Parents' Guide to Heavy Fire: Red Shadow

On-rails shooters are known for their fast-paced action and limited mobility, like taking a shooting gallery onto a roller coaster, but the gameplay disappoints in all areas. Heavy Fire: Red Shadow seems to ask what would happen if a game cranked up the hostility to an eleven while eliminating any movement at all. The answer? In this case, you're left with a game that functions from a technical standpoint, but lacks any feeling of fun whatsoever. It's an especially bad sign when the best thing that can be said is that the game "works."

There are lots of problems in Heavy Fire: Red Shadow, starting with the presentation. The game isn't exactly setting any benchmarks when it comes to its graphics. It's bland, boring, and uninspiring. And yet it's still more polished than what passes for the game's paper-thin plot. Gameplay is little more than point-and-shoot, with players simply dragging the reticle across the screen while letting loose a steady stream of bullets. There are challenges in each mission, like getting headshots, stopping the advance of kamikaze soldiers, etc., but these are more of a distraction than an actual goal. Setting aside the fact that hitting distant targets isn't exactly a precision affair, attempting to prevent being overwhelmed is likely to accomplish the goals by pure chance. Finally, Heavy Fire: Red Shadow's extremely short and repetitive, with little reason to go back to the experience … assuming there's even any motivation to finish it at all.