Red Sea is an intense Real-time Tactics game where you control a small team of vigilantes in increasingly challenging battles. It features a Scriptable Tactics system that mixes auto-battling with manual overrides and has a ton of powerful ability interactions to discover.
Gameplay
Overview
In an alternate near-future, Red Sea is a group of vigilantes who try to manage oppressive factions on an otherwise lawless island. The group’s founders, a pair of siblings named Raiko and Tenshi, seek revenge on the man who murdered their parents, but aren’t yet strong enough to face him. As they take on more difficult missions and collect higher-end equipment in preparation, you’ll serve as Mission Control for the team and aid them in battle.
Creative Strategies
Contract missions are the core of the game. They scale in difficulty from Rank 1 to 100 as you progress, with the intent that all players reach a point where they’re forced to think creatively to complete the mission. Each contract involves eliminating hostile units that have randomized talents, equipment, and tactics, with the variety increasing as you rank up. You will need to form unique strategies to address each new combination of elements.
Dynamic Abilities & Combos
Units have dynamic abilities that can dramatically change up gameplay and provide more tactical options. For instance, you can unlock talents to change how they work, they can be used on any other unit (friendly fire), and many of them have interesting built-in mechanics. On top of that, they can be combo’d in tons of different ways that you’ll have to discover. As you do, you’ll go from thinking an ability is weak to one-shotting hostiles with it.
Scriptable Tactics System
At a base level, all units run on a Scriptable Tactics system, meaning your team will fight automatically based on priorities and conditions you set — who they target, when they use abilities, where they position. But you can also manually override their behaviors in real-time. Finding a proper mix of auto and manual will be necessary to get the most out of your team on difficult missions.
Raiko (Samurai)
Raiko is driven to a fault, spending almost all her time combat training. And she won’t stop until she’s strong enough to avenge her parents and clean up the city. She wields a katana empowered by electricity and enjoys wearing impractical gear to increase the challenge and taunt her enemies.
Tenshi (angel)
Tenshi is an accomplished engineer who made his living designing defense systems until retiring to form the Red Sea. Rather than being driven by a cause, he just wants to protect Raiko, who would otherwise fight alone. With no prowess in physical combat, he aids allies from afar with kinetic shields.
Mira (shrimp)
Mira was taken in by the siblings after they found her severely injured and abandoned during a faction skirmish. Tenshi was able to replace her leg and give her a means to defend herself with powerful embedded sound tech. Now, she trains with Raiko and heals the team on missions.
Who is it for?
- People who like real-time combat.
- People who enjoy using their brain to overcome challenges.
- People who are comfortable with a bit of intensity.
- People who enjoy experimenting with builds / loadouts.
- People who are okay with minimal story.
If you got through the list and are still on board, you can purchase Red Sea on Steam or sign up for the newsletter below to get notified of the game’s release.