Double Fine – the legendary studio behind Psychonauts and Brutal Legend – is here with their next adventure, RAD; a top-down, action roguelike. RAD is available on PC, Switch, PS4 and Xbox One right now for £15.99!
In RAD you play as a teen fighting to save your community in a post-post-apocalypse. Radioactive mutants roam the earth and it’s up to you to beat them to a pulp with some satisfying top-down action.
RAD’s main gimmick comes in the form of mutations. The game’s description refers to this mechanic as a “great personal cost”; in reality, they’re bonkers upgrades to your character. As you defeat more infected enemies, different parts of your character’s body will contort into the coolest combinations. You could have a cobra’s head on a horse’s body and a glowing boomerang arm in a single playthrough.
Your mutations won’t carry over once you die but that’s far from a bad thing. In this roguelike, death is only a good thing. All mutations occur randomly, so death is only an excuse to discover and play around with new combinations of abilities and mutations.
Just like Slay the Spire – a recent, fellow roguelike – RAD offers players daily challenges. These challenges offer players new ways to experience RAD’s colourful post-post-apocalypse. It adds a ton of variety and replay value, plus, not being able to stand still for fear of dying is a sure way to keep players on edge.
If you’re worried that a post-post-apocalypse would dilute Double Fine’s signature humour, worry not; RAD is just as weird and wacky as Double Fine has always been. Dry humour, an over-the-top presenter and 80’s synth-wave are all here in full force.
Double Fine have had a big year. At E3 they announced they were joining Xbox Game Studios, raising questions about the studio’s future. At the expo they also, finally, unveiled their first Psychonauts 2 gameplay trailer. The release of RAD is just the next big step for the historic studio – as our upcoming review of RAD on Xbox One will no doubt confirm.
If you like what you are seeing with RAD, then there is also the opportunity to involve yourself with a little DLC pack. The £2.49 RAD – Arcade Style Pack isn’t going to be a game changer, but it will bring the additions of a Joystick Bat and extra Character Styles to your game.
Description
RAD is a 3D action rogue-like set in a post-post-apocalyptic world, where humanity has faced armageddon not once, but twice. Playing as a teenage protagonist, you must venture into the Fallow — an ever-changing, radioactive wasteland filled with unknown and unspeakable creatures. It is here that you will find the solution to heal the world, and transform the cracked, barren landscape into a lush source of new life. But humanity’s future comes at great personal cost, as the deeper you journey into unknown lands, the more you will expose yourself to gnarly toxins which will wreak havoc on your fragile human form. The fate of the world depends on you, your trusty bat, and whatever strange new abilities you gain as the world around you ravages your body — twisting and mutating you into something far less than human, but far more powerful. But forget all that — go grab that sweet bat and help save the world…or what’s remaining of it anyway!
