Players will now be able to diversify their groups a bit more with the addition of female marines to the squadron. In addition, The Red Solstice now features 100% more gameplay due to the brand new map that is now available for seasoned players.

If you’re a fan of the classic Warcraft 3 custom maps from days past, Ironward sends along an interestng tidbit about their team.

The Red Solstice is quite strongly inspired by classic Warcraft 3 and Starcraft II custom maps like Night of the Dead. In fact, one of the lead devs at Ironward (The Red Solstice developer), Hrvoje Horvatek, helped develop Night of the Dead: Special Ops, a mod aimed at veterans of NotD2.

We recently previewed The Red Solstice on the game’s launch day and walked away very impressed with the game even in it’s initial form.

You can grab The Red Solstice right now on Steam Early Access at http://store.steampowered.com/app/265590. The game is currently on sale for 40% off until June 28th.

I was able to find an open lobby quickly and was thankful to be grouped with a few veteran players that could sheperd my fellow new recruits and I through the mission. It wasn’t until first entering the mission that I got a true feel for what this game was all about. I knew this was an 8 player co-op game and had already gone through the prologue, but that knowledge didn’t mentally prepare me for the true scale of the game. The Red Solstice is way more epic than I had initially thought. With randomized objectives and events, combined with absolutely huge maps, The Red Solstice never feels underwhelming even when you’re teaming up with 7 of your buddies. My first co-op encounter was a roughly 40 minute long timed mission that had us battling through a gigantic map on the hunt for both primary and optional objectives. Our highest ranked player assumed the role of team captain and attempted to lead us through the dangerous city streets. Our squad of 8 was fortunate enough to have an additional high level player accompanying us on this mission, or at least it seemed fortunate at the time. Within minutes though, things got pretty serious for the squad. Our second-in-command was lying dead somewhere, having grown overconfident in his ability to wander off from the group for a moment. As many players will quickly discover, dying in The Red Solstice is forever. Working together and staying close is your best chance at making it out of there alive.

The Red Solstice is all about trying to find the right balance between the needs of the few and the needs of the many. Players are given limited ammo and supplies at the beginning of a mission, it’s up to the team to salvage and distribute the items that will soon be in short supply. There is always that possibility that a few greedy players will dash towards the lootable objects while the rest of your team fights back hordes of enemies. That might work out for them in the short term, but when the greedy few have all the ammo while the rest of the squad is running on empty, they may see the error in the ways. This limited ammo supply creates a good deal of suspense as you make your way through the map. “Almost out. Watch my shots. Hopefully there’s a locker in the next building.” I’d say to myself, as I watched my ammo count trickle down closer to zero. With everything being randomized, you can never depend on that next room to replenish your ammo, it’s all quite tense. Things got tougher and tougher as another one of our teammates would wander too far and be cut down. Eventually, due to the sum of our mistakes, we failed. In the end, it was down to just 2 of our original squad of 8. Our team leader and a single new recruit had both managed to live, though not together. Both had become separated in battle and found themselves too far away to be of any use to one another, and quickly running out of ammo. They both died no longer shooting, but simply running for their lives.

Not every mission will be a success, even if you put an hour into it, you can still gloriously fail. It’s the panicked sense of impending doom that shines most brightly. The next room may be your last. That equipment locker might not have enough ammo to last very long. Your Medic could get caught unprepared for an ambush. The Red Solstice is absolutely glorious, and is everything PC gaming is about.

The Red Solstice is a tactical, 8-player, co-op survival game set in the distant future on Mars.

One game session can last up to one hour, during which players can roam freely over huge maps, completing randomized objectives and dealing with random events.
The goal is to try to survive and conquer by any means necessary. Get stronger every time. Level up to unlock new weapons and abilities. Try to survive the storm.

You can grab your copy of The Red Solstice right now on Steam Early Access. The game is currently 40% off until July 21st and also available as a 4-pack.