spent a few hours sitting in the queue one night, and never got matched to anyone. Another time I matched with only one player. I tried various times of the day and didn’t get any better results. After that, I stuck to bots, despite their flaws.
GRAPHICS
Overall the game looks *okay*. I say okay because it feels a tad outdated, despite being a redux. Not to say the game looks terrible, but it’s quite the opposite. Just not up to today’s current standards. It feels like 2007ish graphics. And that’s okay for what the game is, and it illustrates the cartoony, silly feel the game has pretty well. That said, the guns looks amazing. Almost like they spent the most time designing and bringing those to life over everything else.
AUDIO
This is sadly the game’s lowest point. Aside from the one track that plays at the main menu and in the match browser, there is no other music in the game. At least not that I’ve heard. There is some simple, but awful voice acting…mainly in the form of “GO GO GO!” at the start of matches. There are little jingles that play when you PWN another player, but those sound and feel really generic.
VERDICT
In the end, I cannot really recommend this game to anyone in it’s current state. If the devs push a few patches, it might become more playable. But as it stands, I’d avoid it. It’s simply not fun. Not much more you can say about a game if it isn’t fun. Perhaps it’s best to keep an eye on this title over the next few months to see if any improvements come along.
