In the end, Heavy Fire: Red Shadow definitely harkens back to a time period where point/shoot had a different meaning in an arcade experience than it does now. The game maintains a nostalgic design, which certainly makes sense for the experience, but the experience’s longevity will be questioned depending on player expectations. This goes back to what you understand about a game’s intentions. If you know going into it that you’re going to get an arcade shooter, then you may not be disappointed. If you’re expecting a deeper experience than just point/shoot, then you may not find it here.
A good part of reviewing games is understanding the intentions of the game when it is being made. It’s a complicated element to reviewing, one that is easily overlooked when you’re not actively searching for it, but an important element nonetheless. Take Heavy Fire: Red Shadow, for instance, it’s a game that is simple in design and doesn’t bring much in terms of creativity to the table, but it has a heavy amount of arcade shooting to it, which can be missed if you’re not familiar with what an arcade shooter might be.
When I say ‘arcade shooter’, I’m not talking about Galaga or 1942, rather I’m referring to back in the day when Lethal Enforcer, Area 51, and Revolution X ruled the roost. Hell, if you want a really early example of an arcade shooter, take a look at Crossbow from 1983. Pure 80s/90s mentality where you simply point and shoot into an environment. That is what Heavy Fire: Red Shadow is by design, and that doesn’t make it necessarily great or necessarily bad, which is where my feelings lie for the game.
Let’s get right into this, shall we?
First things first, if you own a PSVR, then go that route with HF. It’s the best way to experience the game, and it makes complete sense when it comes to immersing one’s self into the gameplay. So, take all those wires, hook ‘em up, and get going with this game, if you own it.
As for the actual gameplay, Heavy Fire: Red Shadow’s design is simple. You sit behind a machine gun and you just take out oncoming waves of enemies. The enemies start off light, then slowly the game throws vehicles, more enemies, and other interesting items of warfare at you. Enemies come from side entry points, as well as obvious entry points in front of you. You have to constantly be on alert for enemies because they tend to slip in and out of your sight.
The game progresses after you complete a certain amount of waves. Once you complete one place, such as a beach, you move onto another, such as a city. During play progression, you get different waves of enemies and different challenges, but ultimately it’s very basic gameplay, very by the book arcade shooting, and nothing particularly special in terms of changing scenarios (you know, outside of actually changing visual scenarios). I do understand that you do get different environments, but honestly, it’s just very bland because the enemies tend to repeat wave after wave. Of course, that’s something you would find in 80s/90s arcade shooter experiences, lots of repetition, but expectations should be raised just slightly for this day and age.
On the player’s side of the tracks, the game does try to bring in some power-ups to help shake the gameplay up a bit. As you are mowing down enemies, vehicles, and whatnot, you slowly gain a level of access to care packages (health/supplies), troops, airstrikes and such. When you call those in it does add a touch of strategy to the gameplay, which makes it just slightly deeper, but not by much. I like that Mastiff added this element of gameplay design, as it will certainly motivate players to keep going and think about their care package delivery timing a bit strategically. It won’t lift up the gameplay to a different level, but it will slightly elevate it.
As you go from wave to wave, eventually you will unlock more levels, which offer up more challenges. That’s also another motivator in the game. Is it enough to keep playing? I personally think so, but I like seeing how another level acts/reacts before judging it. I’m a huge fan of seeing everything I can before games hit a wall. That motivation to see other places kept me going with it. Will it keep people engaged during their play session? Younger gamers (not in their 40s) will certainly want more out of it than just unlocking levels. It’s going to be a hard sell to those who have played the likes of actual FPS games or FPS games in PSVR.
In the end, Heavy Fire: Red Shadow definitely harkens back to a time period where point/shoot had a different meaning in an arcade experience than it does now. The game maintains a nostalgic design, which certainly makes sense for the experience, but the experience’s longevity will be questioned depending on player expectations. This goes back to what you understand about a game’s intentions. If you know going into it that you’re going to get an arcade shooter, then you may not be disappointed. If you’re expecting a deeper experience than just point/shoot, then you may not find it here.
