The Red Solstice (PC)

In the tactical survival game The Red Solstice, players fight their way through a futuristic setting on the planet Mars. After an epidemic wiped out large swathes of humanity, the survivors sought refuge on the Red Planet, where they would attempt to build a new home for themselves. The task of terraforming the barren, ruddy soil is made even more difficult by the constant storms that rage across the planet's surface, and the most recent one has been dubbed "The Red Solstice". The harsh nature of life on Mars leads to constant territorial clashes, and contact with infected individuals is an ever-present danger.

As a member of the special units "Black Flight" and "Night Fighter", the player is sent to make contact with the colony of Tharsis and suppress the violence there, among other objectives. The single-player campaign features ten missions in all, which must be completed in order. Between the missions are short cut scenes that help to advance the story, gradually allowing you to get a sense of the big picture. Also, once you unlock these scenes, you can select them from the menu at any time to watch them again.

Gameplay

To keep everything in perspective during a mission, blue arrows on the ground let you know the way to the next mission objective, not only showing you the direction but also the exact distance in meters. Your current objective is also displayed on the left side of the screen. Since you often have to travel to several different locations in a single mission, there are teleporter stations available to transport your squad to more remote chambers.

If you end up having to fight off lots of different enemies at once and you're in danger of being overrun, you can press E to activate an Auto-Attack Mode that allows him to defend himself. This does, however, slow things down significantly, which makes it useful only as a temporary solution. In more difficult situations, you're not going to be able to make it without some solid tactical skills, even when you do use auto-attack. And then there's the fact that using Auto-Attack too often takes away from the game's actual appeal, since it pretty much leaves you with nothing to do.

Your character is equipped with a primary as well as a secondary weapon, and you can switch back and forth between them. Your current weapon, along with the amount of ammo you have left, is displayed at the bottom of the screen, right next to your health bar. Down here is where you can also select your hero's special attacks and abilities – from hand grenades to a very useful sprint feature.

In dicier situations there's also a "Tactical Mode" which allows you to overcome a wide variety of challenges and maintain the upper hand in combat. Not only does it slow down the action by about 90%, allowing you to make your tactical decisions in relative peace; it also allows you to control the other members of your squad and move them around the map. This lets you directly attack oncoming enemies and drive them off. As soon as you activate Tactical Mode, another window opens up with all the orders you can give the individual soldiers.

In the course of each level you'll collect "Energy Points", which you can use to unlock various skills and upgrades that can be life-saving in intense combat situations. One thing that's especially important here is the ability to produce morphine supplies that you can use to heal your soldiers. This does take time, however, so you should carefully consider when to use your Energy Points so that you'll have enough reserves when you need them.

If you decide to play a round of multiplayer, you might find that it's a huge challenge to make any headway, especially if you're new to the genre. If you want to end up as anything other than cannon fodder, it's going to take some well honed tactical skills and thinking. This means that if you don't have much experience with this kind of game, you should spend some time playing the single player missions to get used to the genre.

Graphics

Sound