The Red Star

I just tried this PS2 action shooter and it is bloody hard!

The gameplay is third person perspective from a mainly side on 3D view and the action is a combination of beat em up and shoot em up.

It combines sections of walking around killing enemies by using guns and melee attacks, and then coming to areas where huge aggressors attack you. In these moments the screen becomes fixed and the aggressor's attacks are in set patterns much like a traditional space shooter, but with you walking around the screen to avoid fire instead of flying.

The first of these aggressors I encountered had quite easy attack patterns, with a left hand arm coming forward which you had to shoot while avoiding fire, a right hand arm which fired homing bombs at you so you needed to shoot the bombs and the arm, a central section that fired patterns of fire at you while you tried to shoot it, and a part where it turned around and fired 4 of the 5 thrusters at you (you had to notice which wasn't lit and quickly stand in line so you didn't get burned!).

But the second aggressor was much tougher and where I currently left the game for now. It has some attack patterns similar to the first, but adding this laser grid weapon that pointed a large grid of beams around the area and then they become hot so you had to try and stand between them, but it them added some enemy soldiers attacking you at the same time, which definitely made things harder. This second aggressor also had some more attack waves too.

The control system is fairly easy to grasp. Square is for melee attacks and circle for gun fire. Holding the R1 button locks onto a target and moving the loft analogue stick let or right while locked on and then using a melee attack executes a special move, which look cool and inflict much more damage.

Using the gun requires monitoring the heat meter, as in a mech sim, so that when the heat meter hits 100% the gun stops until it cools down, so you have to be strategic and patient when shooting.

In addition as you fight a second bar fills up under your health meter and once full you can use the triangle button to unleash a special move.

The final control is X which brings up a force shield around you. This is quite effective against melee attacks, but not as good against guns. The downside of the shield is that while it is up you cannot move, so you need to time it well. bring it up just before a melee attack and as soon as they finish drop it and counter.

All in all the control system is easy to get to grips with, but timing and position is definitely needed to be successful, and using the right attacks and shield combinations along with positioning and locking on to targets does take some doing in more heated moments.

The difficulty level is definitely quite high in this game so if you are only a passing shoot em up fan you might not like it as you won't get far on the first few attempts. But for fans of the genre I think you will really enjoy it.

I already burnt it to DVD a week ago, but it's on my to test list. I saw that the reviews were not so bad.

I just played it now, and I also like it. The character (the male one) I chose was a bit slow, but very powerful. I also beat the first boss, and I must add, that the boss fight was also well made. Unfortunately I died immediately after the fight, because I wasn't able to reach the medikit anymore, which was 2m away from me, aaarrgh. This one is a must try with cheats ON ;)

Yeah, definitely quite a high difficulty level. You have to see the second boss/aggressor. It makes the first one seem very easy. :lol:

I think that the first one is actually very easy. But when I finished it off, I didn't have a lot of health, and the 2 upcoming guys gave me the rest with their throwing boomerang like weapons. This is a hate, kill and destroy game.

That's the thing. The attack patterns of the first boss are quite easy and run in an obvious pattern, but I found the second time I played it I lost hardly any health as I knew the attack pattern and instead could concentrate on the gaps in the firing patterns to dodge the bullets.

As will all games of this type, without cheating the only way to progress is learning the waves and attack patterns. Those boomerang weapons are quite annoying because your shield doesn't protect you much against them.