Raging Bytes arrives from the developers at Hit Point and publisher KEMCO as the latter look to take over the world, one retro styled RPG at a time. This one, however, is a little bit different. Have they hit upon an interesting new style of game?
Well, I wouldn’t go quite that far, but what they have done in Raging Bytes is to make a slight change to the norm. Whether that change will interest you or not is exactly what I hope to show you in the course of this review. So, come with me to a zombie apocalypse, and make sure you bring your deja vu specs with you…
We’ll start with the story, shall we? Any RPG lives and dies here after all (I am thinking of making that my catchphrase, but it is still true) and you’d be forgiven for thinking you were in a different game altogether when you start playing. After all, if I said to you that a cop wakes up in hospital, alone, after an accident and then finds a door with a warning written on it about not opening it, what does that remind you of? The Walking Dead, right? Well, it is the story here too, and Ben, the cop, needs to figure out what is going on, dragging along folk to help him with the journey he is about to undertake.
I can’t tell you anything more about the story of Raging Bytes for fear of spoilers, but suffice it to say that this game doesn’t appear to have a single new idea in its repertoire. In fact, everything is a mashup of Resident Evil games and zombie TV shows or movies. Chainsaw zombie anyone?
Raging Bytes is a pixel art styled game, with all the characters and zombies being adorable piles of pixels. The characters and zombies are pretty well drawn, even if every zombie does look the same on the exploration screen. The backgrounds, while basic, do a pretty good job of showing a world on the edge of collapse, as the hordes of undead wander around.
But unfortunately the sound is a whole other story. The music is passable, without ever actually straying into the realm of the good, not even accidentally. The worst part of the audio though is in the way that the characters footsteps sound. It feels like every character is wearing tap shoes on a wooden floor, and the sound never changes, no matter what surface they happen to be standing on. It is a dull, metronome like, “Click…click…click” that underscores the whole game. It soon stops being merely annoying, and becomes wildly irritating.
Still, let’s slowly make our way to the actual gameplay, shall we? In fact, we’ll start with the whole RPG side of things first, and here the story is also not great, as there isn’t much of an RPG mechanic to be found. Killing enemies grants EXP, and enough enemies slain will let your characters level up. But that’s it – they are level 10, say, but there is no growth, no skill tree, no nothing except new gear to find and equip. Seeing as none of this gear is locked behind levels, it is fairly pointless. Frankly, it is not an RPG then.
At its heart, I suppose Raging Bytes is more of a survival game than an actual RPG. You need to find supplies, avoid the undead (or fight then) and get to where you are going in one piece. As is usual, this comes with an almost even split between running around and fighting, so I’ll have a look at the combat side of things first.
Once a zombie, or group of zombies, manages to make contact with you, combat is initiated, and this where things are a little different. At the start of the encounter, the zombies are some distance away, and you have the chance to whittle their numbers down before they have a chance to close with the group.
Each character has a melee weapon, a choice of two ranged weapons, and a special ability. While the zombies are far away, shoot them (if you have the ammo) and once they get close with the group, melee weapons will damage them and push them back. However, if a strike with a melee weapon doesn’t kill the target, you will be hit with a counterblow, so be careful what you do.
This all plays out in an interesting way and as the zombies walk towards the screen we are found looking through the party’s eyes; seeing the zombies get closer does ensure the tension ramps up at times. Mix in some boss encounters who are as tough as a tough thing, and the scene is set for some gripping encounters.
Exploration is pretty much the only other thing you need to worry about in Raging Bytes, and with a dash move that can avoid enemies (although your stamina is sadly lacking) you can sometimes avoid a fight. And if you manage to get far enough away from a zombie, it will return to its patrol route, which is nice to see. Yes, zombies move in predictable patterns, and so they can be avoided. Although fighting is the only way to level up, so you may well wish to go and clear them out before you set your heart on exploring. Finding ammo, healing supplies and even new weapons is very much in your best interests, so have a good look around before moving on.
You can also find items that heal the party, and I recommend using these as much as possible. See, health is not replenished between fights, and going in with a weakened party is a recipe for disaster.
Raging Bytes can be enjoyably tense, but the most fun comes from the chance to spot all the references than as an actual game. The gameplay is adequate, without ever breaking into the realms of “must play”, but it is a good way of killing a few hours.
Faint praise for a game, I know, but taking in Raging Bytes is better than watching paint dry!
