Review for RAD. Game for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 20/08/2019
There's no point hiding behind a finger: the apocalypse is serious business. Especially if, after the first one ... a second one is needed, even worse! And this is essentially the narrative incipit of RAD, a heap of vaguely nonsense comedy framed by a damned XNUMX's aesthetic, which converges in a brilliant choice of colors, shapes and sounds that perfectly refer to the era.
Double Fine Productions, for a long time synonymous with quality and refinement, it approaches the action market with an isometric view with a title as bizarre as it is interesting: will they manage to establish themselves as a novelty?
RAD is an action game with an isometric view, with technical-mechanical characteristics not too dissimilar to the many Action-RPGs that exist on the market, such as Diablo or Path of Exile, and a strong roguelike component. In the game, set in a bizarre post-apocalyptic world that stopped in the culture of the 80s, we will play the role of a lone hero called to an onerous task: to reclaim the territories immediately near our camp, so that we can restore hope to a wasteland. But… there is a but [cit.]: The world of RAD, as it is easy to guess, is almost unlivable for a normal human being.
Therefore, before the beginning of our adventure, a dark mentor will make us "sensitive" to radiation, thus enabling us to survive.
The feature, as one might expect, will be a mere narrative "trick" to hide a brilliant reinterpretation of the canons of Ruoleschi applied by Double Fine: in the game, in fact, as we face enemies and accumulate experience points, we will get not levels but new genetic mutations that will not only change our character aesthetically, but will have a direct impact on his abilities in facing enemies.
The mutations will be both active, which will therefore allow us to unlock specific skills as well as changing the appearance of our character, and passive, which will give us extra statistics to better face the dangers of Fallow Land. The powers, as expected, will be totally random and in large numbers, making the replayability of RAD quite wide, also considering that the various stages will be procedurally created (even if, often, they will be substantially "mirror").
Of course, our hero will not only have the powers deriving from mutations available, but he will also be able to rely on a basic but adequate fleet of moves.: with us, we will have a trusty baseball bat, as well as the ability to use a button to jump and another to dodge with a very useful somersault. As mentioned, our task will be to restore the ecosystem of our desolate lands, through the activation of huge statues (vaguely reminiscent of the famous faces of Easter Island), which will revive the land and, at the same time, we they will indicate with a beam of light the "end" of the stage, which will almost always correspond with a boss or more final bosses. Each stage, at the same time, will present both a series of secondary characters, who will usually assign us rather simple missions, and some specific dungeons that will allow us to obtain greater rewards and unlock new vendors.
RAD is a tough, roguelike game (therefore, with death the vast majority of the progress made is lost), the difficulty of which is also heavily linked to luck: in general, all mutations will be quite useful, but some more than others. Basically, the game experience could sharpen significantly when we unlock a power "less useful" than others. Another headache will be given by some pseudo-platform sections of the game, which will often be quite difficult also due to the "unfavorable" positioning of the camera. And it is good to underline once again: in RAD death means game over and bye bye to what has been obtained and collected so far. The only drawback in almost perfect gameplay is the deafening lack of a cooperative mode, which would have made RAD an absolutely unmissable title.
From a more purely technical point of view, RAD is a sure feast for the eyes: the Eighty world will be well re-proposed with a wise choice of colors, a general aesthetic of monsters and captivating characters., together with a soundtrack that recalls the lines of some of the symbolic songs of the “cotonato” decade. Everything, then, will be seasoned as already explained with a nonsense humor that draws in particular from the nerd and pop culture of the time: here, for example, the coins in the game that can be spent by the various merchants will be simple music cassettes, while the Floppy Disk will become necessary keys to open chests and trunks of various kinds.
The only drawback in a world that is also extremely artistically inspired, will be the enemies, not particularly original and that, in some ways, we will struggle to distinguish by shapes and colors. From a technical point of view, RAD will be able to count on a sector that is certainly adequate even if not without defects: the playful experience itself runs smoothly and breaks down very few times (only partially in the most excited situations). Another thing to report will be the omnipresence of loading screens which, despite lasting on average a few seconds, will be in large numbers scattered around the map.
RAD is a great game, which reinterprets some basic concepts of action-rpg in an original and intelligent way, injecting them in a weird but artistically inspired way. A must-have for those who love the sector: the only serious flaw, the lack of a multiplayer mode.
► RAD is a scrolling-RPG-type fighting game published by Bandai Namco for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 20/08/2019
