REVIEW – Nearly two weeks ago, Blackridge Entertainment and Octorian Studios released their tactical first-person shooter from early access. It’s not perfect, but it tries to do something unique. As a result, it may attract some attention, but not on a large scale, which is understandable since it’s not an AAA game.

On the one hand, stagnation is an unfortunate choice, and on the other hand, it will make creating approximately 5,000 characters a painful process.

Burke In A Lasso

In BF:RI, players can expect a story consisting of 12 missions with full voice acting, although the quality is questionable. There are also in-game, pre-rendered, and motion-captured scenes. There are more than four dozen weapons to choose from, ranging from rifles to pistols, submachine guns, shotguns, and sniper rifles.

We can customize our loadout and equipment for missions and train at the shooting range. This is understandable because it is a tactical FPS. In this subgenre, it is necessary to give players the freedom to decide how they want to enter the battlefield. This also applies to our firearms. We can modify several parts, including the barrel, handguard, grip, shoulder stock, sight, handguard, underbarrel, and magazine.

The tactical approach is also evident in the gameplay itself. Tilting, adjusting walking speed, low and high ready positions, magazine checks, aiming, selecting firing modes, and even free view are all features of BF:RI. The system requirements listed on the game’s Steam page are hard to believe.

The game uses Unreal Engine 4, in theory. The recommended system requirements are an Intel Core i7 processor released about eight and a half years ago (there’s no mention of AMD), a graphics card from three to four generations ago, and 33 GB of free space. It’s ridiculous that the minimum system requirements list an Intel iGPU because the HD 4400 is not a CPU. LOL. Couldn’t they fix this in nearly two years? There was already a demo in April 2024, followed quickly by early access, so the game spent about a year and a half in development.

Since then, the game has obviously come a long way, yet no one seems to care. It has received a total of 33 reviews on Steam so far, and only three since it came out of early access. The developers worked hard on the animations. They’re not perfect, but they’re acceptable. However, it still has some flaws that prevent it from receiving an outstanding rating. The same situation that has occurred so many times before is present here as well. There are some good ideas, but Blackridge Entertainment’s execution falls short of what could have been achieved.

Amateur Elements

The artificial intelligence of our teammates is terrible. There were many instances when they refused to follow instructions. Sometimes, they got stuck on everything, which made matters worse. It’s also unclear if the developers have real experience with Burkina Faso. The product may be prone to asset flipping, and the developers may not be familiar with the area because the location doesn’t feel new.

This game is nowhere near Ready or Not, although it’s true that it only costs €20. Masochists can play in permadeath mode. The shooting itself seems simple beyond the tactical style, but perhaps that’s what makes it enjoyable; it doesn’t overcomplicate things. If we look at the essentials, it works.

However, weapon switching sometimes glitches. Although the developers released daily updates at the end of 2025, there’s still room for improvement. On January 1, they announced their plan to upgrade the game to version 1.6 by the end of the year. The planned content update included “new side missions, new weapons, quality-of-life improvements, and bug fixes.” However, in version 1.4, the text is positioned a few pixels lower than the rest. Amateurish. (This could have been portrayed in a less redundant way, but who are we to judge?)

In such cases, it is difficult to evaluate the game objectively because, although it has potential, it seems unfinished.

Still No

Burkina Faso: Radical Insurgency isn’t bad, but it can’t be called excellent either. Therefore, this game is not yet recommended. It gets a 6/10 rating. It’s worth waiting until it gets cheaper or watching a video or two. Or, forget about it entirely and go for Ready or Not instead, because it has already demonstrated its capabilities. This has not yet been realized here, and it’s possible it won’t be by the end of the year.

rating: 60% correct

Végszó: If you want to play an FPS set in an obscure setting, 7554 (Vietnam) is a better choice.

-V-

Developer: Blackridge Entertainment
Publisher: Octorian Studios
Release Date: December 26, 2025
Genre: Tactical FPS