Wreckfest

Wreckfest is a racing game focused on violent smash racing and smash derbies. It is the spiritual sequel to the FlatOut games from its developers at Bugbear Entertainment. The game began life under the title Next Car Games and its support campaign on Kickstarter failed at the end of 2013, despite the slow start, it managed to reach the sign-up service. Early release on the Steam Digital Store in 2014 to receive the support needed to complete the development process.

The game achieved excellent success in the early access service and was later renamed Wreckfest. It remained in use until 2018, when it was released in its final version on PC. A year after its completion, the game is now hitting home devices and PC, and it’s time to see what the team has achieved. The development was achieved after this long journey that lasted almost five years.

Technical Aspect

First, let’s talk about the technical aspect. The game looks beautiful and what really sets it apart is the development engine’s ability to accurately simulate the damage inflicted on vehicles in a collision, which is reflected in the structures of the vehicles and the various components of the race track. Wheel tracks and vehicle debris remain on the track throughout the race and tire pressure remains constant most of the time. However, the game suffers from some technical problems that appear as a kind of distortion on the race track screen or the disappearance of some details of the track, which can sometimes cause you to lose the race, and this problem only occurs in some specific challenges in the experience. The loading screens are also one of the negative aspects of the experience, with their fullness and the long wait between… From each loading screen to the next, at the audio level we noticed that the music is very bad, between very loud music (noise pollution) and others bad music, but in the end the important thing depends on the taste of the player.

Driving Experience

The driving experience is fun and good, but it will take some time to get used to it for the first few hours. The driving experience doesn’t make you feel like you’re driving at high speed most of the time, and speed isn’t usually what you’re looking for in a great racing game. You can quickly and easily change the suspension system and balance the brakes. Rear, front and other adjustments that focus on making your vehicle suitable for the track. Paved tracks require different settings than unpaved -road tracks, and each vehicle requires a different balance of settings to suit your driving style as well.

Most of the experience’s content is presented in Career Mode, which features five different tournaments, each containing a series of races and challenges that you must complete a certain number of to advance to the next tournament. The content is It is divided into three different challenges, perhaps the most important of which for those looking for such an experience is the Smash Derby, which puts you in the ring with 23 other vehicles. The goal is to survive and ensure that nothing happens to your opponents. The experience that this mode offers is epic, especially because the ring is filled with debris and the remains of the opponents’ destroyed and burning vehicles, and colliding with your opponents at the highest possible speed has a very satisfying and addictive feeling.

Group Play Mode

Outside of Career Mode, you can take on any of the previously mentioned challenges in Group Play Mode, where you can choose one of three types of races for other players to participate in. However, additional options are missing. You cannot create your own. Specify your own group, specify the circuit and the type of vehicles you want. There is no doubt that playing against other players is fun, but the unjustified lack of options means that the group gaming experience is limited and you may not have to spend a lot of time with it.

Design Phase

The final mode that the game offers is the design phase, where you can choose the race track and the type of race, as well as set restrictions on the type of vehicle or remove these restrictions. In this phase you can design fun challenges similar to special challenges, so that you compete in a super derby against a group of school buses and lawnmowers while… you drive an RV, but this phase won’t force you to do that either , investing many hours into the experience, and in the end you will feel that the development team’s strange decisions in the cooperative game phase, in addition to the large number of undesirable races in the career mode, caused the experience to lack content. Which makes you enjoy the experience regardless of the components it possesses, unless you want to repeat the special challenges again and again and complete derby challenges.

Wreckfest offers a lot of fun challenges, but in addition to the lack of variety and the feeling of a lack of content, it suffers from a large number of other challenges of varying levels that you must complete to gain access to more fun challenges, in addition to some technical problems and many and long loading screens. In the end, you have to weigh the negatives and the positives to know if this experience is for you or not.