First Impressions: ‘Redux: Dark Matters’ for the SEGA Dreamcast

DSCN0352

First of all, hello! The Gagaman here. You may remember me from such films websites as the Dreamcast Junkyard, Sega Memories and Lucky Hit. Shameless plugs aside, I’m humbled to become a contributor here on Sega Bits and hope to bring you guys some fancy-pants articles in the future, hopefully not too riddled with typos.  For now though: Look!

Being the first successfully crowd funded Dreamcast indie game released, Redux: Dark Matters is finally here after two years of development, sent to me in the post yesterday morning. Has this kickstarted shmup been worth the wait and the cash? Read on to find out…

Back in 2012 I contributed to this Kickstarter, pledging $65 to get the limited edition. There was also a $100 pledge for a steel-book edition, but I’m not a big fan of steel-books anyhow. I may as well start with the first thing that I can give er.. first impressions of..

The packaging!

DSCN0359

Redux comes in a standard 2-disc DVD case, much like most other indie Dreamcast release, with a Japanese styled spine. It’s nice looking, with a 3D render of the brightly colored space ship on the front and artwork of the ship’s pilot on the back as illustrated by GENZOMAN, who also contributed artwork to Gunlord. On the back we get the briefest summary of a game ever: “Shoot robots in space!”, the number of copy you have and some compatibility details. Nothing amazing really, but does the job perfectly well.

DSCN0353

Inside we are treated to not one, but two games! Instead of a soundtrack CD the second disc included is a copy of Dux 1.5, which was released earlier last year. I didn’t purchase a copy of Dux 1.5 purely on the basis that I knew it was bundled with this, though owning it this way does mean missing out on the instruction manual and packaging, and that jewel case edition does look rather nice. Either way both discs have nice, full colour art on them.

DSCN0358

Speaking of manuals this is sadly the biggest let down of the package: it’s a single sheet of folded paper with credits, controls and that’s it. Most other Dreamcast indie games have manuals of at least 10 pages full of lovely artwork, a list of the enemies and bosses, instructions on how to play the game and maybe even a bit of story. None of that here, just the bare minimal. What a shame. The package also came with a ‘I helped make this happen’ kickstarter sticker. Doesn’t it make you proud?

Anyways, on to the most important part: slapping that disc into my Dreamcast and..

Playing it!

Redux is, as the title suggests, a remake of Dux. A bit odd considering that Dux 1.5 was technically a remake of Dux, or at least a revision with bug fixes and improved gameplay, but hey ho. The main difference between this and the original is that there are now two different ships to choose from, each with a radially different weapon style.

DSCN0364

The first one plays similar to the Dux ship, with the option taking bullets for you up front and a charging shot, but now it also has a bullet soaker which has it’s own charge bar. This will suck up any bullets on screen and also target enemies which you can then send homing, Panzer Dragoon like shots at.

“If you have played enough of Dux to map the levels out in your head, you will breeze through this as it’s technically the same game”

The second ship is far less equipped with weapons, lacking a option and the bullet soaker, but makes up for this by sheer firepower, which can be upgraded into screen filling flash blobs of fury. This new pair of ships makes the game far more exciting, varied and enjoyable than the rather basic Dux. Enemies also now drop lumps of gold to collect, kind of like other shmups like mars Matrix and Fast Striker, which is a shmup mechanic I have always liked.

Unfortunately, this is where the differences end. I maybe should have studied the trailers more to notice this, but was quite disappointed to find that the level design, enemy patterns and bosses appear to be identical. If you have played enough of Dux to map the levels out in your head, you will breeze through this as it’s technically the same game, but with more firepower thus making it easier, which could be considered a blessing or a curse depending on your skill level.

Graphics!

Oh dear, what happened here? As soon as I booted up the game, something didn’t seem right. For reference, Dux was a very sharp, crisp looking game. You could almost believe it was in HD, the pre-rendered sprites were so good, and the same looked to be the case with Redux, but somehow the game has ended up looking about held the resolution as Dux. The game is very pixelated and chunky, but not in the same way Neo Geo ports from NG: DEV TEAM are: it looks like the assets have been squashed down and detail has been lost in the translation. At first I thought maybe it was an issue with running the game on VGA, so I tried it via Scart but it looked even worse. Small text like the ‘boss approaching’ is almost unreadable no matter what connection you use.

redux1

Above is just a small example of the resolution difference between Dux 1.5 and Redux, which is on the right. I can only get photos of still shots from the game and my capture equipment doesn’t really do the Dreamcast justice.

“According to Hucast, this was a mistake on their part, confusing the Dreamcast and HD builds”

Chatting with Hucast on their Facebook page, I found out that this is indeed how the Dreamcast version of the game is supposed to look, there is no mistake with the print run or anything. The reason for this lower resolution is apparently that Redux uses far more RAM for graphics than the previous games, I assume due to more detailed scenery and more bullets and objects on screen. What this does not explain is why all screenshots and trailers of the game have looked much sharper.

According to Hucast, this was a mistake on their part, confusing the Dreamcast and HD builds. They added a note to the launch trailer description on Youtube saying that the footage is captured from the PC version, but the average watcher will probably not notice this as it is at the very bottom of read more section. The description also stated ‘high-res visuals’ which they have since revised to ‘arcade style visuals’ since I questioned them.

So why is there no Dreamcast screenshots or video? I was told that this was due to Hucast lacking the equipment to capture Dreamcast footage. This is not a large game company, but rather a indie team of a few individuals for sure, but considering they have the equipment and skills to develop entire games for the Dreamcast, you would think capture equipment would not only be affordable, but essential in the testing process.

Speaking of testing, this is another issue the game sadly faces..

Crashing!

A game breaking, console crashing bug in the first level, to be exact. The game can completely freeze by positioning the ship in the top right corner of the first boss. This was first discovered by Amidst Storm, who posted a video of the crash on Facebook. Upon testing this out myself I encountered the same thing, but found when testing the same thing with the veteran ship there was no crash.  The photo below is where the crash occurs when I tested it.

DSCN0349

“I hope that Hucast have plans to maybe send out a bug fixed disc to owners of the game in the near future”

I really want to like Redux: Dark Matters, but this situation has put a bit of a damper on the whole thing. There’s no denying that this is a very enjoyable shooter that improves on the original Dux in the gameplay department, but the fact that the graphics are, lets be honest, not as advertised, and that even after a two tear development they have not spotted a major bug that is easily done, is very disappointing.

I hope that Hucast have plans to maybe send out a bug fixed disc to owners of the game in the near future, much like how they shipped out free discs of Dux 1.5, but even then this doesn’t excuse the lack of information on how the Dreamcast version of the game actually looks in all this time it has been developed, it comes across as misleading and will put a lot of people off buying their games again, and it hurts me to say that as the Dreamcast indie scene is amazing and any developer that has the balls to develop a game for a console from 1998 in 2014 deserves respect and kudos.

I was assured by Hucast on Facebook that their next game Ghost Blade is running on an all new engine that will take advantage of the Dreamcast’s RAM better leading to high-res graphics, but I think I will hold out on pre-ordering for now and take a wait and see approach, which is a real shame as I’m looking forward to that game even more than I was Redux and really want them to hopefully learn from this. Oh well, there’s Neo XYX from NG:DEV TEAM on it’s way next, and those guys have an excellent track record for solid releases, so I’m looking forward to that!

Ad:

10 responses to “First Impressions: ‘Redux: Dark Matters’ for the SEGA Dreamcast

  1. cube_b3 says:

    So basically anyone who wants to experience Hucast at it’s finest, try Dux 1.5. it is the definitive version of the game.

    In the future I think they will need to do more than a bug fix, I think all 3 versions of the game should be compressed to the same disk.

  2. DCGX says:

    Wow this really pisses me off. First off, wasn’t this billed as a sequel to Dux all the way through the Kickstarter? Second, since it isn’t a sequel and just another revision of Dux, what the hell took them so long plus the game still had bugs and doesn’t look like they originally said? Wtf?!

    I’ve had the extremely early limited edition, or whatever, of The Ghost Blade preordered for a year now and almost canceled it last fall, but Rene talked me out of it due to its (hopefully still) limited run. After reading this article I may reconsider again.

  3. The Gagaman says:

    Yeah, after just sitting and playing all three of the Dux games back to back, I have to agree that Dux 1.5 is the best one. Now I remember why I couldn’t get into the original Dux, 1.5 is such an improvement in every way. Redux in comparison feels like Dux 1.5.5?

    Also I just realized I stated the bullet soaking mechanic was new to Redux, when really it was in every version, only in Redux they make it clearer when you were doing it with a big circle and you get those additional homing shots which are handy.

  4. The Gagaman says:

    The best way to describe the Dux games is Street Fighter 2, Super Street Fighter 2 and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo.

    • cube_b3 says:

      More like Mortal Kombat 3, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy.

      With trilogy being vastly superior in concept but bogged down by glitches. Though I am not sure if it had graphical problems, it may have.

  5. Lenticular Leo says:

    Yawn…another petty shumup game, always shooters, and to add insult to injury, it’s really just a remake of an already released Dreamcast game.

    Ah well, at least it’s a new Dreamcast release none the less, better than nothing I suppose, so probably will get for the collection.

    Why they can’t do another genra on Dreamcast for a change I don’t know, it’s not like it’ll even cost that much more to produce than a shumup shotter these days.

    • The Gagaman says:

      It’s unlikely, but I would love to see indie games like what you get on Steam, even just the 2D ones. Imagine games like Spelunky and OlliOlli as pressed disc and manual releases on Dreamcast? Would be amazing, as much as I love shmups some variety would be great. At we have some coming up like Pier Solar and that eventual Watermelon streets of rage style game.

  6. GuitarAnthony says:

    Sadly, I’m still waiting on my discs but now I’m already feeling disappointment concerning all the issues there have been. I’ve got NEO XYX coming in (already shipped), Pier Solar and Ghost Blade…whenever that happens. 🙂 Obviously, I’ll be playing both DUX 1.5 and Redux when it finally shows so I’ll give my thoughts on the gameplay then…hopefully next week.

  7. WSYL says:

    In addition to all the technical problems is a host of Kickstarter difficulties over the past year or so–misleading photos of what the special edition contained (showing a dvd case inside a steelcase but in reality just having them on a foam insert or something), poor packaging that led to loose discs and dented cases, and selling the “kickstarter exclusive edition” on their online store.

    What angered most people was how HUCAST made up for a year and a half of delays with an almost complete lack of communication by then asking that backers purchase additional tracking for their games…and then not providing tracking to many of the people who purchased it.

    Here’s the general comment thread for the Kickstarter that discusses a lot of people’s issues with HUCAST’s horrible mishandling of Redux: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/redux/redux-dark-matters-a-shmup-for-sega-dreamcast/comments

  8. Carlos says:

    It’s worse. I was one of the kickstarter backers, I commented on their ks page, saying it was ridiculous that they asked backers for extra shipping money after more than a year of delays… they blocked me from their facebook page. When I used an alternative personal account to ask them if that was a mistake or something, they blocked that account as well and deleted all my comments. I guess they forgot I bought my copy just so that I was able to review it for spanish multiplatform mag Games Tribune… And I don’t think the fact that they block users from their page and delete legitimate comments is good customer support.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *