
User reviews: Mostly Negative (4,262 reviews)
Release Date: Feb 10, 2014


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About This Game






Key Features:


System Requirements

    • OS: Windows XP SP3 (32-bit only)
    • Processor: 2GHz or better CPU
    • Memory: 2 GB RAM
    • Graphics: A graphics card with Shader Model 3.0 support
    • DirectX: Version 9.0
    • Network: Broadband Internet connection
    • Hard Drive: 3 GB available space
    • OS: Windows 7 64-bit
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: nVidia GeForce 8800 (768 MB GDDR3)
    • DirectX: Version 9.0
    • Network: Broadband Internet connection
    • Hard Drive: 3 GB available space
Helpful customer reviews
518 of 601 people (86%) found this review helpful
5.2 hrs on record
Posted: November 13
I got this game as a gift and have since stopped speaking to the person who sent it to me.
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198 of 216 people (92%) found this review helpful
3.7 hrs on record
Posted: October 13
"Meet the game that brings back the tactical FPS shooter"...

When in development this game promised to bring back the tactical shooter. It brought it back but not in a good way. There are so many problems with this game. It is a buggy mess. Gameplay is: Peak around corner, shoot dumb enemy. Move to next room. Peak around another corner, shoot enemy. Move to next room, peak around corner and get shot. Take control of team mate. Move to next room, crash due to game ruining bug... Haha fun isn't it?

Good stuff:
-Made me excited when seeing for first time.

Bad stuff:
-Made me cry when playing for the first time.
-Customisation doesn't work.
-Bad A.I.
-Glitchy mess.
-Overpriced (devs should pay you to play).
-Doesn't work.
- I could go on for an hour about how bad this is. -

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222 of 250 people (89%) found this review helpful
89.4 hrs on record
Posted: November 4
Says I've played for 89 hours because it wouldn't close.

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297 of 348 people (85%) found this review helpful
1.4 hrs on record
Posted: July 2
It's like if old Rainbow Six games gangbanged Day One: Garry's Incident, the end result would be this.
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147 of 163 people (90%) found this review helpful
1.3 hrs on record
Posted: November 3
Do you like ultra hardcore realistic tactical shooters that border on masochistic, giving you the ability to pretend you're a military genius capable of clearing an entire room of enemies with a single bullet ricocheting off walls?

Don't get this game, buggy, unresponsive and downright crap. The AI is barely functional and has the incredible ability to spot and kill you through walls. Constantly. Moving a single step even crouched can alert an entire map to your position. Endlessly trawling through dull, drab environments looking for the solitary last enemy alive only to be sniped with a pistol through several brick walls across the map IS NOT FUN. Dropping an Action Man in to a blender and recording it in Slow-Motion is definitely more fun than this. Save your £3.99 for anything else.*

*Not literally anything.
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153 of 176 people (87%) found this review helpful
1.0 hrs on record
Posted: November 16
Getting it for free is a terrible deal, you should be paid to play this piece of crap!

Gameplay: -10/10
Utterly unplayable, developers have never even played an FPS title.

Graphics: -5/10
Counter-Strike 1.6 looks ten times better.

Audio: 0/10
They recorded the audio using a 10$ mic in their basement!

Story: 0/10

Final Score:
................. /^^/
................ /¯..¯/
.......... /´'¯/'...'/´¯`¸
....... /.'./.../..../.../¨'¯\
..... (.'.(...´.... ¯./'...')
...... \.........'......'.../
....... \....'......'. _.·´
......... \.......'.....(
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275 of 343 people (80%) found this review helpful
0.9 hrs on record
Posted: November 8
take down this game from steam
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133 of 156 people (85%) found this review helpful
1.1 hrs on record
Posted: July 13
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86 of 96 people (90%) found this review helpful
1.1 hrs on record
Posted: November 8

this game promised to bring back tactical shooters and re-invent a now dead genre. Needless to say that this is not the case. lets break down why the game is so bad.

Terrible squad and enemy Artificial intelligence. they spend more time shooting at walls than each other.
Meaningless customization: Three different armor types and multiple weapons that behaive exactly the same.
The enemies can one shot kill you, no matter where they hit you regardless of armor.

very difficult to traverse menus.
Lack of visual settings

Good luck setting up multi-player for friends.

Now lets look at some other points.

The price is currently set at $5.49 CDN, this is still way to much to buy this game for, in fact this is a game that you should not even accept as a gift. I bought 4 copies of this game for $5.49 TOTAL, so that my friends could suffer along with me.

and finally let me remind you of the awards section of the store page. (with my own commentary in brackets)

FPS Guru - Pax Prime'13 Most Innovative
The Most Innovative award is yet another indie title (Step your game up pax....). One of the great things about indie games is they always manage to be unique and bring something new to the table (Not always good). They're able to take the risks that triple A companies aren't. This is a company that has made the decision to skip following the generic shooter genre, let's get rid of levels(Maybe this is why there are only four maps...) , noob tubing, and throw in tactics (if by tactics they mean boredom) and strategy (and by strategy they mean endless buyers remorse) instead. Serellan LLC certainly deserves this award for (Ruining) their tactical shooter, Takedown: Red Sabre. (The name of the game also doubles as a request to valve)

Takedown: Red Sabre encourages the player to communicate with their team mates (by yelling at the npcs for walking into walls) and take on each mission differently (in exactly the same fashion) , in their hope to survive. don't expect to be running and gunning down the hallways, because (good luck finding anyone to shoot) there's no respawning(apart from the fact that you turn into team mates after death). It's a (Dis)pleasure to see a return to the tactical shooter and what appears to be a(n) (un)successful return. Once I got my hands on Takedown: Red Sabre it was difficult to stop. (Because the menus wouldent let you.)
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81 of 96 people (84%) found this review helpful
0.9 hrs on record
Posted: November 20
Fakedown: Red Gaybre is a game where:
-You fall half a metre and die of ebola and coronary heart disease
-The AI brings a sniper with a scope to a CQB scenario
-The terrorists are actually super mutants with super hearing who are angry at their creators 'cause they can sure as hell hear you creeping 3 rooms away
-You have 3 speeds of travel;walking,brisk-walking(wtf) and sprinting
-They give you a butt-load of SMGs and ARs but only one sniper and shotgun. But who cares 'cause we can't tell the difference
-Enemy bullets are like anti-goodguy bullets which will disintegrate your HEAVY armor and straight out kill you.
-You have to use task manager to quit the game
-You regret buying the game eventhough you got it for free
-The pistols look like they have dwarfism
+You get trading cards. Dats cool i guess
+You have a great time laughing with friends in the training missions but lose them once you start playing the actual missions
+You can put flags on your armor. Dats cool 2 i guess
+You find the motivation to be successful in life just because you don't want to end up like this game

Overall, buy this game as a gift for your mortal enemy and pray they don't do the same to you.
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115 of 148 people (78%) found this review helpful
1.2 hrs on record
Posted: October 18
They tried to combine Rainbow 6 and Counter strike and ♥♥♥♥ed up pretty bad
like really ♥♥♥♥ing bad
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74 of 87 people (85%) found this review helpful
0.8 hrs on record
Posted: November 10
I got this game for free and I still feel like I deserve a refund.
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51 of 57 people (89%) found this review helpful
3.7 hrs on record
Posted: November 20
fought through the pirate infested upper deck of a cargo ship...
lost a man on the way...
rescued a hostage from his two captors...
secured hostage...
AI teammate blows him away seconds later.
AI knew he had a hidden blade. I owe that man my life.
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50 of 56 people (89%) found this review helpful
2.7 hrs on record
Posted: October 5
"Takedown: Red Sabre is largely unfinished but may have potential if it was finished"

As a fan of tactical FPS games such as Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon and Arma I was excited to hear about Takedown: Red Sabre. Unfortunately, the game failed to live upto the hype, which was promised by the developers, as being a realistic tactical FPS. In almost every area of the game it's clear to see that the game was rushed with apparently no time spent whatsoever for polishing or improving the game before it's release.

In terms of gameplay, majority of the game is actually there but it's poorly implemented. Enemies range from being completely unaware of you to being deadly accurate. The friendly AI is almost completely lacking, which makes singleplayer completely unenjoyable. However, the game's core mechanics are in fact there, which means that there is a small amount of fun to be had if you choose to play the game with friends. But be aware, there is no way to create private matches and there are no online games available at all at the time of writing this review. If you can live with some 'small' ♥♥♥♥les such as the unbelievably slow walking speed, the fact that any height can kill you and the AI the game is playable but it just doesn't live up to what the developers promised.

The level design is one of the few aspects of the game that appears to have been properly thought out with levels that feature tight hallways and open spaces which might create a tactical FPS if the game's mechanics were equally polished. The graphics aren't terrible (on low settings) and even lower end machines should be able to handle the game pretty easily.

Overall, Takedown: Red Sabre is largely unfinished but might have some potential to live up to it's promises if someone took the time to finish it and give it the polish it desperately needs.
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35 of 37 people (95%) found this review helpful
0.1 hrs on record
Posted: July 8
Worst farming simulator I've ever played.
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43 of 51 people (84%) found this review helpful
1.7 hrs on record
Posted: November 1
"Not for the faint hearted" Because you'll have a heart attack when you see how ♥♥♥♥ing awful this game is.
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35 of 39 people (90%) found this review helpful
3.1 hrs on record
Posted: October 11
I purchased Takedown: Red Sabre back when it was around a dollar, guessing it be a capable, perhaps minimalistic first-person, tactical shooter, qualities I tend to occasionally enjoy and recommend, but in place of an entertaining romp through room clearing and CQC, I instead received an underwelming mix-match of unfinished ideas and interesting concepts.

Using Takedown's 'spiritual predecessors,' the Rainbow Six series and SWAT 4 -whose demos are still available online, as the standards for tactical shooters, Red Sabre falls a little short.

Starting with the mission select screen, the lack of a planning stage means the player is left to begin the mission blind as to the mission objective, general routes, and overall level design. Yes, several vague objectives are posted in the form of a style-over-substance video overlay, but their possible locations, numbers, and significance are all still left unknown or murky. A realistic estimation of the cloud of combat and the limitations of simple surveillance? Not really, seeing as all three of these aspects are sensible targets of approximation during the inevitable observations that occur prior to sending in tactical teams...Right? A simple, pre-mission map with rough outlines and selectable routes would be wonderful, as would some form of dialogue between squad and commander to answer any lingering mission details.

On the topic of missions, the actual mission objectives, considering Red Sabre's apparent tactical roots, are surprizingly bland and simplistic in nature, echoing the desires of a standardized checklist, rather than the actual SWAT operations they wish to emulate. Missing are the dynamic hostage rescues with captive/captor dialogue and potential loss of life due to the explosive nature of such echanges. Even compared to the earlier SWAT series, Takedown's missions are devoid of the atmospheric tension maintained through periodic use of covnversation and ambient comments.

Then, when actually playing a mission, several basic capabilities are absent, namely squad manipulation and regular status updates. In place of a context menu or other useful method of commanding your team, a simple hold toggle and ROE wheel are offered, both of which obfuscate the all-essential room clearing, as your team is always behind you, in turn rendering useless the more elaborate levels with their multitude of cover and choke points, as your teammates will never actually take strategic positions or utilize flanks, and complicating simple matters of spacial awareness as our mates tend to vanish when not verbally announcing enemies, their virtual minds dead set on maintaining unnecessary radio silence. The ability to investigate, both physically and visually through your squadmates: rooms, towers, corners, windows, doors, would be a monumental improvement, as would simple formation and movement commands.

This brings into light, your squad's strange lack of communication. Yes, the AI announces spotted enemies, but that's seemingly the extent of their communicative ability. Positions, actions, general side-chatter, are all absent, replaced instead with a wall of silence and death. While the latter is more a subset of mood setting and tone, the former two topics of conveyance are important aspects of movement and firing maneuvers, as proper placement of suppression and flanking teams must be confirmed before performance. That, and the awkwardness of having to spin your character around to check their periodic status, when enemies are everpresent, is painful. The movie, Way of the Gun, provides a fun example of firefight communication, as do several article by dslyecxi, a founding member of ARMA's ShacTac.

Lastly is a breakdown of the player's ironically standard moveset, given the advances in recent game design and Takedown's desire to be both modern and tactical. The player is limited to a digital lean, without a stepout or means of truly examining corners and bends, two digital stances, without any real cover system, nonexistent damage modeling -foot shots are instakills, and strangely simplified gun mechanics. As stated by its own developer, Red Sabre's crippled lean was intentional, but as demonstrated in RavenShield, fully analog leaning and stance change are possible, and with a reticule present -reticules being a sensible representation of the mental focal point one references when looking around and not the fabricated, game-world only gimmick some make it out to be btw, returning fire is possible so long as the weapon is locked to the view, an equally sensible representation, given SWAT behavior. The application of such a system would allow for full realization of the environment, window avoidance, and improved surveillance, aspects only improved upon by a fluid cover system, one that allows, at least in its most basic form, temporarily full coverage from fire, as shown in Red Orchestra and even Killzone or Perfect Dark, but in a more advanced form, with some manner of controlled cover migration. Exemplified in games like Receiver and the aforementioned Orchestra, gun mechanics can be rather complex without seeming overwhelming, so long as they're presented intuitively. Ammo checking, magazine management, individual component manipulation, bracing have therefore all been implemented in the past and have helped in pulling player skill and concentration away from reflexes and placing them on planning and execution.

Along with several prevalent, submitted glitches, involving firing, aiming, and stance freezes, I hope the above mentioned points help illuminate the fact that, while not the horrid abomination some have made it out to be, Takedown: Red Sabre is at its best underdeveloped and at its worst, unfinished, statuses that could effectively be remedied via patches and/or modding.

Looking into the history of Red Sabre, it would seem Takedown's developer, Serellan, started a KickStarter to create a certain type of product of a certain calibre, and after raising a fair amount of money -over $220,000, released a product of subpar qualities, even after praising their own past experience and ability. That's just frustrating and unprofessional.
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240 of 375 people (64%) found this review helpful
4.9 hrs on record
Posted: October 6
I've never played a better Frustration Simulator! I was so frustrated it was great! 10/10

Give it to your parents! Give it to your friends! It makes a fabulous present!

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29 of 32 people (91%) found this review helpful
0.2 hrs on record
Posted: September 27
Just...just don't.
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42 of 56 people (75%) found this review helpful
0.1 hrs on record
Posted: October 14
Whatever you do. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME! Get a Tom Clancy game or ARMA 3 instead.
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