Redo! sneaks into the dusty tunnels of early access
Digi-redo
Ever since playing an early prototype, I've been looking forward to today's launch of Redo!. It's an aggressively bleak metroidvania about a lone woman attempting to survive and maybe even find another human after an apocalyptic robot rebellion. Combat is panicky, weapons feel insufficient, and the machines themselves are strange, twisted and exceptionally deadly. The early access launch is effectively complete, with solo developer Robson Paiva only planning on adding a hard mode and tuning balance between now and launch. See it in motion in the trailer below.
There's a bit of Dark Souls inspiration in Redo! and it's slow, dodge-roll heavy combat, but the game wears its greatest inspiration on its sleeve - the manga/anime series Blame! and other works by Tsutomu Nihei. The game shares that same brand of empty, lonely cyberpunk hell - a world now hostile to humanity. The biomechanical enemies are an interesting mix of completely non-animal shapes and twisted humanoids, and their attacks seem stilted and dispassionate, though still deadly. Death comes quickly and abruptly - no death animation here, just a silent, unnerving cut to a black screen and a return to your last checkpoint.
In a bit of a Souls role-reversal, the enemies are the ones with stamina bars here, and if a robot runs out of juice, it's temporarily stunned, weakened and will drop health if killed. It makes for an interesting dynamic - baiting attacks until your enemy is tired out, then getting in a few good swings. In classic Metroidvania fashion, you'll soon find a second weapon - a stun pistol with short range and limited ammo. It doubles as a tool to open some electrical doors, but also drains stamina from machines, letting you be more aggressive in your approach.
I'm still exploring the opening areas and feeling my way around, but I'm looking forward to digging deeper and into this dark, quiet little adventure. I've got a sneaking feeling that I'm not going to be finding anyone left alive in this world. It also has me hungry for the upcoming Radio The Universe, which is apparently one of Redo!'s other inspirations. Give me more dilapidated robot nightmare worlds, please. It's entirely my jam.
Redo! is out now in early access for £7.19/€8.19/$9.99 on Steam and Itch. There's no plan to increase price after launch, so consider this a 'soft' launch with some tweaks yet to come.