Takedown: Red Sabre

[Teal]

I've read several really good hands-on previews, really positive, so we'll see.

[DChaps]

Wow, this game is really taking a beating, even by it's own KickStarter supporters in the games own forums.

http://uk.gamespot.com/takedown-red-sab ... w-6414979/

Takedown: Red Sabre is an unfinished, broken mess of a tactical shooter that offers not even one redemptive bright spot.
The Bad:
-Broken and incomplete
-Terrible enemy AI
-No squad options when it comes to engaging in tactical battles
-Buggy, limited multiplayer modes of play.

Takedown: Red Sabre should be taken down from the Steam servers where it is currently being sold for $14.99. This alleged tactical shooter from developer Serellan is unfinished and broken, with playability problems everywhere you look. Idiotic enemy AI, hilariously busted rag-doll animations, crippled multiplayer, absurd single-player difficulty, and some bugs make the game nearly impossible to play, let alone enjoy......

There is nothing in Takedown: Red Sabre that would encourage even the most middling sort of recommendation. Even the sound quality is awful. Weapon fire sounds as if it's coming from everywhere, making it impossible to locate enemies shooting at you by the sound, even when they're blazing away with something as loud as a combat shotgun. This is a game that should not have been released in its current state, and is certainly not one you should waste your time and money on.

Not an unexpected type of review from UK GameSpot, but the response in Takedown's own forums is discouraging.

http://www.serellan.com/forums/index.ph ... mespot-uk/

I was so ready to disregard this review like I do for most but Dam if it isn't spot on!

I'm sorry, but they summed up pretty much every issue players have been vocal about on the forums.

I would have said something about the review being written pre-patch...Except the patch they just released didn't address 90% of the issues brought up in the article.

Sorry guys...keep trying!

A score they totally deserved. Right now I wouldn't recommend this to even the most hardcore tactical shooter fan.

They're rating the game in its current state, it is as a result pretty accurate and it's their job to do so. On the opposite we, as customers, want to rate it for its potential, keeping in mind any incoming fixes and added features over time.

2/10 is exactly what this game deserves in its current state.

I have been quite supportive of this game, but the more the rose-tinted glasses fade, what I see is a very messy piece of disappointment.

The gamespot review is accurate. I doubt patches can save this game now.

And unfortunately it does not look any better on metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/takedown-red-sabre

Takedown: Red Sabre is a Kickstarter failure. How anyone could have used the gamers' money to create such a bad game (ugly, stupid, without tactical options and with boring maps), is beyond me. The game has one important good point - it uninstalls really quickly. It takes just a few seconds to delete this nightmare. My advice is this: stay away.

With boring level design, horrid AI and lousy visuals, Takedown: Red Sabre is a horrible game

This game is awful, broken, unfinished. The developers talked a really good talk about their vision to bring back the tactical shooter in an innovative way, and even talked a little trash at the likes of COD. Then they released something that no competent game developer could approve as a working finished product.

I have seen lots of bad games released, so it is no big deal, but the difference between what they said they intended to do and what they actually released is a bit surprising- this team is either very cynical or quite self-deluded about the quality of their product.

Let me just say that i was a serious backer. I knew the risks, but the vision seemed clear enough. Sadly the execution is a horrible uninspired mess. It can't even be saved since it lacks any real features that would even define this game as a tactical shooter. The AI is non-existent, really, wire-bots in CounterStrike 1.6 seemed more realistic, there is no real way to loadout and manage your team, and overall, i can't find anything to recommend this aside from maybe saying it looks 'nice'. The weapons feel like utter garbage and the only real mechanic they tried, sound detection isn't even working. One hit-dead is rare, mostly ending up soaking 4-5 bursts before dying and even so, without any injuries.

The game is a glorified tech demo that i wouldn't pay 1$ for. I have Android games that are better shooters as a whole than this. Just stay away, it won't get fixed, and don't let ANYONE trick you into buying it.

And this review is pretty harsh as well. Sounds like they really released this game too soon and are going to be paying the price in negative reviews because of it.

http://www.newgamenetwork.com/article/9 ... re-review/

If you're the sort of person who likes to keep up with gaming news then you're probably already expecting a sullen, spiteful sort of appraisal for Takedown: Red Sabre, but in a way I'm quite happy to play it. There's none of that wishy-washy mediocrity that prompts me to piddle around with non-committal phrases like 'well, it's one for the fans' or 'if you like big burly marines shooting at other big burly marines from the next county over, then you'll like this': it's just undeniably, unequivocally bad, to the point where it almost makes a refreshing change from the safe, stable sludge we usually allow onto our hard drives. Everybody should get out and review a game like this now and again; it's therapeutic or something.

Sorry, this is me getting ahead of myself here. Takedown (that is to say, Takedown: Red Sabre, but that nonsensical tacked-on sub-heading doesn't deserve more than a moment's mention) is the debut offering from the as of yet unheard-of developer Serellan LLC, taking the form of a tactical close-quarters first-person shooter that claims to be a spiritual successor to the SWAT and Rainbow Six series. Bear that in mind, because throughout the course of this review you'll probably realise that as far as insults go it's right up there with a plastic surgeon botching somebody's face job and claiming it to be the next step in cubism. Most depressing of all is the news that this product was Kickstarted to demonstrate that there's still a place in modern gaming for the hardcore tactical shooter. If anything, it has only served to drive investors further away from the prospect.
........At the end of this train wreck, the kindest thing you can say about Takedown is that it's an ambitious title that severely overestimated its budget, or its deadline, or possibly both. It's painful to watch, really, because the game does try to a certain extent to be something that isn’t run-of-the-mill. There's the framework for a good game here, and even the necessary vision, but a framework is all it is, with the few strips of meaty content hanging off its skeleton slowly rotting in their own filth. The fundamental controls and mechanics are fine and a couple of the maps from its scant selection are even quite nice, but the shameful lack of depth leaves an experience that's more empty and stale as a discarded milk carton. One day, perhaps after years of patches and updates, it could be a great game, but as it stands, Takedown is pathetically undernourished, laced with bugs to the point of unplayability and completely overshadowed by every other tactical shooter made since the invention of polygons.

[pk500]

Thanks, Don. Looks like you just saved me $15!

[Macca00]

I did read a similar impressions on the game's Steam forums. Any chance that the 360 version will be better (since it has to go through cert)?

[Pete1210]

I did read a similar impressions on the game's Steam forums. Any chance that the 360 version will be better (since it has to go through cert)?

With all those issues, not a chance.
I know I said this before, but if you are yearning for this type of game on 360, RB6-Vegas is free till the end of this month.

[Teal]

Well, that's a profound disappointment. It will eventually come to XBLA, and I'll still take it for a test drive, to see for myself, but I'm bummed about all the bad press. The videos sure looked good, and those game writers that played it and posted video seemed to enjoy themselves. Ah well.

Yeah, there's not a lot of hope that all of this gets fixed before console release, unless they just pull it down and give it another six months to a year. Too bad.

[DChaps]

In reading repsonses from the developers, they seem to be dedicated to fixing all the issues and dealing with the bad press head on. I just hate to see this happen to an independent team that had a passion to make a game that the big publishers would probably not touch. However, you still need to please your customer with a quality product if you expect them to shell out money. Granted it's only $15 and I have lost far more on worse games. Hopefully they get it worked out.

[Teal]

It's a shame that the big publishers will no longer take a chance on something like this; Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, and that kind of game have moved away from their roots and gone big budget, big boom...and lost much of the tactical edge in the process, becoming only slightly more tactical than COD or Battlefield. And by tactical, I mean "if I peek around this corner I'm gonna get my head shot off with one bullet".

I sincerely hope these guys DO tackle all of the issues head-on. If I see that they are committed to doing so, I might still purchase it just to give them a boost. I have read the board there, and there are a few people who are playing the game that have praise for it.

[pk500]

It's a shame that the big publishers will no longer take a chance on something like this; Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, and that kind of game have moved away from their roots and gone big budget, big boom...and lost much of the tactical edge in the process, becoming only slightly more tactical than COD or Battlefield. And by tactical, I mean "if I peek around this corner I'm gonna get my head shot off with one bullet".

Those Operation Flashpoint: Red River co-op games with you, Danimal and another DSPer were INSANE. So tense, so much fun.

[Teal]

Damn, Paul...now I'm gonna hafta go buy it AGAIN. lol

[Teal]

I have been quietly following this game on the Takedown/Serrelan forum since it was yanked from certification. They have spent the time putting all the fixes from the PC version, and the DLC, into the final XBLA game, and it's now in the arcade. I went on a wing and a prayer and bought it. I don't know how many of you still play on the 360, but for those that still do, that enjoy an old school, HARD, and tactical shooter a la the original GR and R6...this might just fit the bill nicely for you.

I actually really enjoy what they've done. Much of what was complained about has been addressed, and it really does wind up feeling like the original R6. I've gotten in with a couple of teams of randoms in missions (six person teams) that weren't knuckleheads, communicated, and played tactically, and it was a blast. I've STILL yet to complete a single mission, however. The AI is quick, accurate, and deadly, and if you peek your head around a corner, you'd better be ready to fire in an instant, because the other guy won't hesitate. On more than one occasion, the entire team was wiped out due to no one checking our six, and one bad guy coming in behind us and taking us all out in seconds. It's incredibly tense, because the enemy will talk to one another, and will actually flank and team up themselves. You hear footsteps, hear chatter, and will kill your own teammates fairly quickly if they don't communicate properly when coming in from another location.

I've spent some time in co-op missions, and done some deathmatch stuff, which is still intense, because one shot can kill. There is no music or any of that in-game, just ambient noise, footsteps, chatter, and gunfire...which keeps things intense as well. The enemies seem to be randomly placed, so no two missions play out quite the same.

There are six maps out of the gate. You can play single player, but really your teammate AI is not that bright, and honestly just winds up getting in the way. I can't imagine actually completing a mission in a single player scenario, although I've gotten 2/3 of the objectives in one map alone...once. Teammate AI is just not as good as another human.

It's old school, and it's damn hard. And I dig it. It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, and you've seen prettier games from bigger studios, but the graphics are plenty good enough. I'd recommend playing a trial, to see if it's for you, honestly. Years of being conditioned OUT of purely tactical games with this amount of difficulty and into regenerating health, big storylines, bombastic set pieces, and all that might make this one a bit...jarring. But the more I play it, the more I like it. There are some pretty gnarly finger olympics going on, due to a set control scheme, but I'm learning to deal with that in order to play a type of game that I've sorely missed for a long time.

Lemme know if you decide to give it a whirl. I haven't really played much of anything in over a month, relegating my console to the whims of Disney Infinity and 3 more than eager kiddos, but this one has me playing again.

[JOZ]

This peaked my interest as soon as you guys mentioned the original Rainbow 6, which was one of the 3 games I have probably put the most time in online (Diablo and Battlefield BC2 being the others).

You mentioned it is very difficult, but does it border on "cheat" difficult? Meaning as soon as you peak your head around the corner, they hit you everytime. Just not sure it is. Would love to hear more about the single player as I am not sure the multiplayer will have enough players for an extended period of time to warrant a purchase.

But if this does get a nice loyal following as Battlefield BC 2 has and it is remotely like the experience I had playing the original R6, I will be a happy gamer.

[Teal]

No, it isn't 'cheat' difficult. I can sneak up near an enemy if I take my time, and put one behind his ear. I've surprised a few guys, too, who will shoot and move. But if they're ready for you, if you make too much noise, and round a corner...lights out.

Single player isn't a campaign or anything like that. Just six scenarios, each with two possible insertion points. You have three guys with you, but, much like the original R6, they're not going to do too much other than give you an opportunity for another life when you die. They'll shoot some guys here and there, but you never really feel like they've got your back like a real person. It's still tense, still fun, but MP is where it's at.

In MP, you can have up to six people, and can split into two groups of three if you like, each coming in from different insertion points. With team communication, and a group of guys who are dedicated to talking and watching each others' backs, there's just nothing like it.

[JOZ]

I tried the demo for a short time last night and struggled. They took me out quick in my first 3 attempts at the "mission". Have to get out of the health regeneration mindset that almost all FPS games use now. I will give it another go tonight. Sure wish you could try the multiplayer out on the demo. Are the deathmatch maps somewhat varied (open areas, tight firefights, etc.)?

[Teal]

I tried the demo for a short time last night and struggled. They took me out quick in my first 3 attempts at the "mission". Have to get out of the health regeneration mindset that almost all FPS games use now. I will give it another go tonight. Sure wish you could try the multiplayer out on the demo. Are the deathmatch maps somewhat varied (open areas, tight firefights, etc.)?

Just like any other MP game, it depends on who you're playing with. The arenas are the same, no matter the game mode, except that you can select day or night versions of a few of the maps. Yeah, I struggled mightily out of the gate, too, after spending a lot of time with the more run and gun style gameplay. But when you get that outta your head, you'll remember. I tend to find a good group each time I play online, at least eventually. The thirteen year olds will be weeded out pretty darn quickly, I think. The game is just too hard for the Mountain Dew with a Red Bull Chaser Crowd...lol.

[Teal]

Okay, this sucker has really grabbed me now, due to one fantastic game mode: attack and defend.

It's a versus mode that I hadn't played until last night. You are either defending one bomb, or attacking to disarm it.

Holy cow, the tension is incredible.

It's still one shot, one kill, no music, just footsteps, doors, shots, and lots of holding your breath. If you were one of those who enjoyed Rainbow Six before the theatrics, and Ghost Recon before the same, YOU NEED TO GET THIS GAME. I'm telling you, whatever you might think of the co-op campaign mode (which is really good on its own), attack and defend is completely worth the price of admission on its' own. Just an incredible blast. If you are the attacking team, the game does not end until you disarm the bomb. In some games, you either kill all the guys or disarm to win. With this, you can make your way to the bomb, but there's always that lingering feeling that there still might be someone waiting to kill you. Last night, that was the case a couple of times. All was quiet, I snuck up to the bomb, looked around, began to disarm, and POW-lights out. One shot. Scared the snot out of me!

I know that many of you have gone on to newer things, and that's fine. But if you still game on the 360, I IMPLORE you, if you were in our old GR:IT group, or want to have that level of challenge, Takedown delivers it. The time they had between sending in for recertification was well spent, and the game is very good as a result.

[JOZ]

I love COD for what it is and I love Battlefield for what it is, but this sounds like the type of game that I've been wanting for a while. I will have to make the plunge. Once I get it, I will look you up Teal. I just hope this game has some legs online.

[Teal]

I love COD for what it is and I love Battlefield for what it is, but this sounds like the type of game that I've been wanting for a while. I will have to make the plunge. Once I get it, I will look you up Teal. I just hope this game has some legs online.

Even two player co-op with one guy is a kick. But I'm gonna keep evangelizing it here; I know some old timers that will really dig this thing.

[Teal]

Sorry, Joz, I had played a solo attempt (STILL haven't completed a mission!), and then tried the one MP...and moved on to BF4 and Dead Island. We'll get a good attempt at some co-op soon...

[JOZ]

No worries as I just unlocked the full game yesterday afternoon. Tried a little single player afterwards and it definitely seems tough. Just played around with the online stuff last night. Looked like you joined in my game just for a second when I was messing with the menu options. I didn't have any idea what I was doing at the time. I did find a few guys I played some last man standing with, but only played for about an hour. Looking forward to some more action though as it definitely has the old rainbow 6 feel. Now I just have to dig out my headset.