Double Fine productions make crazy game ideas happen without making compromises. Taking a leap of faith with most of their ideas and somehow coming out on top. RAD is yet another one of those crazy ideas sprouting from the mind of Lee Petty (of Stacking fame). With the help of Bandai Namco, RAD is available on Steam, Playstation 4, Xbox One and on the Nintendo Switch.
Double Apocalypse
In RAD you play as a teenage protagonist in a post-post-apocalyptic world. It’s your mission to save humanity by bringing back a new source of life into the current radioactive barren landscape. In order to do so, the Elder sends you into the Fallow, an everchanging, radioactive wasteland filled with mutated creatures. Since the Fallow is filled to the brim with toxins, your quest to save humanity comes at a cost. As you venture further towards your goal, you get more and more exposed to the RAD toxins. Eventually, you’ll start mutating into something far from your original human form. As with most games, this would be bad but this is a Double Fine game… RAD is actually not so bad.
Become a new you
While you lose your humanity bit by bit, you’ll also gain new powers from the mutation. These powers are what helps you survive long enough to eventually save the world. There’s always an option to run away from enemies but when you defeat them, you gain RADs which eventually leads to new powers. Using the temples of the Ancients or the machines of the Menders can also greatly benefit your quest. So exploring the procedurally generated land of the Fallow is a big part of RAD. The more you explore and discover of the world, the more chances you’ll get to evolve in a stronger albeit monstrous being.
Random rampage
RAD is a top-down-ish view 3D rogue-like game. All the standard elements of rogue-like games are present in RAD. Each run is different because of the randomly generated levels. The possible mutations are also randomized which makes for some totally different mutation combos and potentially a whole new playstyle based on them. During one run I’d grown an extra head, as you do in RAD, which auto shot at my enemies. This meant I could take out enemies without getting to close. The next run I had spikes coming out of my body making me much more lethal when I went for close combat making that run a whole different experience than the previous one.
Just the right balance
The problem I often have with Rogue-like games is that they often feel unfair. With some of these type of games, it feels like you’re just waiting for a favorable level. With RAD, each run feels at least doable. Don’t get me wrong, RAD is definitely not a walk in the park. You’ll surely die a lot trying to conquer whatever the Fallow throws at you. But never did I feel cheated by the randomness. Each death was well deserved and in hindsight, I could’ve done things differently to avoid having to restart. The game and its randomness seem balanced enough to give you at least a fighting chance.
Learning curve
RAD’s combat is easy enough to just pick up and start playing. With a standard swing of your bat, a jump-kick, a ground slam, and a charged attack, you’ll have plenty of options to approach certain enemies. Exo-mutations – as opposed to endo-mutations which are permanent buffs – are assigned to the shoulder buttons as they are acquired. While you could go the button-mashing route, I wasn’t very successful until I started to combine my moves accordingly to the type of enemy or enemies I was facing. It took me 15 unsuccessful runs to finally being able to consistently get to the first mini-boss. Maybe I’m just not RAD enough of a gamer but to me, that indicates a bit of a learning curve is present in this game.
To bank or not to bank
Besides getting RADs from killing enemies, you’ll also find cassettes lying around the Fallow. These act as the currency in the game. Collect enough of these and you can buy for instance a rad accelerator or a can of health in the shops. After completing a level you can choose to continue or to return to your base. The cassettes and floppies (which act as keys) can then be banked to give you a head start for a future run. Some residents even ask to bring back certain items which could – in time – help you out when embarking on a new attempt. Each run earns you some experience which helps to unlock stuff in your home base.
Conclusion
With a neon-filled 80s vibe, RAD looks amazing. The 80s inspired music with nods to A-ha and Michael Jackson classics, solidify the created setting perfectly. RAD manages to frustrate me while at the same time pushing me towards trying again and again. This balancing act is what makes RAD so damn addictive and an obvious recommendation for anyone who likes challenging, fun and quirky combined.
