In a racing game, going fast is the highlight of your play experience. Whether it's drifting though a corner at break neck speed or taking that boost that sends you flying, the rush in a racing game comes from scenery flashing past and the track twisting before you almost before you can react. Some games capitalize on this more than others.

Games like Star Wars Episode 1: Pod Racer or F-Zero capitalize on this sense of speed. However, speed isn't just what's on the speedometer. When tracks blow past the player almost before you've even recognized them, and decisions that are made in the split second you're given are not enough for a perfect time, you need to see ahead of the track, learn the track, to truly master it. Going at full speed results in smacking into the walls, slowing down results in the opponents catching up to you, leaving the player no choice but to balance on the knife's edge.

Redout takes a very similar approach and the speed is apparent in many aspects of the design of the game. The racers blaze through the tracks at supersonic speeds and taking a corner at high speeds means you have to drift harder than Takumi Fujiwara. Boosting either via boost pads or pressing the boost button (or the BIGGER boost button, if you're into that) blows up your field of view to the point where you almost feel like the camera can't keep up with the racer. All of these little bits of design and polish add together to create a virtually unparalleled experience of speed. Seriously, no other racing game has gotten it as right as this one right here.


The artstyle is a colorful simplistic low-poly affair. It's nothing remarkable, but this isn't really the point either. After all, it all becomes a colorful blur at the speed you're blazing through it anyways. The simplistic graphics help with distinguishing things like curve indicating arrows or just the track itself against the background, and all in all, it doesn't look too shabby with the generous application of Unreal shaders and effects. Most importantly however, it runs at a butter smooth 60fps on my i7/GTX980 with only minor frame loss while travelling through dense particle effects.


The sounds convey what is going on fairly accurately and generally sound OK, although some of the audio cues for certain special abilities could be a little more distinct. What really sets this game apart here however is the fantastic soundtrack and dynamic music system. The soundtrack is a blend of intense high BPM techno and guitar riffs, almost bordering on eurobeat at times. It's such a throwback to old school racing game music, and fits so well with the feel of the game, that i'm inclined to say it's the single best game soundtrack of the year.


The singleplayer modes are nothing to really write home about. There's the career mode, where you'll buy and upgrade your racers in between races and maybe take on bonuses for sticking with certain brands or testing out upgrades, and there's the quick races where you can customize the event however you want. The different events are varied and actually pretty interesting; there's generic race events (time trial, classic races, endurance races), elimination (last place contender every lap is eliminated), "boss" tracks (all tracks in a region tied together with teleporters for a ridiculously long track), survival (EMP mines sprinkled all over the track, go through X amount of checkpoints before time's up), arena (no respawns), instagib (super fragile racers), and tournament variations of the above. There's no real storytelling or narrative, just you, the track and the opponents.


Here is unfortunately where my review takes a turn. There is a fully-featured match making system and custom lobby system for online play, but, and this is in my opinion a huge minus, there is no split screen mode. For a game which is such a fantastic throw back to futuristic high speed racing games of the past couple decades, it's such a shame that there's no way to play local multiplayer. The developers have expressed intents to implement it eventually, and considering that they are aiming for a console port it's extremely likely that they will actually carry through with implementing a split screen mode. I'm just sad that it wasn't in the release version from the get go.

As for the online multiplayer, it's extremely rare to find a game and equally as rare to have somebody join yours, so it's not something i'd bank my purchase on.


This game iss fffaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast

[h1]Redout - A fast racing game that is actually fast[/h1] In a racing game, going fast is the highlight of your play experience. Whether it's drifting though a corner at break neck speed or taking that boost that sends you flying, the rush in a racing game comes from scenery flashing past and the track twisting before you almost before you can react. Some games capitalize on this more than others. Games like Star Wars Episode 1: Pod Racer or F-Zero capitalize on this sense of speed. However, speed isn't just what's on the speedometer. When tracks blow past the player almost before you've even recognized them, and decisions that are made in the split second you're given are not enough for a perfect time, you need to see ahead of the track, learn the track, to truly master it. Going at full speed results in smacking into the walls, slowing down results in the opponents catching up to you, leaving the player no choice but to balance on the knife's edge. Redout takes a very similar approach and the speed is apparent in many aspects of the design of the game. The racers blaze through the tracks at supersonic speeds and taking a corner at high speeds means you have to drift harder than Takumi Fujiwara. Boosting either via boost pads or pressing the boost button (or the BIGGER boost button, if you're into that) blows up your field of view to the point where you almost feel like the camera can't keep up with the racer. All of these little bits of design and polish add together to create a virtually unparalleled experience of speed. Seriously, no other racing game has gotten it as right as this one right here. [h1]Graphics and Performance[/h1] The artstyle is a colorful simplistic low-poly affair. It's nothing remarkable, but this isn't really the point either. After all, it all becomes a colorful blur at the speed you're blazing through it anyways. The simplistic graphics help with distinguishing things like curve indicating arrows or just the track itself against the background, and all in all, it doesn't look too shabby with the generous application of Unreal shaders and effects. Most importantly however, it runs at a butter smooth 60fps on my i7/GTX980 with only minor frame loss while travelling through dense particle effects. [h1]Sound and Music[/h1] The sounds convey what is going on fairly accurately and generally sound OK, although some of the audio cues for certain special abilities could be a little more distinct. What really sets this game apart here however is the fantastic soundtrack and dynamic music system. The soundtrack is a blend of intense high BPM techno and guitar riffs, almost bordering on eurobeat at times. It's such a throwback to old school racing game music, and fits so well with the feel of the game, that i'm inclined to say it's the single best game soundtrack of the year. [h1]Singleplayer[/h1] The singleplayer modes are nothing to really write home about. There's the career mode, where you'll buy and upgrade your racers in between races and maybe take on bonuses for sticking with certain brands or testing out upgrades, and there's the quick races where you can customize the event however you want. The different events are varied and actually pretty interesting; there's generic race events (time trial, classic races, endurance races), elimination (last place contender every lap is eliminated), "boss" tracks (all tracks in a region tied together with teleporters for a ridiculously long track), survival (EMP mines sprinkled all over the track, go through X amount of checkpoints before time's up), arena (no respawns), instagib (super fragile racers), and tournament variations of the above. There's no real storytelling or narrative, just you, the track and the opponents. [h1]Multiplayer[/h1] Here is unfortunately where my review takes a turn. There is a fully-featured match making system and custom lobby system for online play, but, and this is in my opinion a huge minus, there is no split screen mode. For a game which is such a fantastic throw back to futuristic high speed racing games of the past couple decades, it's such a shame that there's no way to play local multiplayer. The developers have expressed intents to implement it eventually, and considering that they are aiming for a console port it's extremely likely that they will actually carry through with implementing a split screen mode. I'm just sad that it wasn't in the release version from the get go. As for the online multiplayer, it's extremely rare to find a game and equally as rare to have somebody join yours, so it's not something i'd bank my purchase on. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] This game iss fffaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast