This was pretty fun to drive around and zip around the mountain pass. More games should feature mountain pass racing, but I'm biased.
I did try the first few turns with a Logitech wheel just to try it offstream, and it was pretty great, other than having to use W to go forward due to the the wheel's gas pedal being mapped to left stick Otherwise, the steering responsiveness was really great, and it was very easy to get used to the behavior of the car on keyboard, gamepad, or wheel.
A few critiques:
- The tutorialization is very lacking, we'll get into it more in the later points. I realize that the controls were on the game page, but having it in game would go a long way for the player. For example, a post it note on the dash for the basic driving controls, and the engine mode switch button displayed on the tablet.
- Upon reaching the bots there's a few messages that come up about how to switch the engine mode, These aren't detecting whether or not I'm using a keyboard or a gamepad. I just mashed buttons on the gamepad until I found the right one, however this would be a definite friction point, if not exit point, for some players. It also feels like the order of the tutorial is reversed, so it feels like the player is left to wonder how to do the task at hand. The timing of tutorial is very off, by the time it shows up I'm usually deep into the bots.
- The brake makes the car turn while applied. Generally understeer makes the car plow through the corner rather than turn the complete opposite direction. The symptoms displayed make it seem like the car is applying the brakes in an uneven manner due to either front / rear balance, or environmental hazards on the road at the time of braking.
- In the left path, I was able to high point the car and had to restart the round.
- All the collisions feel a little sticky. Also, 4 out 5 times the car clipped against the ramp at the end of the course stopping the car completely
- Nothing I did seemed to effect whether or not a drone was able to detect me, and they often would not hit me even while I was stuck in the gutter.
The VOD is linked below, and will be available for 60 days. If needed for longer, please reach out and a highlight can be made. I apologize that this is actually my second go at the game, I initially didn't realize that OBS wasn't capturing the game and redid the review .