Terraria accessories
Instead, you pick a special rioter at the start of each level that will be in amongst your angry horde to add abilities. Unfortunately on the rioters’ side, there’s not much in the way of units. The tactical unit is the most useful when it comes to holding areas: they use riot shields and go toe-to-toe with rioters, pushing them back when head on. Assault uses batons and can charge at rioters to frighten them or injure them.
Ballistic uses weaponry to disperse crowds including smoke grenades, tear gas and eventually live ammunition. When playing as police, the groups are split among ballistic, tactical, and assault units. The sound design within levels adds atmosphere to the riots, intermixing the marching of police, the chants of the rioters, the explosions of smoke grenades and screams to any threat of violence from police. RIOT’s soundtrack also lends to the feeling of the campaigns all four have their own tracks to help set the tone and place. Something as simple as a police officer taking off his helmet to wipe his brow at dusk tells the player everything they need to know. Without dialogue and an art style that doesn’t bode well for nuance, the team has managed to use simple and often emotive imagery to convey the story and the emotions of those involved, which is a great feat. Set in Spain, Egypt, Greece and Italy respectively, each has its own unique look and feel, and one of the most striking parts of RIOT – Civil Unrest is the cutscenes that play before each level. In its story mode, RIOT – Civil Unrest contains four campaigns with four levels each: Indignados, Arab Spring, Keratea and NoTAV. His first-hand experience really adds to the honest, delicate, and respectable representation of all the riots depicted in the game. Creator Leonard Menchiari took an experience he had at the NoTAV protests in Italy – one of the campaigns in the game – and created RIOT – Civil Unrest to express the tensions and feelings created through riots. Each side is split into separate groups, with the player able to control each group’s movements, and abilities/items. You can play all scenarios as either police or rioters. To depict these real life riots, developers Leonard Menchiari and IV Productions opt for a real time strategy simulation. Players can build their own custom levels too in a confusing UI, but those willing to put in the time will be rewarded with an in-depth creation tool. The UI design leaves a lot to be desired, however ugly menus are hard to read and overly cumbersome to navigate. The grim pixel art juxtaposed with real life riots helps ground the game in the events depicted – it creates simple, grimly beautiful visuals. I was instantly drawn to the art style of RIOT – Civil Unrest a pixel art style you’d usually expect to see from a more colourful game. It’s a shame the gameplay often lets down the great direction with plenty of irritating bugs and balance issues. Great care is put into representing the historical riots portrayed in RIOT – Civil Unrest.