Redout (PC) Review

Even in the smallest of "families," it's hard standing out. Fortunately, Redout does so, and by looking truly futuristic instead of futuristic… ish. While the likes of F-Zero and WipeOut also had gravity defying spacecrafts and weird roller coaster-like courses, they also felt more… solid, whereas 34BigThings' creation features tracks made out of glass, crystal, and holograms, the vehicles look as if they came from Star Wars, and the levels look like otherworldly alien worlds.

Other than that, however, don't expect anything substantially different than the rest of its kind. That isn't to say that there's zero originality here, though. For starters, vehicles have a health meter that goes down whenever it hits a wall or opponent, as well as grind a surface, like, for example, the floor, which requires adjusting the nose when doing loop-de-loops. More importantly, however, as long as the player stays out of trouble, these fine pieces of machinery repair themselves over time.

Another important mechanic is the ability to strafe with the right analogue stick (or the directional keys of the keyboard), which is a technique that everyone willing to play this should master, as Redout is quite the challenging beast… unfortunately, not in the best of ways. Besides a camera that is a bit too low (and can't be adjusted), or the colouring and design of levels making it hard to see what's up ahead, the control could use some fine-tuning.

Basically, while they are responsive and all, the vehicles tend to be more slippery than they need to, and the analogue sticks feel very sensitive to the touch - and you can forget about playing this with a keyboard, because this was, without a single doubt, made for the gamepad. Moving on, while certainly a game of skill, in order to maintain the best speed possible (and thus win), instead of slowing down when facing a steep turn, one must actually crash or grind walls, since the cost in speed will be surprisingly smaller.

In terms of content, things look a tad better, although Redout certainly doesn't really break new grounds with the things it has to offer. There's a nice variety of different modes, and everything one does is bound to give EXP and money and then buy new vehicles (the first choice is a freebie), as well as active and passive power-ups that can be equip on all available super-fast "cars" to tip to make the next race a bit easier.

In the end, though, there's not much to do here, especially when one takes the price-tag into consideration. Even worse, when the core game is not something special, no matter how large the amount of content is, it won't matter in the long run. A bad futuristic racer? Not really. It's just that it lacks that extra something that could help it stand out. Again, it's not bad… but it's not impressive either.

Check the 'Cairo 3' tune, though. Great racing music right there!