[Review] Redout: Space Assault - Nintendo Switch

Developed and Published By:  34BigThings
Categories: Rail Shooter, Space Shooter
Release Date: 01.22.21

Imagine Stat Fox. Now just have the space levels, make it western, change the mercenaries to security security, and then remove the furries. That’s Redout: Space Assault.

Perhaps it is cheating as it is all in space, but RSA is a beautiful game. The ships you pilot and the ones you shoot at all look fantastic. On top of that, the game runs particularly well. It’s always a treat when a game on Switch manages to do both, but here we are. If you feel like it, you can even make the ship your color or style of choice.

That’s all great, but doesn’t mean a thing if it isn’t a fun game. Good thing it is. For the most part you’re going to be playing a rail shooter. You shoot automatically, but until you upgrade your guns, your main method of making explosions is your missiles. They’re slower, but they’re powerful and lock on to multiple targets at a time.

You play defensively too, with your typical dodges and rolls as well as your shield, which works something like the HHalo games. It’ll regenerate if you don’t get hit after a while, but you’re pretty defenseless without it.

The game perhaps starts a bit slow, which it’s first chapter being essentially an extended tutorial, but the game is smooth sailing after you beat the first boss. The game lets you just play and do the story, but it’s in your best interest to do the missions each stage has. Not only is it decent replay value, but the reward of lots of currency should incentivise players even more. Currency is used to upgrade your ship.

Upgrading your guns and missiles is a good thing to start out with, but your shields could definitely use it for the boss fights. In typical shooter style, the bosses are big and shoot more than you do. If you upgrade everything organically, you should be more than prepared for what the game hands you. And if you want to just blast through it, the game allows you to grind anyway. That aside, the game has infinite respawns so the only thing you’d miss out if you play less than stellar is a mission. I appreciate this as to not roadblock players as long as they have the drive to keep pushing on.

The music is stellar. It is good enough when in calm areas, but the moment you get into any chaos or high speeds, it ramps right up and gets incredibly hyped up and exciting. It almost makes you feel like a badass in an action film. I’m so used to space games pushing for this big atmosphere, it’s refreshing to just have something feel gamey.

If I had one flaw, it’d be that at times, the camera can be at odds with you, especially in high speeds. It’ll change angles and it’s zoomed in a bit so you’ll miss out on a collectable, or heaven forbid an attack. This isn’t too consistent however, so it’s not something that plagues the game.

Look good, sounds good, plays well. What more could I ask for?