UNDERRATED EXPLOSIONS EXTRAORDINAIRE
Also for: Windows, Xbox One
Another combat-oriented racing game, huh? I feel like I've been down this road
before, except this time I didn't go it alone - this time I brought my younger
brother along. And I'm happy to report that, for as long as you engage in the
frantic multiplayer, the aptly titled Obliteracers is super-fun
arcade mayhem. It belongs to the exact same substrata of racers I've reviewed
before - BlazeRush and Table Top Racing: World Tour - both of
which I found mediocre. But I never got a chance to play those against friends or family.
Obliteracers, developed by Space Dust Studios, encourages you to find your favorite racing mode, and gather a few friends around your TV for some easily digestible
competition. It supports up to 16 players, all
on the same screen, which is probably a mouthful. Me and my brother have
spent countless hours on the few tracks it offers, competing in the
"Endurance" racing mode, with a few cannon fodder AI-bots thrown into the mix, to crown the family racing champ (spoiler: it's not me).
We've cheered, laughed and raged so much I could've easily awarded it at least
half a star more, had I not also finished the single-player "campaign" against
my brother's recommendation. Playing it only brought to light how shockingly
scant the game is in content. It's a party game, so what do you expect?
Friends are part of the package. Without them the experience rings hollow.
The game contains only four different tracks, in different settings: Tropical,
desert, naval and futuristic metropolis. These double to eight if you count
that you can also choose to race in the reverse direction. Add to that a few
different weather conditions that affect traction, and a handful of racing
modes, and you can wring some variation out of it.
The point isn't to cross the finishing line first, it is to
stay alive and obliterate your opponents by whatever means necessary. You can
tackle them off the track, or try to outrun them - any car that gets too far
behind the leader explodes. But the most obvious means are the nice assortment
of weapon pickups that lie scattered around the tracks. Rockets, missiles and
chain guns work great if you're in the rear. The flamethrower, force blast and
charged orb are deadly when you're surrounded. The mines and grease are best
utilized by the car up front.
In my favorite racing mode, called "Endurance", you respawn a few seconds after
you get obliterated, and the first one to score enough kills wins the match.
"Knockout" is exactly the same but without the respawns - when one last driver
is left, the race stops and all racers return to the track, until one gets enough kills.
"Survival" is the same as "Knockout", except only the last man
standing gets the point. And finally, "Leader" means the driver in the lead
snags all the points, regardless of who's responsible for the kill. The
different modes create some variation, as you need to adjust your tactics a
little regarding aggressive or defensive playstyles, as well as driving skill
or aiming.
The tracks are wildly varied, with a lot of room for improvisational response and
strategic placement of grease and mines. They all have unique obstacles in the
shape of crossing traffic, bombs, ramps, jumps or debris along the way. Some are flat and some are more like rollercoasters. With
so many ways to earn points, I often wonder how the game
prioritizes the score count. For example: If I tackle an opponent into a grease stain placed by someone else, causing him to fly off the track, who gets the point? Do I get it or the
one who placed the grease?
I don't doubt that the game is quite fair in its scoring system, and I think
any inconsistencies even out in the long run - especially in marathon-length
"Endurance"-competitions. If one player wins by a wide margin, a few doubtful points don't matter. The camera is fairly flexible, and you
can put up a defensive shield against
incoming attacks, although this makes you lose your currently held weapon.
The simple control scheme works well with the heavily physics-based gameplay. Some levels' slippery surfaces don't
make much logical sense since many vehicles are hovercars, but that is only part of
the game's humoristic charm. The drivers are all cartoon animals or robotic characters full of instant personality. If you try to shoot without a weapon
equipped, they start provoking each other with fun alien gibberish instead.
And the charm is disarming, in spite of all the violence on display. When
things go bad and the aggression within reaches boiling point, it's still hard to
point a blaming finger at the game with its expressive cartoon characters and uplifting
music. It's like a kitten playing with your feet. It might sting a little,
but isn't that just the point? It's in its nature, and you can only blame
yourself for partaking in the game.
Instead, all you can do is "be better", in the words of the Greek
God of War Kratos. This game brings me back to the mentality of
playing arcade games in the 8-bit era of the 1980:s, when you perfected the
good games because new ones were hard to get. The way that Obliteracers
stays in the rotation of games among all the new releases is a testiment to its uplifting, endearing fun.
The meager single player content is a huge letdown, and the only major thing
that keeps the score down to merely "good". The campaign contains no sense of
progression or story, only a series of tracks with an award system of up to
three bombs. Knowing the tracks inside out, I beat them all in an hour
or two (at the most) with a full score. Most of the tracks I cleared on my
first attempt, without exerting myself - and I'm not even particularly
skilled. Players with no intention of delving into multiplayer should just stay
away.
It pains me to know that I could've awarded this game a lukewarm
two-star rating, just like those earlier, similar games, had I stuck to the
campaign. Obliteracers deserves three-and-a-half glowing stars for its
multiplayer, and two fading stars for the single-player content. I'll round
it up to three, because the multiplayer shines so much harder than the
single-player stinks. The logics of maths don't always apply in video game criticism, just like
the laws of physics don't make sense in this game - it's all part of the
good spirit of fun and personal preference.
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