Orange Cast: Sci-Fi Space Action Game represents the ambitious attempt by an indie studio to create a TPS that echoes the glories of Warframe and Dead Space. The result, however, turns out to be very far from the inspiring models.
Version tested: PC
Premise
Orange Cast it is a difficult game to evaluate. Because, even if the final verdict coincides with what almost every player would issue after just 5 minutes of the tutorial, the reasons why it can be said that this game is a complete disaster, but that anyway This is a pity because the basic ideas were there. And they were also very good, except that hardly anyone will ever notice. Let's try to understand why together.
Before talking about the game at any level, it must be said that Team rez, the indie studio he worked on Orange Cast: Sci-fi Space Action Game, he wanted to dare, to show an ambition that is not so common to see in one of these projects.
Usually, when a team has great ideas but few resources, it tends to launch itself on consolidated gameplay, on pixel art and on 2D often botched and badly done because "we have a great message to convey and captivating gameplay to propose, to whom do you care about the graphics? " But no. Orange Cast points to the sun. To the TPS in 3D in the wake of Warframe e Global Agenda. And it is precisely this that makes it fall noisily when the wings melt, which are not even made of wax, but of cardboard. But, I repeat, it's a shame: because that kind of ambition is something you would like to see more often in an indie game, albeit maybe supported by a very different technical expertise in implementation.
A beginning that is anything but encouraging
Among the countless wrong things there are in Orange Cast: Sci-fi Space Action Game the most evident and Marchiana is precisely the tutorial. There is a reason triple A productions always start with a great style movie, which tells in a nutshell general elements of the setting, making a large display of Computer Graphics and any other resource available within the limits of the budget. That reason is that it tries to captivate, amaze or intrigue the player, starting immediately to make him identify with the imaginary environment recreated by the game and to generate that suspension of disbelief that will (hopefully) accompany him throughout the experience.
Orange Cast not only does he not do any of this, but he manages to propose, in the first minutes of the game, what he undoubtedly constitutes his part turned out worse. A massacre that is not even representative, on the contrary it stands far below, of what awaits the player in the rest of the game: even if that's not that great either.
Without any explanation you are catapulted into an alien land and this happens through a very boring sequence, absolutely impossible to skip or shorten. Here a green flame (which could be energy, a soul reuniting with a body or even anything else since nothing has been said) travels through a hideous alien landscape, also made with an appreciable aesthetic twist in the design, but with textures that should be declared illegal in 41 countries around the world.
When the ectoplasm finally manages to reunite with a body that looks like it the average between the ugly protagonist of Chaos Domain and one of the least aesthetically inspired Warframes of all those offered by the eponymous game, you finally have the opportunity to appreciate a woody, imprecise and fallacious control system, whether you decide to play with the keyboard and mouse, or if you have a controller.
Moving, but perhaps I should say trudging, towards a target (whose distance and direction are indicated on the display) will have to fight against hostile androids using what we could define the most useless weapon in history: a kind of cyclotronic crossbow that takes a week to load any shot ... and then miss it thanks to thehorrendous shooting system which will accompany the entire gaming experience. This will make getting killed very easy and it won't do that invariably send the player straight back to the start of this terrifying caudine gallows which represents the "chapter zero" of Orange Cast.
In two things, in reality, this tutorial does its job well: it tests the main talent that the player will have to show to progress in this failed experience, that is, patience; and educates him to escape from clashes, where possible, instead of engaging in a fight made unequal by bad combat system - even in the presence of adeficient enemy artificial intelligence and of aalmost infinite healing ability which only needs several seconds to recharge. When finally, for the few who manage to get there, you reach the end of the area, you are entitled to some explanation; it's at start the actual game.
The battle for the colonies
At this point the reader will be wondering two things. First: because after such a rich and unappealable description of the defects of Orange Cast Doesn't this review end there, with a bad grade and a recommendation to just stay away from it like a hurricane? For the same reason you have to resist the temptation to quit the game after the first five minutes and give it a chance: things won't improve much, but at least you will realize, critically, that there is a lot of design work behind it and that an implementation like this does a lot of damage, because it invalidates one good science fiction idea and a plot that might have worked… if only it hadn't been told like that.
The second question that will hover in the head of those who have come this far is why dwell so much in the description of a tutorial: the reason is to try to convey to the reader the same feeling of slowness and fatigue that you do to get to the point where Orange Cast begins to really unravel its real essence (for better or for worse): after having tainted the player with what can undoubtedly be defined as the most boring of all its sequences. And now that you are all partakers of my suffering in coming this far, we can begin.
With a video that the game should definitely have proposed at the beginning, the science fiction context that forms the background to the plot is explained: during the colonization of the inner planets of the solar system, Humanity finds a substance on Mars that can be used as a fuel. for interstellar travel. This marks the beginning of a new era in which man expands among the stars and establishes distant colonies; but then a fratricidal war between two factions, known as the “Coalition” and the “Red Fleet” causes the destruction of the stocks of this substance and effectively isolates the Earth from the colonies. As the latter plunge into chaos and a war between corporations, the Earthlings begin to exploit state-of-the-art technology (probably of alien origin) to "transmit at a distance" the consciousness of some, selected individuals and transfer it to other bodies, which are then covered with highly sophisticated combat armor. These very powerful super soldiers, called "Uber Units”Are able to tip the balance of any conflict in which they intervene on the desired side.
As one of these upgraded soldiers, it will be necessary carry out the tasks which are gradually assigned by the Coalition, but also go to the discovery of their origins, of his past and of the innumerable mysteries that lie behind the conflict currently taking place in the star system in which the game takes place.
A badly told plot
It is important to note that the game's plot is complex, articulated and anything but trivial. If you have the patience to pass the tutorial and get a little into the heart of the story, you are genuinely intrigued and want to go on even just to reveal the many mysteries and the turning points behind it. Unfortunately this element fails to get the game off the ground even as a counterpoint to all the negative elements that we will discuss later, because the narrative is terrifying.
Dubbing is entirely in Russian (and my sources in Moscow suggest that it's also dubbed a bad Russian), the localization in English is fragmentary, ungrammatical and makes the dialogues difficult to read, even beyond the difficulties dictated byhorrible interface. Whenever you talk to a different character, on a different planet or in a different camp, it seems to be following a different story, or rather a fragment that is not in any way connected to the others or to the story narrated in the introduction (and in the interlude films).
Following a logical thread is really difficult and towards the end, in the throes of total frustration, the dialogues will begin to skipjust trying to move on. Why is it all so convoluted and so poorly explained that it would be necessary to replay several times to put all the pieces in place. And it is a shame because the story that is the background to the whole would not even be bad and for sure it does not fall into the banality that one might expect given the general level of the rest of the production. Unfortunately, however, it must be said that so it is unusable.
A failed gameplay
We come to what should be the beating heart of the game, its courageous soul, deputed to make this title take off and distinguish it from the shapeless mass of anonymous indies, to consecrate the efforts of those who wanted to make it a third-person shooter instead of another. type of game. I'm talking, of course, of the combat.
Unfortunately, here too it's all wrong. The control of the character is woody, rigid and it is difficult to make him do what you want (whether it is to point the enemy, run, dodge or cover behind cover) with the ways and timing that would be required by a game of this type. The weapons are few and almost all almost useless: even if you have them available a pistol, a primary weapon (usually submachine gun or assault rifle) and a secondary one (flamethrower, shotgun or other), only the primary weapon will be of any use. The gun is frighteningly inaccurate, the secondary weapons are totally ineffective and above all changing weapons is a real torture, whether you try to do it with the digital keys of the controller, or with the numbers on the keyboard. Quite simply, you will always draw the wrong weapon, ending up doing a ridiculous arsenal change dance under incessant enemy fire.
Ammunition is scarce, but fortunately there are crates scattered around the levels where you can refuel. These crates also have limited stocks, though: and it's a problem why the vast majority of ammunition will end up wasted in a bad shooting system. The weapons have a terrifying recoil, accuracy in aiming is a utopia and even if the enemies do not have much life and are animated by aridiculous artificial intelligence (they often stand still without shooting or taking cover or moving at the speed of a sloth in plain sight), they never stop shooting.
The primary skill of the Uber Unit, which recharges every twenty seconds, grants a temporary shield that reduces frontal damage and restore 100% health; but it is far too little to save the unfortunate soldier from the hail of bullets that he will not be able to dodge due to its clumsy movements and enormous difficulty in aiming and killing targets quickly to reduce the volume of enemy fire.
All this makes fighting a saraband of frustration and awkwardness which does not improve at all when faced with enemies that can only attack in close combat: even if the only melee assault available does enough damage, attempting to move correctly to deal with enemies when they are overwhelmingly mostly resolves in usual, frustrating dance in the open. You suffer not a little while trying in vain to turn in the direction of the enemy to attack him or to move sideways and backwards to dodge the blows: all while the health drops dramatically under the fury of the opponent's attacks.
Varied but dying worlds
Another sore point of Orange Cast è the graphics. This too should be a flagship of a production that makes three-dimensionality its banner. It must be said that, as in other fields, the game concept turns out to be valid on paper, showing settings that, at least at the beginning, try to be varied and to alternate the aseptic and sci-fi atmosphere of a devastated military base with the suggestions of an alien jungle populated by fluorescent plants and mysterious creatures.
Aside from the terrifying model proposed in the tutorial, the power armor and combat exoskeletons show an interesting design and slender silhouettes.
Unfortunately the textures are ugly, the colors faded and dull, everything smells of baroque, dated and inadequate to visually support the picture (albeit very valid) that we wanted to give of the planets on which the story takes place and of the fighters who are the protagonists of the same.
Also the animations are terrible, both as regards the protagonist (whose run is fake and woody as much as the controls are) and as regards the enemies, who sometimes seem to slide on the ground rather than run on it. Lights, explosions, background, it's all terribly out of place. And also the “films” and the interlude scenes are made with a graphic that smells of brown, dull and gives a general feeling of incompleteness. Totally unsatisfactory for the eyes, who would expect to see much more in a game with this kind of ambition.
The interface is visually poor, confusingly representing even the few weapons that serve something. The attempt to reproduce "on the character" the parameters related to health and shields results in a nasty ape of Dead Space, from whose glories we are far from both graphically and in terms of atmosphere.
The maps are basically "corridors", in which there is little space (even if not absolutely zero) to devote to exploration and a large amount of "invisible walls" will repeatedly remind the player to keep aiming for the goal instead of attempting reckless detours. Some occasional bug leads the protagonist to get stuck in the rocks or not immediately be able to follow the right path, which also creates a bit of disorientation, but all in all it is nothing very serious. If the gaming experience is troubled by anything, it definitely isn't.
Even the outposts they are basically filled with useless stuff, with which one cannot interact or interactions are limited to a minimum. All that can be found there, apart from the dialogue that carries out the main mission, are Absolutely irrelevant NPCs and scattered elements of drowned "lore" in the same fragmentation and lack of clarity in which the plot is lost. To the point that it is no longer even worth going to look for them.
Sound sector
The sound effects fit into the general inadequacy of the whole, sounding distorted, fake and out of place. If nothing else, the directionality of the sounds plays its role well in hinting at the provenance of a firearm attack and the (horrible and unsuccessful) cries of wild animals give an indication of where the enemy is.
Unexpectedly, in the midst of so much mediocrity the soundtrack is saved instead, which offers vibrant traces, with a melancholy flavor and which describe well the alien atmosphere of the worlds represented (otherwise badly) by Orange Cast. It is particularly successful the music of the pause menu which, ironically, makes you want to spend more time still listening to it than in the game to suffer.
A further negative mention goes to the dubbing but, more generally, to the whole localization. The dialogues are only in Russian (and badly recited in Rasputin's language too), while the English translation of the written part is poor, difficult to read due to an unsuitable font and too small writing and yield in a lame English that sometimes even interferes with the understanding of concepts.
The duration of the campaign it is between 7 and 10 hours, dividing into four general chapters, to which, however, needless to say, an ending fails. The plot, already twisted and incomprehensible, has the ability to stop just when something begins to define itself and you have a vague idea of where you are going. But, ultimately, the relief at having finally finished this torture also exceeds the disappointment for the lack of narrative closure, which is deferred to a future episode. And we all hope that the latter is done, but with a completely different implementation and care: if you really feel the need.
Final Comment
Orange Cast: Sci-fi Space Action Game perfectly represents everything that absolutely must not be done in implementing a game with an interesting concept and healthy technical ambitions. Apart from the soundtrack and a plot that is too difficult to understand, due to the bad narration and poor localization, nothing is saved from this game.
What is unfortunate is to note that the excellent opportunity represented by a well-structured concept work, with a good level plot and the ambition to create a TPS, with a beautiful campaign and diversified levels, has been completely wasted.
Shipwrecked on the rocks of a totally inadequate implementation, poor and capable of rejecting anyone who does not have a patience worthy of St. Francis or is not so passionate about science fiction as to want to investigate at all costs the mysteries of the twisted story. And it is exactly these last two categories of players that I would recommend checking out Orange Cast: Sci-fi Space Action Game. I suggest everyone else avoid it like the plague.
