When I open up a game to play on Steam, I have a habit of looking over the list of games recommended to me first before I play. Sometimes a game will be added to my wishlist (in gog if possible), or if it's a free game, it might get added right there to the backlog list. This would be one of those times as the trailer simply looked awesome. The stars aligned, and when I got to play it, I can truly call this a hidden gem of a game.
Story: There is very little story to this game at all and even less told in the game itself. According to the Steam page, we are a virus infecting a computer system.
5/10
Graphics: White... white, clean and sterile. There are few games that personify this look quite like this game. You will play from a first person perspective with the world of this computer being represented by a white futuristic facility. There really isn't a lot I can say, but it looks nice and sleek... a nice looking game all around
7/10
Sound: The nature of Red Trigger severely limits just how much you are going to hear from it. In fact you can probably count all the sound effects you will hear on a single hand with fingers to spare since most of the sounds are lasers, your own rifle, and maybe an impact or two with the piston-like structures you interact with. But that is not to say serious work was not done in this department. In fact, there is even a little bit of voice work before you reach the end credits that sounds very good!
But the real star (and what you will mainly hear) is the soundtrack this time around. Ranging from an ethereal airy sound to the techno-music the story wold suggest, they managed to hit a wide range within the short playing time a game of this length will allow. And while it won't be anything you come back to, it fits perfectly into the world as you play and can even get you into grove for it from time to time! Honestly, I am very impressed!
8/10
Gameplay: Red Trigger comes from the school of gaming where you base your game on a single mechanic and you shine that function to pristine levels... and this it does very well. In this case you are playing a first person game where your rifle is used to expand red cubes/rectangles when you shoot them, allowing you to use them to complete the puzzles of each room to reach the core of the computer you are looking to infect. You can have up to 3 of these expanded at any time, and the puzzles are incredibly varied and inventive, especially for the length of it (it took me a little over an hour to finish).
However, I am not going to claim everything is perfect, as you will find your favorite rooms based on your taste. For me, I enjoyed most of them, but found the "laser" room my downpoint, but even that I have to give credit was a solid puzzle that was well honed and ironed down to damn near perfection in it's execution.
But at the same time, the design around the game and not within it is where the game shows some weakness. When you open up you are given a very rudimentary menu which just feels unprofessional with a generic font over 3D buttons already looking slightly off, but of the four options, you do not have a load game or continue, but you start right away with a fully functional level select option. This suggests it was an alternative to saving your place. Although that is not big issue, nor is it all that surprising when you realize this was a college final... and that just makes the whole thing that much more impressive!
9/10
Bugs: While I could not say the game had any serious bugs, the menu system itself was as close as we get. For whatever reason, you have to click to select the menu BEFORE a click will select a button on it. But literally that is the only tech issue I can give this game.
Overall: While Red Trigger shows itself to be "home made" in some details and is one of the shorter games you will play, it is a great experience while it lasts and still feels complete when you finish it. If I had paid a few buck for this I would have been satisfied. As a free game? Why have you NOT played it yet?
Score:
8/10
System Requirements:
- CPU running at 2 Ghz or faster
- 4 GB RAM
- NVIDIA 8000 series or better
- 1 GB hard drive space
- Windows 7/8/10
- Ryzen 7 (2700) 3.2 Ghz
- 16 GB RAM
- Nvidia Geforce 1660 (6GB VRAM)
- Windows 10 (64 Bit)
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