Shame really, the title Redshirt is playing on the Star Trek trope, that the security officers in the eponymous coloured top die on almost every mission.
Instead, we are treated to a very clinical view of the future, where your only real ability is to communicate exclusively via Spacebook (yes, Facebook, in space), and meeting up with people at your job. To speak with anybody, you literally have to message them on Spacebook (which doesn’t get responses either), ‘like’ their statuses, or invite them to events. The interface is convoluted and hard to understand at first, but you get the hang of it. I do feel they made it overly complex though.
The story is non-existent, you are on a space station in a disputed region of space. Near the beginning of the game, there are rumours about something happening to the station in the future, and you then have a countdown to how many days are left. It is safe to assume that if you are still on the station, you’re not going to live much longer.
Each interaction with people gets you either positive or negative friend points with them, the more positive you get, the more likely they’ll accept your friend request. You can also request a relationship, and there are no boundaries here, male/male, female/female, gender neutral etc, though the characters there do have preferences.
Each action you do, from liking a post, going to eat, buying something from the shop, takes up ‘action points’, and you have so few per day it gets annoying very quickly. Generally you get one before work, then 3 after work. On weekends, you get 6 points to spend. Big events need more time as expected.
You can also level up your skills to get a better job, or change your primary interests, which will get you the friends you need. In order to progress up the career ladder, you need to have a certain level in specific skills, or you can be great friends with the boss. In the end, I managed to request relationships with the bosses, so they overlooked my missing skills, and even if you break it off with them, you don’t lose your work!
You do go on away missions, and though I have yet to die (even when I had very poor health) almost certainly people you know will die, which makes you sadder.
You learn of the few ways to get off the station, and soon you strive towards that. I think I may have finished it a little early, since I was on the final career level and have already bought a shuttle ticket, though I wanted to buy a second for a friend, but there was over 90 days left.
The art is basic, and nothing worth mentioning. The sound effects and music are average, but dull, perhaps Steam Music may help to alleviate it? No voice acting as well.
Worst of all is the gameplay, there is none. Get friends, go to events, work, have a romance, all to get yourself away. It’s all very cold and calculated, since you don’t really feel closer to even your significant other in the end. Spacebook statuses are mostly duplicated dozens of times during the course of the game, ruining the immersion. While I understand having unique sentences for each of your friends to have through the numerous day is hard, it still annoys me reading the same thing.
Overall, not worth a buy, unless you’re like me and bought it in the Bemine 11 bundle.