Apocalyptic games are not new. Year after year, at least one title gives way to the cultural stream of representing the end of the world in one way or another, be it cannibalistic monsters, wars or catastrophes. RAD, a new game produced by Tim Schaffer's Double Fine and published by Bandai Namco, uses the same concept, adding what any nostalgic youngster loves: a cool-looking eighties aesthetic.
Pink, neon, more angular shapes, stripped clothes, whimsical accessories and this Americanization, Stranger Things brings to life the RAD aesthetic, subtly mocked. Post-apocalyptic isn't pretentious, it's cool, and it's just a decoration to spice up and mask some of the game's more latent issues.
After two apocalypse in a row, humanity has almost no more legs to follow a civilized course. The forests have turned into radioactive swamps, the air is essentially toxic, and mutant creatures are taking over what the characters called their home. Prophesied by the ancients, the end of the world (which was twofold) no longer holds any surprises for those who dare to escape the safety of their colonies and their camps.
The protagonists, who can be many (all aesthetic stereotypes derived from the 1980s), have a mission: to challenge the radioactive world in search of reserves and energy so that the rest of civilization does not collapse. Underground tunnels were built in hopes of escaping the radiation, connecting various parts of the maps and hiding the secrets of the ancients who prophesied the apocalypses.
A narrator briefly recounts the events leading up to the game, describing in detail what some places were like before nuclear war, who the Elders are, where they come from, and what technologies were involved in the process. The story and all its narrative development are hampered by the simple entertainment factor, a totally unpretentious experience when we talk about intrigue, still in accordance with the very idea of the eighty years, without a great ambition to build a distant world or simply memorable.
RAD is a top-down view whose maps are randomly generated. The protagonists are the stereotypical incorporation of several companies of this decade: the nerd, the shy and simple girl, the punk, the stalker, etc. In normal gameplay, the characters are purely aesthetic, armed with a baseball bat and little else. According to the roguelike philosophy, there is no checkpoint: each death leads to the loss of all powers and items collected during the game, with the exception of the character himself.
When the player dies, an experiment bar is filled based on the number of enemies killed and the achievements achieved during that part. This results in new unlockable features in the main area of the game, which helps the player in their future performances. The RAD fight is simple and easy to understand, but don't think of it as a walk in the park. The protagonists have reduced mobility and can execute basic commands such as attacking (with the baseball bat), jumping, deflecting and performing special attack movements. By jumping and pressing the attack button, for example, the character performs an air attack, effective against flying enemies. These combinations and combinations make the action more interesting and give you more resources to react to multiple enemies trying to kill you at the same time.
RAD coins are cassettes that are used to buy single-use items (for life, increase your radiation level, etc.) and deposit them in a kind of bank located in the main area, thus avoiding the loss of money. money if the player dies. Floppy disks function as mini-keys that open hidden network lines around the world, containing various bonuses, items, etc. However, the biggest difference from RAD is mutations.
Mutations are the level of the player, acting as an enhancement to the character and changing their appearance. At the top of the screen, a bar fills up when you kill bosses and enemies. Once this is complete, the character undergoes a genetic mutation, changing a part of his body. An extra arm, giant spider legs, and a flaming skull are just a few examples of how RAD transforms the game. The mutations add up and turn the player into a complete (powerful) aberration, much like The Binding of Isaac. However, mutations can get quite repetitive and deprive you of this exciting new sensation as you fill in the bar to determine your character's atomic misfortune.
There are mutations that work as passive abilities, granting a type of immunity to the protagonist. Resistance to electricity, fire and acid, for example, can be found in underground tunnels throughout the match. Unfortunately, these skills are not as encouraging as giving birth to a third arm with your own abdominal life.
RAD does not bring anything new and does not try to reinvent a genre that has become so popular in recent years. Like a rogue with the Double Fine quality seal, the game seduces with its nostalgic aesthetic, its soundtrack and its funny fight by combining different mutations to eliminate the similarity we are used to. Even with little mutation variation and map navigation that can become quite a boring task over time, RAD doesn't need to do much more to be a solid experience.
It's the kind of game that will save you time on a trip, a kick on the bus, or during a consultation, making the Nintendo Switch the perfect platform to get the best of it. from your experience
The analysis was performed on the PC version kindly provided by the distributor.