Heavy Fire: Red Shadow
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Critics Recommend
Heavy Fire: Red Shadow Trailers
Critic Reviews for Heavy Fire: Red Shadow
The experience of playing this title is one of roller coaster highs and lows.
A poor shooting game (VR compatible) set in a war between North Korea and United States. Sadly, it feels like an old arcade, repetitive and short.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Heavy Fire: Red Shadow had the potential to give gamers an updated version of Beach Head 2002 from the heyday of arcades. Unfortunately, an incredibly short campaign, terrible graphics, and a lack of any real challenge all coalesce into an altogether underwhelming product. The $9.99 premium VR mode is so minimal in execution, that even that isn't recommended. If you absolutely love arcade, wave-based shooters, it's probably still best to wait until Heavy Fire: Red Shadow is on a fire sale before plopping down the cash.
All in all, Heavy Fire: Red Shadow is a game that is easy to overlook and doesn’t really give you much reason not to. There’s fun to be had and it’s an easy way to waste a half hour, but that’s really all you’ll be doing.
Honestly, the nicest thing I can say about Heavy Fire: Red Shadow is that it's over in two hours. It is at least technically playable with some interesting mechanics. But even if you are specifically looking for a wave-based, arcade-style turret game, I'd still stay away. This game offers little of value and is fun only if I stretch that word beyond its absolute limit.
In the end, Heavy Fire: Red Shadow definitely harkens back to a time period where point/shoot had a different meaning in an arcade experience than it does now. The game maintains a nostalgic design, which certainly makes sense for the experience, but the experience's longevity will be questioned depending on player expectations. This goes back to what you understand about a game's intentions. If you know going into it that you're going to get an arcade shooter, then you may not be disappointed. If you're expecting a deeper experience than just point/shoot, then you may not find it here.
The whole Heavy Fire: Red Shadow experience feels like it should be on VR, and that may well be the best way to get anything out of this turret shooter. The price is too high as well – at least for anyone to take a punt on – and even though it does nothing wrong and all appears to work fine, it does become very repetitive quite quickly
There's a certain audience that'll find Heavy Fire: Red Shadow to be a decent game. For those people, the turret sequences in other shooters must be their favorite part of the game. For everyone else, including fans of the series, Red Shadow is an utter disappointment. From a regression in gameplay to overly long stages and terrible presentation, there's nothing to recommend here, even if you just want to Trophy hunt. Unless you absolutely need to have every game in the console's library, stay as far away from this as possible.
