''The Red Solstice'' is a

tactical shooter A tactical shooter is a Video game genre, sub-genre of First-person shooter, first- and third-person shooters, associated with using strategy, planning, and Military tactics, tactics in gameplay, as well as the realistic simulations of ballisti ...

survival game Survival games are a subgenre of action games which are often set in hostile, intense, open-world environments. Players generally start with minimal equipment and are required to survive as long as possible by finding the resources necessary t ...

, developed and published by Ironward for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. It entered

early access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release Software release life cycle, developm ...

in July 2014 and released on 10 July 2015. It is the first installment in ''The Red Solstice'' video game series. ''The Red Solstice'' had been in development for two and a half years. It uses an Ironward-created

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor. The "engine" terminology is akin to the term " software engine" u ...

, Razor. A century after leaving Earth, a storm rages across the surface of Mars. Although terraforming is well under way, the alignment of the Martian northern winter solstice with the planet's closest approach to the Sun still triggers global dust storms sometimes lasting up to several weeks. During an exceptionally violent storm dubbed "The Red Solstice", the human colonies of Mars lose all contact with Tharsis, the colony referred to as "The Capital". Soldiers in the service of the Elysium Corporation, elite marine troops, were sent to find out what happened to the colony.

Gameplay

The gameplay of ''The Red Solstice'' is mostly team-based tactical shooting. It has a 1-8 players co-op. The game also has a variety of equipment and features. Playing well rewards different achievements and ranks. ''The Red Solstice'' also features an ailment system in which characters can bleed, become poisoned, or be affected by various ailments, creating a new and harder experience. ''The Red Solstice'' has various character classes ranging from heavy combat to support. Modules and armor pieces can be changed on marines to alter their stats ranging from ganging abilities to accuracy and speed. The main campaign focuses on a marine called Tyler Hunt and his squad. They are sent to investigate a communications failure in the Tharsis colony, located on Mars. This portion of the game has a story that expands over to the multiplayer mode and provides information for every class.

Reception

''The Red Solstice'' received mixed reviews on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. Britton Peele of ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' said that bugs and a poor tutorial make ''The Red Solstice'' difficult to get into, but it is rewarding if people stick with it and have friends interested in playing it with them.

Sequel

A sequel, '' Red Solstice 2: Survivors'', was released on 17 June 2021 on Windows.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Red Solstice, The 2014 video games Survival video games Strategy video games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in Croatia Windows-only games Windows games Early access video games Top-down video games Tactical shooters