JASON MAHONY Can't get enough super sugar crisp...Unless I get to punch in on some video punks!! Contact author

The Red Star Video Game Walkthrough Guide for PS2  is coming to WDS!!
 
Release Date:04/20/2007
ESRB Rating: Teen
Genre: Action
Publisher: XS Games
Developer: Acclaim

Where The Red Star is best is in its combat system, which brilliantly blends melee attacks, shooting, and blocking defenses. Theres an almost poetic beauty with the mastery of these, as you unconsciously perform incredible attacks by switching between and blending the three. Like in God of War or Devil May Cry, everything feels rewarding. The game regularly switches perspectives, requiring you to often switch up your tactics. Bosses, for example, are almost always so substantial in size that they require serious firepower to take them out  but the game may throw melee or blocking challenges at you simultaneously. Speaking of the bosses, theyre some of the most impressive and inventive seen on the PS2 in quite some time; several are clearly inspired by those of previous Treasure games.

Despite its age, The Red Stars visuals are surprisingly in line what youd expect from a latergeneration PS2 game; it represents the comic books industrial Russian universe well. For those unaware, The Red Star is based on the Christian Gossett graphic novel of the same name (hes known for having worked at LucasFilm  he came up with the doubleedged lightsaber that Darth Maul used  and on the Bruce Willis PS1 game Apocalypse). It takes place in the United Republics of the Red Star (U.R.R.S.), a sort of neoRussia where sorcery and industrial technology coexist. You take control of three characters  Makita, Maya, Kyuzo  and attempt to take out Troika, who has the country under his control.

The three playable characters gameplay differs greatly, which offers a lot of replay value (a second player can even join in on the fun and control one of them). Its not enough to solve the games problem of repetitiveness, though. Perhaps as a preemptive measure to satisfy those who criticize similar games for being too short, The Red Star feels artificially lengthened at times. Coupled with a lack of midlevel checkpoints, the game at times becomes a chore as you fight the same enemies over and over while you formulate strategies for defeating bosses at the end of the level. Perhaps a throwback to the games of yesterday, the lack of checkpoints unfortunately detracts from the overall fun.