TX stands for Radical Tactic Expert. A commando. A soldier trained to go into a situation with little support and hold his own against poorly scouted enemy forces. The person the military calls when, in the aftermath of defeating an alien invasion of Earth, contact is lost with the colony on Mars. The enemy has been driven away, but apparently not very far away.
The RTX sent to the red rocks of Mars is E.Z. Wheeler, a wounded veteran and hero of the war. Doctors have replaced E.Z.'s lost hand and eye with cyborg implants that result in his being able to employ special visions (thermoscan, naviscan, electroscan, bioscan) and tools (torque wrench, grappling hook, taser, plasma cutter, catapult) as the game progresses. E.Z. is supposed go to Phobos and gather intelligence, but a desperate call from the surface and an alien attack put an end to that plan. One shuttle flight and spectacular crash later, E.Z. is on the planet and killing aliens.
The majority of the game is spent in third-person view, exploring and fighting as E.Z. In addition, there are four vehicles that E.Z. will travel in and fight from, and there are also eight different robots that E.Z. will control remotely with the help of I.R.I.S., his AI companion, who gets plugged into various data stations to give E.Z. news, objectives, advice and wisecracks. Added to this gear is the usual adventure-game selection of guns, grenades and bombs, so that in total E.Z. has a big variety of tools with which to solve the game's puzzles and kill its foes.
Time limits are a very common component in RTX:RR. Time on the planet surface is limited by quickly draining oxygen tanks, rooms on the stations get decompressed, timers click down. The game seldom leaves room for E.Z. to just stand around and admire the scenery.
The game that couldn't shoot straight
There was a time when seeing LucasArts on the cover of a game basically guaranteed it would be good. The game might not be to a particular player's taste, but the programming would be good and the story would be interesting. These days, that is only half true. LucasArts still distributes games with strong stories, but you can't always count on the programming. Case in point is the lock-on system of RTX:RR. Like many adventure games, this one does not force the player to aim the character's weapons. Instead, moving within range of any enemy causes E.Z. to lock onto it, and then all the player has to do is press the fire button. The problem with RTX:RR is that the lock-on is temperamental. Sometimes it snaps to with no problem, sometimes it refuses to lock on at all. This is one thing when dueling alien warriors at rifle range, but it is really annoying when trying to put down Mars vermin at close quarters.
The story, on the other hand, is quite good. Its "one commando against an alien army" premise is nothing new, but the details of it are fresh and interesting, helped along by good nonplayer characters, particularly I.R.I.S. who has both an appealing look and an entertaining manner. It is easy to get caught up in the plight of the colonists and care about saving them.
The mystery of the game is in the story, rather than in its puzzles, which, by the standards of this year's action games, are pretty straightforward. Locked doors and unscalable walls prevent the player from taking E.Z. too far afield of the next item or switch to which I.R.I.S. has pointed him. More interesting is the question of what the aliens are doing on Mars, which, along with concern for the fates of the colonists, will keep players moving forward.
I'm not a fan of timed obstacle courses, so RTX:RR disappointed me by not giving me the time I often wanted to explore and plot and experiment.
— Eric
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