Wreckfest Review

 The racing sim for people who hate racing sims

From the devs of FlatOut. Wreckfest is a demolition derby focused racer that serves as something of a middle ground between Burnout and BeamNG. Letting you smash cars together like a bored kid with some hot wheels and do so with enough realism that it does feel like you're driving an actual car in an actual derby, but not so far as to overwhelm the gameplay.

We'll get the basics out of the way first. The campaign is barebones at best and modes and offerings are relatively slim. It takes the structure of having unique tournaments and missions to go through, slowly unlocking more and ranking up with a steady income of new cars and upgrades. But even that feels like I'm giving the design a little much credit. Sure, the odd tractor only demolition derby or race with you in a Reliant Robin against 11 semi trucks is good for a laugh. But at the end of the day the bulk of the gaming experience will be going round dirt or tarmac for an excessive number of laps, all the while spinning out, corner bombing, and otherwise destroying your opponents with some delightful crunchy sound effects to go with it.

I get those criticisms out of the way first. Because at the end of the day Wreckfest is still really damn fun. You have a fair selection of iconic cars, with a preference for media references and muscle to some extent, and driving them around just feels so good. I was playing using a G29 Wheel and Pedals which while not optimal for speed, made the jolts, slams, and swerves feel amazing to drive with. Were you playing on controller you could probably bump the difficulty higher than I did and have a pretty engaging racer too. But honestly, I like this smashy car sandbox racer. I would boot it up just to put on some music and smash through 12 laps of a nascar oval purely because I got a chuckle every time I knocked the AI out of it's racing line and directly into a concrete barrier.

I imagine online play really makes the game shine, but I was mostly playing at real australian hours so never tried it out. I had plenty of fun against the AI though, and if you look at the store page and think. "Yeah, that sounds fun." I can say you probably won't be disappointed, though don't go for 100% completion or first place every race. Getting spun out and your engine smashed on lap 11 of 12 will probably break you like it did me if you do that.

Side note, the only acceptable place for a confederate flag is on top of a 1969 Dodge Charger. Even then, maybe wouldn't hurt to swap it for something with less baggage.

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