[REDACTED] Review (PS5) – Punky Prison Break

After the rocky debut of The Callisto Protocol from Striking Distance Studios, it was anyone’s guess as to what the team would do next. On the surface, The Callisto Protocol looked like a survival horror that would have sat nicely amongst the small group of AAA games of the same genre. However, after a multitude of flaws and a troubling development cycle to get there, what we got was just that — surface level. One thing that stood out was the world Striking Distance had built in the game, which is exactly where we find [REDACTED], or Redacted for this review.

Redacted was a passion project quietly being worked on by a small group within the studio, but after the support for The Callisto Protocol had ended, everyone was brought in to see this project reach the finish line. It’s overtly modest by comparison to its predecessor, I’d even compare it to an indie title despite being under the Krafton publishing arm, just because of the sheer scope.

The game is an isometric roguelike set in the same prison where we met Jake? Joel? Jacob! But instead of being an unwilling inmate of Black Iron Prison, we are a guard trying to escape as the whole penitentiary is swarmed by mutated abominations. Instead of the limit-pushing hyper-realistic graphics we saw previously, Redacted has a cel-shaded comic book look, giving it a colourfully punchy aesthetic, despite the grizzly nihilistic world it’s set in.

Is this new, more humble, direction for Striking Distance Studios a sophomore smash? Or are we all serving a life sentence at Black Iron? I’ll take off the handcuffs as long as you read my whole review, ok?

That’s No Moon

For the uninitiated, Redacted takes place on Jupiter’s dead moon, Callisto, in the year 2300. On Callisto is a state-of-the-art prison facility that houses the galaxy’s worst criminals known as Black Iron Prison. However, after a mutagen outbreak that sets off the story in The Callisto Protocol, the facility is thrown into turmoil as inmates and personnel start mutating into tough zombie-like creatures.

That’s more backstory than you’ll ever get in the game, strange to assume everyone that’ll play Redacted would have also experienced its spiritual predecessor. It’s safe to assume that the two games’ story runs concurrently as it appears all hell is breaking loose simultaneously. You play as one of the last remaining guards who’s being directed by a shadowy overseer to reach the last escape pod.

You’re not the only one who’s caught wind of it though as inmates are racing to seize the opportunity to get out too. It’s a fairly decent set-up for the roguelike genre. You’re not just the one person because if you die on a run you become another guard. Outside of that though, it has a brash, in-your-face “punky” presentation that is about as punk as John Lyndon doing a butter commercial.

Topping off the faux-punk is obnoxiously written millennial dialogue trying to cherry-pick a younger audience, but it just comes off as the Steve Buscemi “How do you do fellow kids?” meme — look at me, I’m doing it myself! Thankfully, the writing is bare bones and the plot is paper thin otherwise that anarchic angle would have gotten old very fast. However, there’s no narrative woven into the live, die repeat to keep you occupied whilst you’re at a stalemate with the roguelike grind.

Innocent Until Proven Mutated

We’ve seen a bunch of isometric roguelikes crop up since Hades seemingly took the crown as the first to popularise it, and Redacted is not trying to hide that it looks and plays similarly. This is a leg up because the game does a less-than-ideal job of showing you the ropes on how to succeed. After a comic book panel introduction into the game, you’re sent to the hub area where you’ll find a matter of upgrade stations, a punching bag to practice on and other areas that apply to more mechanics that I’ll get into.

Instead of a tutorial, the controls are displayed on the screen that ticks off once you’ve performed it. You have your primary firearm that shoots in the direction you point the right analogue stick, a melee weapon, kick and dash tied to the face buttons and a special ability known as GRP on ‘R2’. You can also do a dash attack and a slide tackle with a combo of the respective buttons.

It’s straightforward enough but I admittedly have had no use for the GRP ability which pushes enemies away in a blast. There other abilities you can change it to once you unlock but there was a whole bunch more I needed to prioritise. The moment-to-moment of it all is frenetic, mobs of enemies will charge at you whilst others will fill the screen with projectiles to dodge.

It’s not as twitchy as twin-stick shooters get, but that’s to compensate for the integration of melee being an important part of the gameplay. All in all, the core gameplay loop itself is fun. Rooms fill with enemies to clear, which takes seconds rather than minutes, as you dash smash and blast in a very colourful and showy fashion.

Let Me Out!

That is if you’re prepared for the 5-6 hours of eating mutated sludge and repeatedly dying early on. The game’s opening few hours pepper something new in every couple of runs whether you’ve progressed further or not. It’s a little too much to wrap your head around as I was simply just getting to grips with what I needed to be doing in the first place.

As I mentioned before, it’s not just you running to the last escape pod but your rivals too. By the end of the “tutorial” section of the game where no more new mechanics burst their way into your runs, you’ll be in a race against three rivals per run to get to the pod. Which rivals you get are random but there are around 8 to contest with.

You can beat them to the punch by being fast and furious in dispelling abominations, or you can find them and beat them yourself. They’re tough from the jump, so I don’t advise going one-on-one with them unprepared. However, you can hack different facilities to either slow them down, make them weak or outright damage them. There’s a cooldown as to how often you can do that, but when you can you’ll have to pull off a combo of face buttons flawlessly and quickly to launch the attack.

It’s a decent way to make you think tactically and on your feet during your runs; knowing you might come into combat with a rival in the next couple of rooms you might save up a hack to weaken them up before you face them. Another way that forces you to think before you proceed are the handful of perks and modifiers you earn during your runs.

I’m Not In Here With You, You’re In Here With Me

You’ll have a few doors to pick from once you’ve cleared out the one you’re in, with all of them having a sign above it to let you know your reward for clearing. This is part of where my discombobulation comes from as I was essentially learning on the job, not fully knowing what I’d earn and why. You may come across a new perk which is tied to some form of elemental damage like Gravity, Combustion or Ice among others, or you could find the many forms of currency.

The perks themselves alter how efficient either of your weapons are in battle, whether that’s fire rate, firing distance, damage output as well as the elemental damage it may induce causing enemies to freeze, burn, or slow down. They significantly alter how well you perform during a run as the perks can stack without being replaced to the point you become a killing machine.

The elemental aspect is less so important as all of them do similar things just in a different colour but it adds a little bit of variety. There’s also a rarity system with these perks from common to legendary. Sort of self-explanatory, the higher the rarity the bigger the numbers are for the buff. It’s all RNG when you claim the reward so they may all be the same elemental but you choose from three on a list to pick how they change your abilities.

I think for the sake of pacing, especially when you’re in a rush to race against rivals, maybe the game picking for you or perhaps keeping the random buffs leaner would have made it all flow a bit smoother, especially when the differences from your pick can be negligible. When you’re not earning perks, you’re earning different currencies.

From Jumpsuits To Riches

Something I wish the game spent more time explaining was what currency is spent where and why it would be helpful. You’ve got contraband that buys permanent perks, electronics that can buy hacks to disrupt rivals, security IDs that unlock new suits that have a perk tied to them, keycodes that can unlock new firearms or melee weapons, souvenirs which help upgrade your suits and samples to help unlock new tiers of perks and how many you can hold.

If that doesn’t sound overbearing then maybe you’re made of stronger stuff. However, you’re not really told what any of those currencies go towards. I spent a good 4-5 hours earning a little bit of everything per run until I realised very quickly that the in-game economy is very much in its recession phase.

It’ll take you multiple runs through at minimum half of the game, so maybe 45 minutes to an hour, to start unlocking some of the good stuff that’ll help you beat it. It is a criminally slow rate of progression and when that’s met with rooms looking very similar in a short amount of time, I was very fatigued to keep going, knowing I’d only get so far and would have to do the same rooms over and over.

It all does start to pick up after that initial slump, and as I previously mentioned, the core gameplay is still solid, it’s just hard to recommend to everyone when there’s not more pulling me in to keep going on these destined-to-fail runs.

Never Mind The B-

After 60+ runs throughout my playtime, I felt like I had seen just as much as I could without spending a serious amount of more time dying. The story is paper thin, the punky facade it goes for is embarrassing, the overall art direction is punchy and colourful, albeit a little overbearing when you’ve got loads going on in front of you and there needs to be a better tutorial.

However, with all that going against it there is still a really solid roguelike to put you through your paces. Redacted proves that you can make some questionable decisions about almost anything but as long as the gameplay is good and riffs off of some of the best in the genre then you’ll have a pretty decent game.

It’s on the lower side price-wise so it’s not a big commitment if this does interest you and a perfect auto-pilot style game where you’re just actively turning monsters to mush without much of a thought. I also turned down the music because it’s the same chords over and over again, so heed my advice if you’re planning your prison break or face being Redacted.

[REDACTED] is available now for PlayStation 5 (review platform), Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam.

Developers: Striking Distance Studio

Publisher: Krafton

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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