[REDACTED]

With great enemies to battle, unique elements that shake up the formula, and some of the genre's best-ever gameplay/customization, [REDACTED] is a must-play for enthusiasts and casual players looking for a great time.

[REDACTED] is an excellent Hades-inspired roguelite that wants to introduce new elements to stand out from the crowd and ends up getting in the way of itself. Forget the race for freedom against rivals, and you'll have an excellent dungeon crawler right on your hands with a whole bunch of weapons and uniforms to unlock in order to tear apart zombies, monsters, and bosses in increasingly brutal ways. Try to rely on confrontations with other fugitives, and you will be disappointed. The gameplay formula is still relatively fresh, the art design and excellent, so let's jump into this new ordeal without caring too much about originality.

Redacted makes no apology, yet somehow escapes from the shadow of its inspiration. [Issue#404, p.116]

Redacted may borrow heavily from Hades, but it has enough of its own personality to stand out in an increasingly crowded genre.

Overall, [REDACTED] is a strong addition to the roguelike genre. The mechanics are fun, the game's unique features help spruce things up considerably, and the core gameplay loop is extremely satisfying. However, it does lack some variety, and the actual setting lacks a unique flair. While that does not ruin the experience, it may hold it back for some. But if players are looking for another title to spend hours on, this game may be for them.

Outside of its setting and enemies [Redacted] doesn’t have much to do with its big brother The Callisto Protocol. It stands on its merits as a very solid Roguelite Twin-Stick Shooter that was inspired by some of the greats of the genre. The rivals let it stand out of the crowd of very similar games to some degree. While the shooting feels great and has some punch the melee system is not satisfying and often seems more like a liability than an asset.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and it's hardly uncommon in the video game industry. Nonetheless, it's difficult to recommend Redacted when both Hades and its sequel exist and do almost everything it's attempting to do with much more aplomb. The Rivals system is a compelling breath of fresh air for the genre, and its combat is engaging--even if parts of it are severely lacking. There's a good game here, somewhere in the middle, once you're past the lackluster opening and monotonous ending. Redacted doesn't really expand on The Callisto Protocol universe, but I'm glad it exists. For as flawed as both games are, I still haven't lost interest in seeing more stories from this world, and I hope Striking Distance has a chance to tell them. Redacted just falls short a few too many times.

This game is pretty genius and it really is no doubt one of the best rogue games at this point. The design is unique and stylish, combat is fast and varied and it has some really funny interesting characters. I could say that this game exceeds Hades on certain aspects and it is great that you are always racing again the games NPCs. Literally the only reason I am not giving this game a 10 is because the progression is kinda slow and it can take you quite a lot of time especially if you want to 100% this game. Other than that imo this is the only top town rogue game that can truly compete head to head with both the Hades games.

(I just missclicked the review score - but i have never played this game. Sorry.)

It's fun, but just okay. I completed one run one time and never felt the urge to try for more completions. Hades kept you going, but this game doesn't do as good of a job of making you want to keep figuring out what's going on with the story. The time limit thing is kinda stressful and annoying too. You get used to it, but I bet that will turn many off.

It's an okay roguelike... It does try to do new things, but they barely influence the game and don't meaningfully alter runs. The game is just really really grindy. The rooms are alright, but the bosses, especially the second boss seem badly designed, getting damaged is pretty much a guarantee, because the game throws so much stuff at you. Acquiring updates takes so long, and you have to upgrade the upgrades for them to actually help out. The weapons all feel cool to use and the melee weapons actually change how you engage with enemies, although I almost never used the charge attack, because it takes way too long to charge. Enemy variety is nice at first, but the game really wants you to play it for hours and hours and it just gets tiring after a while. Didn't bother to finish the game, it's just too grindy and runs take far too long and they don't always end with the feeling that you achieved something. Unlocking a new suit, is not an interesting update.

Generally a mess, a clone of Hades but worse in every way. I do not understand the overall high score for this game. The combat is clunky and slow and the enemies are super spongy. Luckily there is an option to disable dialogue audio as the game tends to insult you every time you die.