Redline

patches dont work, game just do not play

Redline is a game from the late 90s that combines classic fps and vehicle combat genres, similar to Necrodome 1996. It can run relatively without problems with dgVoodoo, but only at 30 fps. The game only has one difficulty, which leads to some levels being too easy and some too hard. It has a good cd soundtrack, but also songs in the sound files, which sometimes mix with each other, (I dont think its a bug on my pc) so it's better to have the cd music turned off, too bad. The cutscenes here are not very interesting and mostly quite cheesy. But what the game is good at is the visual aspect (some levels look really cool and unique), the arcade style and excessive gore of the game. Personally, I don't think the driving parts of the game were bad, they were actually quite innovative, such as the view from the driver's cabin (different for each car, etc.). Its quite short, it can be finished in a few hours and overall It was quite fun and it might be interesting for fans of vehicle combat games like carmageddon.

Awesome game. works flawlessly on the proper settings. brings back memories from when i was a kid. cool interesting story, decent amount of levels. great soundtrack, lots of action. reasonably priced. definitely worth buying!!

I really like the concept; feels like I’m in an early 90’s dystopian movie, and the vehicular combat mechanics are quite innovative for the time, at least when incorporated alongside the standard FPS mechanics. The weapon animations are also awesome, but there are some significant issues I’d like to address;

• The game requires quite a lot of patching to actually run on modern-day hardware.
  
• The actual engine is fairly unstable, especially when going through tight spaces, driving over rough terrain, or during seismic events.
  
• There’s a significant amount of fog in most indoor areas, making CQC a bit of a pain.
  
• The tutorial teaches you about certain buttons which can only be activated via vehicular combat, but I never encountered a single one throughout the campaign.
  
• It seems like the amount of armour your car gets is entirely dependant on your speed, which makes it incredibly difficult to kill certain enemies.
  
[*]Many of the later levels don’t provide anywhere near enough pickups, making some sections almost impossible. I hate cheating in games that I haven’t finished before, but I don’t think I would’ve been able to complete the final boss fight without activating god mode. Even the penultimate level requires a fairly conservative mindset if you’re planning on escaping at the end, so kudos to those who played through the whole game legit.

This game has all that late 90s/early 2000s charm in its graphics, its art style, its music and how hard it goes. The mix of FPS and car combat is really interesting, but sadly, neither one nor the other ends up working really good. It can be a little challenging getting the hold of the gameplay and some enemies AI can be a little unfair, but nothing you can't beat with a little practice. I never crossed this game at its time, so it was a little oddity with some fun and a really cool vibe, but not a great experience. I enjoyed it because I'm really enjoying games from this era lately, but you can totally skip it.

Some of the worst keyboard and mouse controls I've EVER seen, but strangely playable.

You spend more time waiting in the loading screens then you do playing, but the acting is hilariously worth it.

"LATER DAYS, A**HOLE!"

3/10

As much as I like old af jank games, this game just becomes complete a** once the enemies begin to be able to one-two shot you when you are in your car, the shooting sections are easy as f*** but the cars handle like slippery s*** and heaven forbid you slow down because the car has the most horrible turning radius in the world. i got it for 1.50$ and i got my monies worth, not even 3 hrs of gameplay but once you hit like a third-half way through the game it just becomes a painful slog. I say if you can get it for a dollar 50 like i did mayyyybe give it a shot but other than that probably avoid this.

This game is Janky which is kinda forgivable for the time but the Audio Mixing is HORRIBLE. Plays the same song over and over again with an siren playing in it really loud. They play this song during all cinematics and whilst people are talking so you can't hear them. No Audio sliders to turn down the music just a master slider. Have NO idea whats going on in the story or anything because of this just makes it a very poor experience for me. Couldn't even get it working for years until I found a fix off of steam, who refused to refund me when I told them it didnt work when I bought it. Honestly I'd just avoid it, its kinda offensive to play.

its classic game,good for 90s player to feel it again
but
i hope old developer share assets with others that can bring up again this magical game
like mod,engine etc
its like cnc renegade X, they remake the game for fresh start

Redline is a Car-Combat/FPS hybrid. It's fast-paced and has some interesting ideas up it's sleeve for sure. It seems a bit ambitious but unfortunately seems to have either rushed production values or not reign them in properly.

First I'd like to briefly point out the good I observed in my experience:
*Lovably hokey voice overs (Love me some cheezy VO which was common back in the day!)
*Lots of cars-- and they all look really cool!
*Fun to toy around with the cars and their unique weaponry
*Being able to drop in/out of your vehicle any time you like
*Graphical aesthetic. Minimalist, but nice.

Now, as cool as these features are in the game, it has some extremely annoying pitfalls that are simply impossible to ignore which I feel need further expanding upon to get an idea for why I'm unable to give a recommendation on this title:
*Accessibility: Getting this old game to run is a bit of a hassle and you have to know what you're after. There's some guides to help with that, but some of these issues out of the box are quite inexcusable for a modern re-release. The game is crash prone, riddled with FPS issues and countless other problems I had even after patching it with various fan-fixes.
Now personally I don't mind this but it could be a big turn away for many players I can imagine.
*Level design: The level design is pretty awful, but the missions do go by fast so sometimes you're too immersed in the carnage and the mission ends before it can become too cumbersome...Usually. Maps are generally 'large' but you can sweep right by them due to how fast your vehicle can tread around. Geometry is basic, especially interiors which look downright abysmal, even for the late 90s.
*Story: The story is just fluff on top for the carnage. There's nothing here really-- it's very basic Fallout/Mad Max post-apoc gang chaos and that's about all there is to it.
*FPS/On-foot mode: There is no camera sway, no footsteps, VERY little feedback in this mode. Usually the only way I'd know I was even taking damage is the health indicator flashing at me (and on higher resolutions, even less noticeable...)
This was a horrible design choice as several points in the game you are -forced- to go on foot. This was a pretty big let-down for me as this feature seemed like such a treat at first, but in practice it falls apart completely and feels cheap.
*Vehicle controls: This is a pretty bad one. Vehicles are fun to play around with, but when actually controlling them mid-combat they are very awkward to maneuver quickly enough, get caught on terrain, or bump to the point you're flying off the ground constantly. I even had times when the game just flat out broke and I launched through the terrain or dropped through it. Ouch.
*AI: The AI in this game is extremely erratic and stupidly fast/responsive in vehicles, and the on-foot AI is basic-- but in all the WRONG ways. Half the time they won't even notice you, the other half of the time they notice you TOO quickly. It's horrendously unbalanced and bipolar to the point you will become frustrated due to lack of challenge, or way too much, way too quickly, which brings me to my next, and biggest point...
*Difficulty curve: This is the part that bothered me the most.
The final quarter of the game is a complete chore. The game's difficulty spikes suddenly and absurdly in the final 4 or so missions which becomes wearisome -very- quickly and the smallest mistake costs you your rig -and- your health all in one swoop.
It is incredibly unforgiving if you mess up, and with how awful the controls can be, this happens a lot beyond your control.
The AI issue mentioned above makes this all so much worse. Car dogfights are supposed to be fun, you'd think? Well, not in this game-- at least not once you get mid-way through the game. You're offered little to no time to actually enjoy the new rigs you're given as the slightest error means you're dead due to how ridiculously fast combat gets. Combat becomes incredibly annoying for all the wrong reasons. Enemy vehicle reaction time is stupidly high (also, screw those super tanky turrets. "What were they thinking?") and the moment they see you nearby, or you shoot them they tend to lash back in milliseconds. It's absurd. They also tend to tail you so aggressively that it becomes impossible to have fun swooping on them or getting the jump on them.
Perhaps some enjoy the brutality here, but I found it lazy design as these same vehicles often got stuck running into a wall or debris without knowing how to back up. So I call bad AI design on this one that results in artificial difficulty and redundant trial and error...
*Carjacking claim is misleading: In this game you can't even car-jack until a good deal into the campaign from what I gather, and even then it's limited to a special EMP-based ammo you need to find in missions. You can only ever hold one at a time, and usually if your car blows up, you're dead in seconds in the later half of the game, so why even bother with this feature at all if it gets you killed 90% of the time? Terrible design choice, here.


All in all it's a game I really wanted to like and loved the concept for, but ultimately it fails, especially mid-way and never recovers that initial steam it has going in the first few missions. You just aren't given time to really -enjoy- the vehicles, you don't even get to select them yourself! Not directly on a per-mission basis anyway. If you're really a completionist and must play every car-combat based game or FPS-like out there I suppose you could do worse, but this certainly isn't in the top by any stretch of the imagination. Just know what you're getting into and expect some frustration.

My review is divided between 2 sections (past and present), to give the game a fair score.

Perspective of 1999 Review:
Redline's main attraction is its ability to mix car combat with first-person shooting. After controlling a vehicle or turret and using each ride's unique weapons, you can exit at anytime, and the game transforms into a first-person shooter with ten different on-foot weapons. The first-person elements works better in enclosed areas or buildings, as seeing an enemy's car coming straight towards you is unsettling. The only way (except for accurate aim with one particular gun) to battle a vehicle is, of course, with your own vehicle.

The gameplay itself is superb. As mentioned, the mix of the two genres flows perfectly. Although on-foot is your basic running and jumping (and left-right rolling, if you wanted to confuse someone), vehicle controlling takes a moment to grasp. Although the default settings may need to be tweaked, you would normally free-aim your weapon cursor with the mouse, and use your keyboard to drive. Driving is straightforward to learn, but the only odd thing is the sliding mechanism. The vehicle, no matter the size, all stops and slides the same. Most vehicles have multiple front weapons and a singular back weapon, and there's a large variety in the game (some have side-door weapons too, which is the hardest thing to control).

In the single player campaign (which has a lackluster yet passable gangs-in-wasteland story) the missions are linear, but not to the point of staleness. One mission has you racing the clock in an intense drive through a canyon. Another mission has you gunning your way to the heart of a rival gang's headquarters in the middle of a dystopian city. Other missions mixes up numerous objectives, such as hostage rescue, destroying a particular object, or defending a spot, to name a few. The story is told through intermission cutscenes, and although a select few are impressive, the vast majority consists of simple conversation. The AI is a bit predictable, as they are all set on being cannon fodder. Their intelligence is only slightly increased when in a vehicle, as their actions are a tad more randomized. After beating the game, there isn't much replay value. One mission has an alternate ending, and about half the missions has an alternate pathway at some point or another. The game is also covered with secrets and easter eggs, to the point that developer Beyond Games even created an interactive credits level.

However, the lack of a replay value is saved by the multiplayer aspect. You can play either free-for-all or team-based. Some of the maps are based on the single player, but others are completely new, and yet somehow still fits the overall tone of the game. Having to counterbalance your friends' usage of both on-foot and vehicles makes for a unique online game. Also, the default melee weapon (the sawblade) can actually be used to fly, which makes on-foot navigating a lot easier. Apparently, at first, it was programmed into the game accidentally, kind of like the story of Quake's rocket jumps. There is also a crucial multiplayer weapon that only makes brief appearances in single player (the EMP), which if shot at an enemy, it blinds and ejects them from their vehicle; thus, you can commit grand theft auto in the wasteland.

The graphics are fine-tuned and impressive, with bright explosions, numerous gibs from a corpse, far draw distances, and unique atmospheres differing between missions. Although the overall game is dystopian, the locales are distinguished, such as an old airport, a converted military base, a religious gang's church, and the obvious Stadium City to name a few. The sound is adequate, as the guns sound different enough to figure out what you're being shot with, and the music is a good dose of industrial metal during crucial moments. The voice acting (sans the friendly boss character) is a bit amateur though.

Overall, Redline mixes car combat and first-person shooting quite well. The setting is accurately portrayed as a dysfunctional wasteland, and the variety of the weapons and vast array of vehicles helps to submerge you in that world. The single player may not give too much replay value, but a second playthrough years later (or an online frag fest) will give you a reason to revisit this game.

Perspective of 2020 Review:
In 1999, the mix of an on-foot shooter and car combat might have seemed cliché, but in reality, no one was really trying it. BattleWheels was the godfather (the spiritual predecessor to Redline by Beyond Games), but it was an early '90s handheld game that got stuck in time. Necrodome attempted it, but the game's lack of diverse weapons and cringing graphics made it a flop. Interstate '82 allowed you to get out of the car, but you had a limited choice of weapons, and the third-person camera was laughable. Even years later, it's hard to come by a good on-foot/car combat video game. Auto Assault in 2006 tried the MMO route, but restricting hostile actions on-foot and a lack of marketing gave it a short lifespan. Rage in 2010 attempted the blend, but critics pointed at its lack of originality and its inability to focus on particular gameplay elements. Mad Max in 2015 is another example, but again, the game had its problem of a repetitive environment and confusing mission structure. Almost no games can be perfect, and neither can Redline.

Redline's on-foot can be compared to Quake or Redneck Rampage. Its movement is fast, the battles are jolting, and there's many weapons. Redline's car combat can be compared to Interstate '76 or Carmageddon. It's uniquely textured, the controls has a small learning curve, and there's a sense of urgency when battling in vehicles. But, Redline can only be “compared to” and not “exceeds” though. The mentioned games' gameplay elements are on par or slightly better than Redline; thus, individually, Redline does not reinvent anything. It simply presents two solid genres as they're known for.

The graphics aren't terrible, considering it was from 1999. The explosions still look kind of cool and the dystopian world should still be observed. The music isn't too dated either, as even in 2020, it still sounds like a Nine Inch Nails or Fear Factory outtake album. Overall, the gameplay is still unique enough to try out, even today, due to the lack of video games executing the two genres well enough.

There are many complaints about both the Steam and GOG versions of Redline. I have written up an extensive FAQ in the appropriate community discussions/message board. It covers the game crashing at launch, slow loading screens, getting multiplayer to work, secrets, and more. A lot of people spend about a minute to try to get a 1999 game to run on their PC, then, they give up and leave a bad review; granted, the publisher should have covered these issues before throwing it onto Steam or GOG. But, since this is the only exposure Redline will ever see in the foreseeable future, sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands.

9.5/10

Top 3 Pros:
-The first-person shooter and car combat mixture is very unique, setting the game apart from its peers.
-Atmospheric scenery with only minor complaints towards the graphics and sound.
-Multiplayer that can't be found in this form elsewhere.

Top 3 Cons:
-Besides multiplayer sessions, not much replay value, with a lack of customization options and no offline arena-based modes.
-The AI always goes into full-on kamikaze while only showing hints of a brain while driving.
-Vehicle controls may seem odd at first, but eventually is a breeze to understand.

First awesome FPS to include unique and badass vehicle combat. Has an extremely unique weapon system thats hella enjoyable with excellent gib effects. Interested bad guys and hilarious voice acting. Classic banger! <3

I beat this game a few years ago and frankly, I was disappointed. The same developers made Eradicator, a game I loved a lot, but Redline doesn't possess at all the greatness and the qualities of the aforementioned game.

So I heard of this seemingly somewhat obscure FPS. Has a bit of Mad Max in it etc, so I felt like buying this.

The good:
- Premise. In the future there's the wealthy living in nice conditions while less fortunate fellas live a rough life in the wasteland and so on.

- Soundtrack is good industrial stuff.

- The vehicular combat is fun!

- Vehicle variety.

Now, the bad..

- Driving really doesn't feel like anythlng.

- The FPS combat is crap, enemies are dumb, gunplay feels horrible, it is very weak.

- Heavily lackluster level design

Guess I'll give this a recommended rating but this game seriously loses out to it's competitors, the potential simply by large is left untapped.

been looking for this game for years, never realized steam had it. thank you steam for brining back another one of my childhood games.

What I liked about the game

• The game had some pretty awesome looking vehicles.
  
  
• Driving around, killing enemies and blowing up vehicles, can be quite fun and satisfying sometimes.
  
  
• Some of the levels where quite good, like the Arena.
  
  
• I liked how the weapon you where using could change into different weapons.
  
  
• The game is short.
  
  
• The game has training levels.
  
  
• Interesting story, sadly let down by everything else.
  
  
  What I disliked or was disappointed with
  
  
• Buggy and glitchy. The game kept repeating the same song over and over again; playing over the cut-scenes and over songs. Enemies can shoot through walls when driving vehicles. Animations are a bit messed up, especially when the troops holster there weapons, and the weapon just goes completely through them.
  
  
• Moving around on foot isn't practically pleasant. If you touch any obstacles; even slightly, it will slow you right down or stop you completely. I suffered from motion sickness throughout the game.
  
  
• Ugly weapon models.
  
  
• Boring characters.
  
  
• Crappy boss fights. I wish the game would display the boss's health.
  
  
• I wasn't keen on the cars health bar. A 0-100% health bar would have been perfectly fine. Would have been nice to see a speed dial. I also wish the map and the radar where permanent.
  
  
• Driving vehicles over flat terrain was fine, but once the terrain started to get hilly and rough, driving becomes almost impossible. When your vehicle goes into the air and lands it's like bloody pinball and crashing into cars is like bumper cars.
  
  
[*] More power ups for the vehicles would have been nice.

3/10 = bad

10/10 absolutely can't get enough!
PROS:
-Great rock soundtrack
-Plenty of levels
-Tutorial
-Singleplayer and multiplayer
-Cheap price definetly worth more
-Great gun selection
-High frame rate
CONS:
-Outdated graphics (I don't mind but some of you do)
-Story not very good

Literally unplayable. Please do not buy this. After troubleshooting for 30 min to get it to startup, there were so many graphics glitches i could not see any enemies, or my own character. Do not buy

What do I have to say? The game is good, but there's some lag at the settings at 1fps. It's imposible to change the settings, and the normal layout for movement are the arrow-keys. It ruins the whole game for me! Though, for a game from 1999, and thus before GTA III, are the graphics are pretty neat. If there's going to be a patch for this in the future, I'd recommend the game very much, but until then, DON'T BUY IT. EVEN WHEN IT'S ON SALE. 3/10

[quote]Follow my curator page for more recommendations![/quote]
It was a great game, however it has a lot of technical issues on modern systems so I can't recommend you buy it now. The Steam version is the same as the one on GOG, so don't expect it to be any different there. Both are at version 1.1 (the menu will say 1.0, this has always been the case, the patch never changed that number, so ignore it, and ignore all the people in the forum thinking they have to install the patch. That does nothing.)

The game's level design is pretty bad, but otherwise it was a fun FPS that also had decent car combat (and every car had an interior camera view!). It was fun blowing up bad guys into red chunks, and the way your weapon would transform into different versions was very cool. The animation for turning your assault rifle into a buzzsaw or sniper rifle was always entertaining.

Sadly, as I said, the game has a ton of issues currently. I was able to get it running on Windows 10 (though a lot of people in the forum can't get it to run at all. I did nothing special, so I have no idea why others are having issues getting it to launch), however you cannot change the resolution any higher than 1280x1024, the framerate is capped at 30fps, there's no way to increase the extremely small FOV, and if you use one of the fanmade patches to get a higher resolution (I was able to get it to launch at 1920x1080) the game will not run through Steam. Hence why it says I've only put a handful of minutes in the game.

Among other smaller issues is that the mouse will go wonky in some menus, slowing to a stuttering crawl, making it very hard to change keybindings and graphic settings. The soundtrack is screwed up and every single level starts with the same loud song (track02, which you can find under the Bonus Content folder), which plays for about 2 minutes and then stops. It doesn't play any of the other 8 songs this game has, it doesn't loop that one song, it just.. stops.

That one song will begin playing once a cutscene starts, too, so if you haven't turned it off (it's the "CD Audio" setting) then you'll have an impossible time trying to hear any of the characters.

If you don't mind playing with no music, a tiny resolution, mouse issues, and the often crashes, then it's a fun game. The level design is, as I said, kind of awful, and you'll get lost a good bit of the time. But the weapons are fun, the vehicles handle nicely, each one has an interior view, and the characters are pretty goofy and entertaining, especially whoever voiced Bork. Goodness, that voice.

Anyway, I can't recommend it, it's too buggy. Not even for the $0.97 it's currently at. I hope that this game sooner or later gets an official patch to fix at least a handful of the issues I've mentioned, but until then just play something else. You aren't missing too much. This is an entertaining, but altogether forgettable game.

If you really need some Redline in your life, why not just listen to some good ol' King Kobra?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrjpsjLntm0

A truly unique experience. Carmageddon spiced up by the ability to smack the living shit out of your opponents while you're on foot. Great soundtrack. Charismatic Liddy, boss of the Company - the gang our protagonist joins in the beginning. Rant singing Kumbaya. Four rival gangs - each with their own flavor. And all of these set in a pretty good-looking post-apocalyptic wasteland. Maaaan, do i miss the 90s.

Awesome game !
" We will be going door to door collecting citizens and eating them ! Anybody have a problem with that ? "

We use to play this all the time in the early 2000s. It was one of my first games that i bought for my first PC ! So i had to naturally grab this on sale today ! I have the version from GOG also and have the update for it. Multiplayer was a riot with the flying using the blade saw weapon ! The voice acting and story is epic ! Many many hours of fun in the single player mode with lots and lots of adventure !

I sure hope they remake this one !