Redline

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Review: Redline

Redline's narrative thrusts you into the year 2066: Society has split into two factions, the Insiders and the Outsiders. Gangs rage. Anyone named Max is Mad. You get the drift. The Insiders live in protected cities and amuse themselves by watching staged combat. The Outsiders are gangs constantly at war with one another, and take part in these gladiator-like battles.

You play as an Outsider hoping to advance through the ranks of your gang in 12 tough missions that have you screeching around in an armed car, firing missiles and slugs at enemies on foot and in equally dangerous cars. You can also hop out of the car and do some killing in a more traditional first-person shooter manner. Indeed, you'll spend a lot of time playing the game this way, as the missions demand that you accomplish some of your goals on foot.

You can choose between a first- or third-person perspective in driving Redline's dozen or so unique vehicles. The driving controls are good, although the game doesn't model physics realistically. You can powerslide and do a quick 180--an essential move for when you want to get enemies off your "six." You'll also need to memorize a variety of keyboard commands for behind-the-wheel gameplay, though you can remap these to your liking. The on-foot mode plays like a traditional shooter.

A graphic downside of Redline is that the cars don't model collision and damage dynamically, but instead use damage textures and smoke to imply it. Explosions are colorful but generic: once you've seen two or three, you've seen them all. The textures are unexciting and probably the weakest aspect of the engine, and the cut-scenes are subpar as well.

Despite these shortcomings, the graphics engine is nice. It's not up to Unreal standards, perhaps, but it plays smoothly even when a lot of mayhem is breaking loose onscreen. I noticed some clipping problems, but these weren't severe. Redline's missions are interesting, albeit very difficult: gameplay can be a bit frustrating, but the game allows you to save whenever you want. You'll run the gamut from "kill everything" missions to others with more complex goals, such as one where you have to destroy an airplane before it takes off. The multiplayer deathmatches is where the game shines. It plays well over the Internet, is available on the Heat and Mplayer networks, and includes GameSpy support.

Redline definitely scores points for its fresh approach, but it never quite sold me on the atmosphere it was trying for. The levels, while inventive, didn't convince me that I was in the middle of an apocalyptic future. There are better car-combat games available (I-76 comes to mind), and certainly better FPSes. Perhaps Redline just needs to pick one door and forget about the rest. After all, even hermaphrodites eventually have to choose.-- Mark Asher / GamePro