Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Redneck Rampage: Family Reunion delivers a frenetic, tongue-in-cheek first-person shooter experience built on the classic Build engine. From the opening shotgun blast to the final boss fight, the core gameplay loop is satisfyingly simple: run, gun, and blow up anything that moves (or occasionally, the things that don’t). Dodging flying cow pies, hopping between rusty tractors, and using improvised weapons like the “boll weevil blaster” keeps each session unpredictable and riotously fun.

(HEY YOU!! We hope you enjoy! We try not to run ads. So basically, this is a very expensive hobby running this site. Please consider joining us for updates, forums, and more. Network w/ us to make some cash or friends while retro gaming, and you can win some free retro games for posting. Okay, carry on 👍)

Each of the four included titles—Redneck Rampage, Suckin’ Grits on Route 66, Redneck Rampage Rides Again, and the cheeky Cuss Pack—adds its own flavor to the formula. Route 66 introduces sprawling desert highways and diners filled with mutant chefs, while Rides Again takes you underground into radioactive caverns. The Cuss Pack itself doesn’t add new levels, but its barrage of extra one-liners and regional accents turns every skirmish into a stand-up routine.

Although modern shooters can feel like cinematic roller-coasters, Redneck Rampage’s raw, pick-up-and-play action remains compelling. Enemies respawn aggressively, ammo can be scarce, and secret stashes often lie behind breakable fences or hidden doors. For players craving high-octane chaos without complex cover systems or regenerating shields, this collection hits the sweet spot between old-school difficulty and cartoony silliness.

Graphics

Visually, Family Reunion wears its 1997 pedigree with pride. The 2.5D Build engine offers colorful, low-poly environments that capture the dusty backroads of rural America. From roadside attractions littered with neon signs to dank underground laboratories teeming with glowing mutants, each map brims with character—even if you can count the polygons on a banshee’s face.

Textures are crisp enough to read spray-painted graffiti on barn walls, yet occasionally blocky when you approach too closely. Still, the artistic style leans into exaggeration: living room TVs display static warnings, oversized moonshine jugs line shelves, and rusted pickups roll by in dynamic setpieces. The expansions dial up variety, with Route 66’s sun-bleached vistas and Rides Again’s mossy caverns feeling distinct without straying from the series’ wacky aesthetic.

Modern resolutions and widescreen support bring a fresh shine to these retro visuals, and a handful of community patches restore compatibility on newer systems. While you won’t mistake this for a contemporary AAA title, the charming cartoon violence and vibrant color palette give Redneck Rampage an identity all its own—one that’s endured two decades for good reason.

Story

At its heart, Redneck Rampage is a love letter to redneck tropes and comic-book absurdity. You play Earl and Leonard—a pair of gun-wielding hillbillies who soon discover that aliens are sucking up local livestock for nefarious experiments. What starts as a backyard skirmish quickly snowballs into an all-out invasion spanning farmland, roadside motels, and radioactive wastelands.

The Suckin’ Grits on Route 66 expansion riffs on pulp road-trip narratives, as you chase slimy extraterrestrials across diners, gas stations, and desert canyons. Rides Again amps up the absurdity further, delving into ancient caverns and mutant strongholds beneath your trailer park home. Though the dialogue is intentionally cheesy, it’s delivered with such gusto—complete with “y’all”s, moonshine jokes, and plenty of colorful curses courtesy of the Cuss Pack—that you can’t help but grin.

Plot twists here aren’t about nuance but about turning up the dial on silliness. Whether you’re barging into a barbecue joint filled with shotgun-wielding chefs or face-planting a boss fight against a giant pig demon, the narrative never takes itself seriously. If you’re after deep character arcs, look elsewhere—but if you want a cartoonishly violent romp through the backwoods, you’re in the right place.

Overall Experience

Playing Redneck Rampage: Family Reunion today feels like cracking open a time capsule of 1990s shooter culture. It’s rough around the edges by modern design standards, with occasional collision quirks and over-eager enemy spawns. Yet those rough edges are part of its charm, transforming every new area into a potential playground of destruction.

For newcomers, this collection offers tremendous bang for your buck: you get the base game and two full expansions, plus the Cuss Pack’s extended dialog. Fans of retro shooters will appreciate the constant stream of chests to break, hidden rooms to discover, and unconventional weapons to master. And if you’re nostalgic for the days of build-your-own levels, the modding community is still active, breathing new life into the maps and soundtracks.

Whether you’re storming a possum farm or tearing through a neon-lit diner to rescue your cousin from slimy alien invaders, Redneck Rampage: Family Reunion remains a unique entry in FPS history. It’s not polished or serious, but it’s a riotous, shotgun-fueled good time—exactly what you signed up for when you loaded up that collection. If you’re in the mood for outrageous humor, frantic combat, and a healthy dose of hillbilly hijinks, this is one family reunion you won’t want to miss.

Retro Replay Score

null/10