Despite its bright, comic book-inspired visuals and its edgy punk-rock vibes, Redacted (stylized as [REDACTED]) is set in the same sci-fi universe as The Callisto Protocol released in 2022. While The Callisto Protocol tried to recreate the magic of the Dead Space franchise that captivated audiences over sixteen years ago, Striking Distance Studios has taken a completely distinct direction with this spin-off, transforming various elements from its original game into an isometric roguelike dungeon crawler.
This marks a significant departure for the budding series, moving away from the dark melodrama and intense combat present in The Callisto Protocol to embrace a style filled with playful references and twin-stick shooting mechanics. Fans may recognize a strong influence from Hades, which Redacted openly channels, even with a name that arguably pays homage to Supergiant Games’ groundbreaking roguelike. While this isn’t necessarily a drawback, it becomes challenging to overlook the game’s borrowed design elements, especially as it often falls short of the extraordinary levels achieved by its most notable inspiration.
By Richard Wakeling on October 28, 2024 at 1:26PM PDT
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Now Playing: [REDACTED] – Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer | Gamescom 2024
Set in the chilling, industrial confines of Black Iron Prison, much like The Callisto Protocol, Redacted plunges players into a world where mutated biophages wreak havoc, transforming both prisoners and staff into monstrous, zombie-like beings. You take on the role of a humble prison guard, with the singular goal of escaping via the facility’s last escape pod. However, your journey is perilous, as you face not only the biophages but also other survivors, including coworkers and inmates, who are equally desperate to flee.
Every time you fail to escape, your guard perishes and becomes one of the infected, but you get to start anew as a different guard with the same mission. As you progress, you collect various types of currency, such as contraband and security codes, that persist across different runs. These resources enable you to acquire permanent weapons and skills in the game’s central hub, creating a rewarding sense of progression. This system ensures that even unsuccessful attempts contribute to your overall advancement, making future escapades more manageable.
Much like Hades, the gameplay centers around battling through four distinct zones in a single session, with a tough boss awaiting you at the conclusion of each. Each zone is filled with randomly chosen arena battles, and once you defeat all the enemies in an arena, you’re presented with a choice of doors to enter. These choices allow you to decide between gaining various buffs (referred to as experiments) that aid your current run or earning currencies that can benefit future attempts. Similar to Hades, after completing a room, you’ll be given three buffs to choose from. Some might boost your health or add elemental damage to your weaponry, while others can modify your firearm’s performance or enhance your dodging abilities with damaging effects. These buffs can be upgraded based on your door selections, empowering you the longer you endure in a run.
The overall design leads to an enjoyable gameplay loop. I mention “eventually” because Redacted doesn’t quite grab you from the start. Each run begins with two weapons, one for ranged attacks and the other for melee. However, the initial offerings leave much to be desired when it comes to enjoyment. The pistol, shotgun, and assault rifle feature sluggish firing rates and lack impactful feedback. Meanwhile, the heavy melee attacks feel clumsy and unsatisfying, and this doesn’t significantly improve even after unlocking all weapon types. Some buffs can enhance combat, but this means you are left relying on the game’s RNG to enjoy the battles.
Fortunately, your ranged weaponry does enhance over time, injecting a more dynamic, fast-paced feel into each conflict as you unlock more reliable options. Using the atom gun’s fiery energy beam to obliterate biophages is incredibly satisfying, as is dodging incoming projectiles while blasting enemies with dual blasters. However, it is disappointing that melee combat quickly becomes secondary. While striking an enemy can be handy at times, I realized that focusing on improving my guns proved to be far more engaging than melee buffs.
This leads to combat feeling somewhat repetitive; however, the variety of enemy types keeps you alert—demanding you to dodge an array of projectiles, avoid explosive foes, and deal with melee attackers. You can kick enemies, but I never found this move to be particularly beneficial. Additionally, you possess a kinesis-like ability similar to The Callisto Protocol’s GRP, allowing you to hurl foes backward to generate space or throw them into environmental dangers. Launching a biophage into a pool of corrosive green acid is definitely rewarding, though your use of the GRP ability is limited.
It’s worth noting that Redacted boasts a striking visual design throughout. The game’s comic book art style leaps off the screen, featuring a vibrant tapestry that dresses explosions and smoke effects in halftone patterns, while your brilliant attacks cut through the visual chaos. This, combined with the game’s twin-stick shooting mechanics, sufficiently supports the combat system, although it can become monotonous in the latter stages.
Before reaching that point, your initial goal is to navigate through all four zones and make your escape from the prison. Completing this task for the first time opens up weapon upgrades, as well as a variety of difficulty modifiers that ramp up the game’s challenge, rewarding you with extra bonuses. Whether you opt to lower your health, implement a timer, or boost the number of adversaries in each room, there are numerous ways to enhance your gameplay experience.
You also encounter your past self, as your most recently fallen guard will soon rise among the undead. Engaging in a duel with a previous failure is optional, largely depending on whether they possess an upgraded ability you would like to reclaim. Given the weapons and enhancements they carried upon their demise, these reanimated guards can prove to be formidable opponents, and I often found the potential rewards didn’t justify the significant risks involved.
As for the reason to attempt escaping Black Iron Prison multiple times, there is only a single motivator. Unlike Hades, where the narrative drives you through a series of successful runs, the incentive in Redacted isn’t quite as compelling, but I’ll explain that shortly.
You see, in the midst of the frenzy that each escape attempt brings, you are also faced with the game’s Rivals. These escaped inmates and previous associates represent a simplistic blend of stereotypes, ranging from a Dungeons and Dragons enthusiast who participates in live-action role play to an infamous Karen and a punk-rock Cockney. The narrative itself is minimal, with much of their dialogue centered around pop culture references. There are a handful of amusing moments, but often the reference itself constitutes the entirety of the humor, whether they mention The Simpsons or bring up Hades.
Rivals, however, shine in how they introduce an unpredictable element to each run. There are a total of eight Rivals, but you only need to deal with three at any given moment. Much like you, they are racing to reach the final escape pod, transforming each attempt into a chaotic sprint to the finish line. You can hinder one Rival momentarily and whittle down their health bar using remote attacks. The twist comes when they retaliate, complicating matters with gas leaks that you must swiftly extinguish and bombs that you need to dodge as they plummet from above.
It’s not solely about remote tactics, though. From time to time, you will confront one of your Rivals in a mini-boss battle that can end in bloodshed. If you succeed in taking them down, that lessens your competition when you finally reach the escape pod; if not, you will find yourself in a showdown against the remaining survivors. This aspect of gameplay is fantastic and stands out as a unique feature of Redacted, injecting an exhilarating twist into a gameplay loop that might otherwise feel too familiar.
After you achieve your initial successful escape, the Rivals become your main target if you aim to see the game’s conclusion. Each Rival possesses a confidential dossier filled with amusing insights into their backgrounds, but what you truly seek are the hidden passcodes within. Eight passcodes for eight prisoners, necessary to unlock a vault containing unknown treasures. This is the ultimate challenge within Redacted, if you can refer to it as such. Therefore, you set out in search of doors labeled “Computer” scattered throughout each attempt. You can reveal a single paragraph from within these rooms, with a total of ten paragraphs available for all eight Rivals. That equals 80 files waiting to be discovered, and ideally, during a single run, you might uncover four or five of these Computer rooms at best.
Completing the game is quite a marathon. It took me a total of 17 hours to reach the end credits, which spanned 40 runs and 14 escapes. The reward for this extensive effort is a final high-stakes run back through the prison. If you die during this run, you forfeit all your progress, but if you succeed, you unlock some new permanent gear. Unfortunately, the reward isn’t particularly appealing. After investing 17 hours, I could hardly envision myself diving back in for more, especially given that any further incentive has been stripped away. While this isn’t entirely surprising, Redacted still offers considerable replayability. However, it is disheartening that the ultimate reward is so underwhelming, especially considering the arduous journey to reach it.
The saying goes that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, something that’s quite prevalent in the gaming world. Yet, it’s tough to advocate for Redacted when titles like Hades and its sequel offer a similar experience but with far greater finesse. The Rivals system injects a refreshing dynamic into the genre, and while the combat can be engaging, there are areas where it significantly falters. There is potential for a good game to emerge from the chaos, especially once you’ve pushed through the uninspiring start and tedious conclusion. Redacted doesn’t truly build upon The Callisto Protocol universe, but I appreciate its existence. Despite the evident flaws in both games, my interest remains in the stories this world has to offer, and I sincerely hope Striking Distance gets the opportunity to explore them further. Redacted, however, stumbles a few too many times along the way.
