Have you ever wondered what the world would have looked like if Stalin had achieved his goal after the war and his red plague would have spread to all continents? Who would then be the first to stand on the Moon, the Soviets or Americans? Or perhaps the United States would cease to exist at all? These and other interesting questions are answered by Red Hell, an adventure game like Castleworks, which offers us an alternative reality, with the Soviet Union as a truly global superpower in the lead role.
The action of the game takes us straight away until 2020, when the Soviets dominate in every field and the United States together with the organization NADA (today’s equivalent of NATO) play the role of a puppet in the hands of the Soviet leaders. In this unusual reality, the player plays the role of Marek Constatine, who, under the guise of a high-ranking position in Envirotek, conducts sabotage activities in an underground organization in opposition to the Soviets. We get to know the main character while visiting the headquarters of the NADA organization. Mark has an appointment with his supervisor, companion Loginov, who guesses Constantine’s secret links with the underworld. Here begins the right action of the game, which will change the life of our hero once and for all.
Without a doubt, it is the scenario that is the strongest point of the game. Sensitive riddles, a large number of locations and of course unexpected adventures (including time travel) make Red Hell introduce itself in this respect very interesting. Equally decent is the audio-visual setting – here it is worth emphasizing that all dialogues in the game are spoken, which is noteworthy given the relatively small size of the program. Unfortunately, the program is not free of flaws, which hurts all the more because they concern probably the most important element of each adventure – the user interface.
The player can give orders to the hero using the icons located at the bottom of the screen and this is also the only information about the currently activated option (the cursor does not change). There is no standard option to move around in other adventures without clicking on the appropriate icon, which is sometimes extremely frustrating. Besides, you have to get used to the fact that Mark will never arbitrarily approach the indicated object or interactive element of the background. If we dream of e.g. starting the lift, we must first manually point the figure near the button and only then press it. As if all this wasn’t enough, there wasn’t thought of automatic bypassing of obstacles. If we want to lead Marek through the whole room and there is a desk on our way, for example, we have to show the characters how to bypass it. Red Hell favours only patient players: searching for items of one pixel size is the order of the day. It is also worth remembering to record the state of the game frequently, because it is very easy to die in this production.
To sum up, Red Hell is a highly controversial product. On the one hand, we have a nice audiovisual setting and a captivating screenplay, on the other hand, there are constant problems in mastering the uncomfortable interface. If someone manages to overcome the inconvenience, he or she will be satisfied after contacting the program. Less patient should look for something less frustrating.
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Red Hell
