Redout: Space Assault review friv game

Redout: Space Assault review friv game - dancing with rockets

We went to space to defend the interests of the Friv2Online Studio in the sequel of the indie shooter by Italian developers. Briefly and essentially we tell you what Redout: Space Assault is about and whether the game is worth your attention.

Redout: Space Assault is a sequel to the 2016 game of the same name, which in its time received generally good reviews. The friv game's protagonist, a dark-skinned security officer Leon, being a space fighter pilot, takes on the most impossible tasks, and is unwittingly drawn into the war of a colonial corporation with opposing forces.
The plot is presented in the background during the course of the tasks, trying to lure us with intriguing twists and turns and heartfelt conversations with philosophical overtones, but it succeeds with mixed success. In any case, I, in a good half of dialogs, tried to survive rather than to find out where I am, who my opponent is and why he threw so many forces to destroy one small ship.

Each mission of Redout: Space Assault has one main and two side quests. The first one is usually story-based and we'll manage it anyway, while the other two are classic quests in the style of "kill 80% of the enemies" or "don't get damaged by the missile".
I must say, Leon's ship has fantastic maneuverability. On board are energy shields, several main guns (only one at the beginning), missile launchers, which can be fired as much as you want, firing several shells at a time.
In most of the missions, the ship, picked up by the current of events, carries itself through the whole level and, if the appropriate setting is turned on, can even automatically shoot at enemies who are in the crosshairs. And you just collect coins, "twist barrels" and maneuver between obstacles.

However, there are also missions where you can explore the environment relatively freely or don't need to fight at all and instead run from an armada, an aggressive corvette or whatever. Sometimes it's a runner, sometimes an exploratory adventure, but for the most part it's an almost classic third-person view rail shooter.
Bossfights are of special interest - here the developers have gone wild. The first serious opponent will meet you in the middle of the second chapter, and in the fourth chapter you'll clash one-on-one with a capital ship. Bosses, as it is supposed to be in such friv games, will change tactics and suddenly unleash new weapons against you.
After each mission, the game offers you to choose one of two cards as a reward. These are usually modifiers for the ship's systems with a basic and sometimes additional useful effect. There can be only one improvement on board and by choosing a new card, you lose the previous one.
Earned credits are spent on permanent upgrade of energy shields, ship armor, main and missile guns. The price rises slightly with each improvement, and when the ceiling is reached, the component goes to the next level.
After the standard space shooters, the lack of a lever to adjust thrust is quite disconcerting. In this case you can turn on a temporary sprint or slow down the ship, but there is no possibility to level the speed back manually for some reason.

Graphics in Space Assault is not bad. Both ship models and space backgrounds are drawn nicely, but with the color scheme and special effects the developers have overdone it. In particular - with the effects of light and shadow, when some objects are contrasting black, exactly on them not on purpose, but by mistake forgot to pull textures, and others on the contrary - lighted.
Your fighter flies to the sun-drenched asteroid belt, shining with engines and lights, and between you is a horde of enemies, blazing with missiles, explosions and God knows what other sources of light. All this merges, prevents you from maneuvering and aiming. In a word, it blinds the player. At some moments it becomes very uncomfortable to play.

If you like shoot 'em up friv games, it is very likely that Redout: Space Assault will catch your fancy, but it is not necessary. The game lags far behind the popular projects in this genre in terms of both shooting and dynamics, and it's more likely to be released on mobile platforms than on PC.
At the same time, the developers realized interesting bosses, even if not the most impressive, but still the plot, and most importantly - they didn't forget to accompany Redout: Space Assault with dynamic soundtrack, which perfectly complements the gameplay.