PACER (Xbox One) Review

This isn't the first time Cubed3 has written about Pacer, as it was covered in 2019 with an interview with the Lead Designer, Carlton Gaunt. Pacer is exactly what fans of anti-gravity racers have been waiting for, essentially a spiritual successor to the Wipeout franchise. It cannot be denied that there can be easy to draw comparisons for the two games, such as the vehicle designs, the control of the craft, and attention to detail on the environments and tracks. Visually, Pacer looks gorgeous, the crafts themselves look awesome, and the scenic backgrounds show off the visual prowess that the developers have been working on for so long.

There are 14 tracks in here, although there are mirror and reverse and day/night versions which helps extend the variety on show, but adding to the mix are eight different race modes which can help invigorate each location with a new race type. Storm is particularly interesting, as racers need to stay in the eye of the storm to survive - a somewhat Fortnite-esque battle royale take on a racer. Endurance sees racers continually losing health as the race goes on, meaning that avoiding walls and collisions is paramount to survival. Destruction is a pure carnage death race, shooting other racers down to reach the points limit and secure the win. All of these modes, and more, are intertwined within the career mode, but can also be played within multiplayer, quick play or online.

Customisable features are a strong point of Pacer, set within the garage sub menu players are able to spend credits on a huge number of cosmetic, performance and weapon-based upgrades. Cosmetic modifications can be made to all parts of the vehicle, from the hood all the way to the exhaust. These don't have any impact on the stats of the craft - instead head to the Performance menu in the garage section to find a raft of potential upgrades to the engine, handling, braking, defence and anti-gravity features of the craft. Each upgrade has a ramification on its respective section, but bear in mind that upgrading one aspect of the craft may subtract abilities from others, thus making sure that each craft is tuned to be balanced is important.

Weapons are housed on either side of the vehicle and can be changed out for 11 offensive or defensive options. On top of this, the, there's also the further possibility to add up to two modifications for each weapon. Needless to say, there is a fair amount of customisable options in Pacer to build the ideal craft for each race, and luckily each one of these loadouts can be saved so that they have to be constantly selected. If all of this sounds like overkill, there are a number of pre-sets which would suit the average player just fine, although it is recommended to tinker with the various weapon and performance sets depending on the game mode, as some offer distinct advantages to completing particular missions.

Pacer straddles somewhere between fast arcade action and precision simulation racing, which can make it a tad frustrating for beginners and experts alike. A small, but irksome issue is that the trackside pick-ups can be quite small, which means it can be pretty easy to miss them - given that they aren't too plentiful this could help contribute to a bad run. Furthermore the AI also takes the same pick-up items, meaning that those right in front can consistently grab weapons leaving you without a leg to stand on. The pickups are often presented in a horizontal line across the track, however given that Pacer also plays like a simulation game, it is wise to try to stick as close to the racing line as possible, so deviating to get a weapon pick up might not be worthwhile, this is more of an issue on harder difficulties or particular modes like Destruction where a time limit and sparse weapon distribution can lead to a frustrating run.

The soundtrack features over a whopping 80 tracks from Cold Storage, Dub FX, Methlab, and more - most, if not all, fit into the genre of house/dubstep/drum 'n' bass. It isn't anything too spectacular, with a lot of the tunes often becoming somewhat samey, however with a huge number of tracks available, this would certainly appeal to those who love this genre. The audio can be slightly peculiar at times, with the songs often playing a little too quietly, and the noises of the engines drowning them out. The noise of the crafts doesn't sound particularly great or satisfying, but rather just a droning exhaust noise, but luckily the effects can be turned down in the options menu although this removes all of the effect noises in the game.