When it comes to indie games, it isn’t uncommon to see titles using distinctive or unique aesthetics to make the experience pop. Of course, it helps when you have gameplay that provides a strong base, otherwise it can all sort of fall apart. That’s how I feel walking away from I See Red, which uses a pretty striking black and white base which is then accentuated by red accents everywhere. While it doesn’t look so bad when watching some quick footage of it, actually spending time with it is less encouraging. 

At its base this has a mix of twin-stick action and shooting, which at least gives the experience a distinctive feel. You can go with shooting weapons or make use of an effective melee attack, but honestly most of the game’s fun tends to revolve around creative use of your grappling hook. Whether you’re pulling yourself close to an enemy to then slice them up, or pull a gas tank into your hands that you can then throw into an enemy pack, when you get into the flow of things there’s at least a little fun to be had initially. The problem is that even with a variety of perks, skills, and enhancements you’ll be able to load up the further you go, I’m not sure the action evolves enough to be noteworthy.

A tremendous obstacle to greater enjoyment is the horribly low-res and blurry look the game has adopted. The action is muddy, it can be challenging to make out the differences between different guns or pieces of equipment at times, and that also gets in the way of the game having a higher cool factor as well. The worst part is that the low quality level can even make reading the in-game help text a bit of a chore. Perhaps you’ll be able to kick some butts, but the experience can be such a visual soup at times that it robs you of most of the satisfaction.

In many regards I See Red feels like an incomplete thought, a game that started to come together in a few areas, with the rest just roughed in, and they decided to just run with it rather than refine it further. You get glimpses of potential at times, but in an eShop full of far more polished titles that honestly blow this away on multiple levels, it’s hard to take it very seriously.