Played on a PC
Fire Face Studio set out to create an isometric twin stick shooter that focuses on environmental physics, and hopes that the loop would entice players of replaying missions to uncover its secrets and compete against high scores – taking thematic approaches from games such as Portal, it ends up falling incredibly short in trying to reach new heights in this tried-and-true genre.
Megacorps Wanna Kill You
Radio Viscera starts the player with a faceless, nameless worker for an industrial compound that spreads pandemonium across the world, forcing people to kill themselves. Your character rebels against the cult leader and soon after chaos ensues. Each chapter starts in a flashy title screen before launching the player through walls to embark on survival. It’s intentional in being weird and it never quite gripped me. The dialogue between each adversary tries to be witty, but often falls flat in monotony. And this sort of pacing carries throughout the game.
Twin Sticks with No Sticks
For the most part, Radio Viscera is a relatively pleasing looking game; its cartoonish design really brightens the alien-like world Fire Face created, and it is nice to see physics particle fly all over the place by your air gun.
Speaking of air gun, throughout your journey that is your sole weapon, entirely. The premise is to use the environment against the cultist followers, and to also solve minor puzzles; there are some creative ways to finish enemies off, which were fun the first couple hours, but became incredibly uninspired for the rest of the playthrough. However, the act of shooting cultist through walls and machine traps is a treat and I just wish more time were spent on the scope of the game. Ultimately, it feels rushed.
Unfortunately, there were no upgrades that would improve my time with Radio Viscera – even if Fire Face were to put Dashing or Blocking, it would not help its slow paced mechanics. Even its generous aim assist suffered from improper aiming, causing me to lose life unnecessarily. Not to mention, having the game crash on me more times than I’d like to admit – even with the most recent fix. Often than not, the camera would work against me, blocking my view with foreground structures and clipping me through maps or walls, requiring me to restart the game entirely.
Level designs were overused very quickly too, from the start of the game you see this lush, alien-like environment only to be put into this grey-scaled, plain industrial location for the remainder of the game. This felt backwards to me and I had hoped for more variety.
Final Thoughts
Fire Face Studio’s experimented on environmental physics and destruction through the twin sticks shooting genre, and I admire the attempt – but with its buggy application, uninspired story, lore and level design topped with lackluster gameplay mechanics, it’s hard to enjoy Radio Viscera.
REVIEW 3.5/10
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