Lizardjam

It honestly hasn't been that long since I reviewed the original Red Colony, and with my time with it fresh in my head I can tell you now that game is an improvement in EVERY aspect. This time around you play a mother trying to rescue her lost daughter after returning from a secret mission forced upon her by the Mars government. Spoiler for the first game: you basically caused the desruction of the entire Red Colony. After cleaning up loose ends at the end of her mission, the main character Nicole returns to the Blue Colony only to be attacked and knocked unconcious. After awakening she finds that the Blue Colony is now under attack by the exact same zombie creatures and dinosaurs that destroyed the Red Colony. I'll stop there for the story, because I find it one of the most improved aspects of this game compared to the original. Nicole, as a character, goes through a dark and warranted growth which I found to be greatly entertaining. Don't get me wrong, this story is pure, distilled B movie horror at it's finiest so it may not be for everyone. I, however, would have went to see this in a theatre multiple times. All of this, combined with the multiple ending (I've found 3 so far) add up to a story that I'll come back to every once in a while. In the gameplay department Red Colony 2 plays almost idential to its predicessor, except for the one HUGE change that, to me, is the number one greatest improvement. There is no longer a knife! Every weapon in this game is restricted to a very limited supply of ammunition, and in the case of the melee weapon (Baseball Bats) a limited number of hits before it breaks. This one thing cements this game as a TRUE survival horror. In Red Colony 1 I equipped the knife and was able to take down any enemy fairly easily; I almost never used a gun. This honestly took away any felling of fear when facing the zombie hordes, but with the small amount of rescources given to you in Red Colony 2 every encounter is a make or break. It's important to try and sneak past enemies (and in some cases absolutely necessary) otherwise you'll end up with no way of fighting back when you need to. The puzzle system is also improved. You'll still be looking through data entries for number codes, but the devs have also hidden special locker codes in the environment itself and some of these are very well thought out. Other than those there are also now four letter word locks on certain cache bags needed to unlock WristGear upgrades and crafting materials. I also have to give a shoutout to the level design. The Red District is treated as a "hub world" with different parts of the colony branching off in different areas. The paths that you need to take always circle back around and connect to the hub making every part of the colony's infrastructure feel like a true city complex. Graphically, this game is over sexualized in a borderline offensive way, but considering the inspirations it's an understandable parody. The main character's walk and run animation is unnatural and reminds me of paper dolls, but overall the general character design is good. All the environments are well done and set up a creppy, desolate atmosphere that fits well. There are also a few comic-strip-like cutscenes that have a cool, styleized asthetic and are used in places where the actions wouldn't necessarily fit the character movements. In the end Red Colony 2 is an entertaining Indie Survival Horror that I found quite enjoyable. Yes, there are aspects of this game some people will be turned off by but if you're willing to give it a try you might enjoy it for what it is.

I need to say this up front, when I first learned about Alien Scumbags I was convinced it was going to be a super-fast paced gore fest that needed twitch reactions to blast through all the aliens at top speed. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that, even though this may be doable on lower difficulties, this game is more of a methodical 2D platform shooter akin to the greats of the past like Duke Nukem (2D), Jazz Jackrabbit, and Commander Keen. If you try to go in guns blazing, even on the next difficulty up from the lowest, you’re going to die…quick. You are Master Chef, cook extraordinaire with a penchant for violence and saving humanity! Your goal is simple; kill the alien scumbags that have taken over your colony ship and “Make Space Great Again”. All jokes aside, basically just kill anything you come across and try to progress deeper into the ship. Along the way you will pick up collectables that will unlock other characters to use, extended weapon ammo, and boost your score. There’s something very satisfying about the gameplay in Alien Scumbags. Each shot feels ‘meaty’ and powerful and the Master Chef’s constant one liner’s gave me a big sense of nostalgia for the older games mentioned earlier. In general the platforming is handled well and overall gunplay works great. Speaking of which the selection of available weapons is refreshing, and the Sawblade gun in particular made me giggle a few times at how ridiculous it was. The only hit I have to give it in this department is that ladders feel a bit floaty, especially combined with the sprint. Definitely not game breaking, just an observation. Graphically the characters, enemies, weapons effects, and environments are done extremely well and are super polished. This is the kind of pixel art work that I would love to have a diorama of in my personal collection! A few outstanding mentions have to go to the creepy doll factory’s background, the blue boomers, and the pools of acid scattered around. In the audio department I was very surprised that the game’s story scenes were completely voice acted, and each actor does a great job bringing the characters to life. The ambient music fits well and helps re-enforce the creep factor and stressful situations. All in all, Alien Scumbags was a very fun experience that I would recommend to anyone that enjoys a good 2D platform shooter. If you’re easily offended by vulgarities or demonic gore, maybe this is not the one for you. Also once you’re done ( it is fairly short ) be sure to check back regularly. By the time this review is published, the new Scumbros mode should be available to play and more content is on the way!