Posted in: Games, Review, Video Games | Tagged: first person shooter, fps, game review, Gates AB, Offensive Combat Redux!, shooter, Slapshot Games

The Journey To Offend Everyone: We Review 'Offensive Combat Redux!'

What I'm going to say is continually being considered a taboo statement in gaming, but it's a simple fact that won't go away for a while. People still like dumb and offensive games. Even if it's as simple as having a character who embodies bodily functions (Boogerman) or a game that pushes every boundary it can to be offensive (South Park: The Stick Of Truth), there will always be an audience for it across almost every genre. Especially because these titles don't take themselves seriously. Today we get a good example of one of those games as we review Offensive Combat Redux! From Slapshot Games.

Now to be clear, Offensive Combat Redux! is basically a re-release of a previous first-person shooter called Offensive Combat that came out in 2012 for PC, specifically to be played through a browser. It was a free-to-play title that offered the same kind of multiplayer FPS combat you would get from games like Halo or Call Of Duty, with a lower resolution and quicker matchup timings. The game essentially broke the mold on what an FPS was supposed to be and threw as much as they could into the game to make it feel fun. You still had 8-vs-8 team battles that included deathmatch, king of the hill, capture the flag, etc.—but with the caveat of looking ridiculous and sounding ridiculous.

Offensive Combat Redux! brings all of that nonsense, both for fun and to offend, into a downloadable version for Steam. This game is about as customizable as you can get when it comes to who you are and what you fire with. You can choose the look of your character, ranging from somewhat real world figures to animals to inanimate objects. Which means if you want to make your own version of Pickle Rick from Rick and Morty, you can! You can dress them up however you wish with options like suits, championship belts, weird helmets, flack jackets, chicken legs, a hot dog suit, a pumpkin head, and more. You can even dress yourself up as Donald Trump to piss people off, as the game practically encourages you to do so. The game also comes with taunts you can do over people's corpses, like teabagging, but with extra sting and even music on occasion.

The actual combat phase plays like a hybrid of the 2010 version of Goldeneye and the updated version of Halo 4. I bring those two up specifically for the way your weapons load, the aim of the sights, the jumping physics, the respawn timing, the gun recoil, and the grenade timing. When you play enough FPS titles, you get a sense of who adds what to their game and for how long between each moment, and those two match up with a lot of what you play here. Surprisingly, it works really well as it gives you time to plan out a strategy but also leaves enough unpredictability to get the drop on people.

The levels, in general, aren't much to look at, but that's okay. They have a kind of Team Fortress appeal to them where they're not that detailed in design, but it doesn't matter because you didn't come to the game for accurate level design of a junkyard with a bomb in the middle. You have an option of three different weapons to switch between with ammo spawns that will refill with whatever you're carrying. You only have six maps to play on, but that's fine as they all are unique and offer different challenges for everyone. When you win you collect Avatar Parts and in-game currency that will help you get more stuff for your character so you can kill in style as you move up.

I wasn't expecting much from Offensive Combat Redux!, but after playing it I think I found a new FPS to kill time with when I'm not looking for a game with friends or to be super competitive. It isn't the greatest shooter in the world, but it isn't trying to be, it's simply trying to be dumb fun. If you're looking for an FPS that doesn't have a bunch of L33T players trying to get the highest level possible, this will be right up your alley.

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