HomeAnimeRed vs Blue: Project Freelancer (Season 9) - Review

Red vs Blue: Project Freelancer (Season 9) – Review

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Red vs Blue: Project Freelancer (Season 9) - Review 1Title: Red vs Blue Revelation – Season 9
Created by: Rooster Teeth
Published by: Siren Visual (Australia)
Based On: The Halo Series by Bungie for Microsoft consoles
Audio: English
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (1.78:1)
Runtime: 120 Minutes + Extras
Cost: $29.95 (From Siren Visual Store)
Classification: This title has been classified MA15 for strong coarse language.
Special Thanks: A copy of this title was kindly provided by Siren Visual for the purpose of this review.

While The Guild, also recently released by Siren Visual was my first live action film… their other release last month Red vs Blue: Project Freelancer (or simple Season Nine) is the only machinima series I have reviewed on this site, and in that respect quite possibly the most successful and well known out of all machinima on the market. I stated this before but I am not a follower of the Halo series… despite owning Halo 3: ODST, Halo Wars and Halo: Anniversary Edition, however I have a soft spot for the witty storytelling mechanics and design techniques that gave RvB Season 8 an A- grade in my review last February. How does this season shape up? Read on to find out!

Red vs Blue: Project Freelancer (Season 9) - Review 2

Before the events of Blood Gulch there was Project Freelancer, an experimental military program which sought to create a new breed of warrior. This new soldier was to be faster, stronger and smarter than any other we’ve seen before.. which, based on previous seasons of RED VS. BLUE, doesn’t really take that much.

While I haven’t had the chance to dive through the first seven seasons of the series, the storyline has been designed to act as both a sequel to the previous seasons as well as a prequel in which it describes the Project Freelancer plan that begins before the Blood Gulch Chronicles. Both of these plots overlap each other, occasionally switching from one to another so they are not two completely independent storylines. The sequel plot follows the events post-Season 8 and focuses primarily through the view of Church (Epsilon) with Tex as a secondary main character. The storyline is pretty simplistic, focusing primarily on the comedy aspect refined over the last few years but also delivering a moderately interesting plot. The second prequel plot on the other hand is less comedy focused in my opinion and more serious in nature (and the source of much more action given the new design styling). It introduces the Project Freelancer which is the purpose of the Red vs Blue wars for the study of the AI soldiers.

The storyline should be appealing to fans of the RvB franchise and introduces a hefty number of new characters and plot elements, however from my perspective if you are not familiar with previous seasons then you might end up rather lost when it comes to the plot.

Red vs Blue: Project Freelancer (Season 9) - Review 3

There are two district design styles, one for each of the two plots. The first is the one you will perhaps be more familiar with…. the sequel story makes use of in-game machinima footage from Halo Reach, and while there is nothing all that special about it in comparison to other seasons, it works and is the style they are evidently more familiar with. The prequel is of a more interesting design – making use of new pre-rendered CGI which casts aside the limitations of the in-game setting, allowing environments outside of the game to be used, an even higher quality of footage and for what seems to be the first time, the appearance of actual humanoid designs instead of the normal soldiers. The combat scenes with this design were some of the best I have seen so far and were memorable. In terms of DVD video quality, the use of 1.78:1 widescreen was appreciated and there seemed to be sharper visuals than previous DVD’s (Compared to Seasons 7 and 8 on Siren Visual DVD releases).

My comments of my previous review of Season 8 still stand in terms of voice acting and music. With the exception of a few scenes, music was pretty much non-existent but the music that was used loaned themselves well to the action sequences which they were primarily used on. Sound effects were also well used in lieu of the music and the voice acting was as strong as ever, making use of evidently a strong voice cast.

Red vs Blue: Project Freelancer (Season 9) - Review 4

As with all other releases, the DVD is stacked with extra content. The bonus content includes:

  • Audio Commentary – Always an interesting listen
  • Outtakes
  • Deleted Scenes
  • Special Videos – What I Did on My Summer Vacation, Gamer Etiquette, Firefight, Wootstock and Burn Blue.
  • Behind the Scenes
  • Trailer for Season 9
  • More from Rooster Teeth – Trailers for The Recollection Series, Blood Gulch Chronicles, Grifball: Double Agent, RT Shorts Seasons 1-3, Immersion and Achievement Hunter.

There should be enough content on the disc to appeal to the fans of the series and those who are casual watchers alike. As well, they tried to spice up the DVD menus as well and worked well with their style of humor.

Personally, if you are a fan of the series then you will find this series at least as enjoyable as previous instalments, but unlike other seasons which may have constituted as a start point for your watching, I don’t think it would be that easy to appreciate the story without at least some background reading. I did enjoy it however, but perhaps not to the extent I enjoyed the more comical last season.

Final Score

Storyline / Character Development: B+
Design: 
A-
Music/Voice Acting: C+
Packaging/Extras: 
A
Personal Preference:
B
Overall Score: B
Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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