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First Impressions
What I liked when looking over BlazeRush (BR) was the rip-snorting, highly destructive racing action. It's a logic be darned, explosive racing game that I prefer over grounded, realistic options. The trailer is a good representation, because you will send other cars flying off the track, including your own if you aren't careful. If you like these kind of racers yourself, the game can be a real rush.
Gameplay
When starting career mode, BR opens up with basic tutorials so you can learn the core mechanics, such as the different car types. As new mechanics, weapons, and boosts are introduced, the game gives a brief tutorial on them and utilizes them heavily so you see how they work. It's a simple, smart approach to a tutorial system that avoids being heavy-handed or pointless.
There are 4 main types of race in BR: normal, time trial, survival, and king of the hill (KOH). The majority of races are exactly as you'd expect, just a basic race. Time trial removes all other racers from the track, dropping boosters throughout the course, and your goal is to finish 1 lap under a time limit. Survival places a car-cruncher behind the racers that dogs everyone constantly, picking off the weak until every car has been destroyed. Points are awarded based on how long you lasted, until someone earns enough points to win. KOH was my favorite, as the winner isn't determined by who crosses first, but instead who can stay in front longest. It's always annoyed me in racing games that although I might hold 1st most of the race, I can have victory stolen away in the last few seconds. KOH is the antidote to that issue, and I hope to see it elsewhere.
One mechanic you'll see in all of BR (except for survival) is how the game forcibly rubberbands those who fall too far behind, as their car is literally pulled further ahead. Purists may have issues with this, but the range is large enough that it doesn't give an edge to fall behind, while also not letting the gap become too big that you have no hopes of catching up again. Plenty of games have AI that rubberbands, and this does so in a way that benefits humans as well.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2070991100
Controls
There is the option to play the game with the keyboard, which I promptly ignored. However, when I tried playing it with a controller, I was really confused. I'd tilt the “L joystick” left and right to make it face forward, with the results varying through every bend and turn. That's because you don't control the vehicle in a traditional sense, and it functions more like a twin-stick shooter, minus the shooting. You simply angle the “L joystick” in the direction you want the car to go, and after figuring that out, I no longer had issues with the controls. I'll mention that you active boosts with the “A button,” and fire weapons by hitting “B.”
Story
There is a story for this game, but in a game about destroying infinitely respawning cars, I had no interest in the plot. From what I can gather, a wicked company is shutting down racetracks on different planets for unspecified reasons, and you winning races somehow puts up a resistance to this effort. It's clichéd, illogical, and doesn't show up much, aside from dialogue at the start and end of races. When you achieve victory at the end, you overcome this diabolical scheme and allow these races to continue, though you don't actually get any new races afterwards.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2070990963
Graphics
The backgrounds all look fairly standard environment-wise, in spite of theoretically taking place across multiple planets. The elevated racetracks do give a sense of depth and context, as opposed to a fully sterile course. I'd say BR looks fine, but nothing really stands out or looks that impressive.
I think it's a mixture of factors including the perspective, perceived scale of the cars, and control scheme, but this makes me think of people racing RC cars. So in effect, I connect less to the car or racer, and think of myself as the distant RC driver instead.
Sound Design
The music for the game is about what you'd expect. Not the grungiest or hardest rock, but fast-paced tunes with strong percussion to them. The game's audio wasn't well-balanced against all the sound effects though, because all the power-ups you and the other racers will use create sound effects that drown out the music. Shooting sawblades, activating rocket boosters, and explosions going off aren't the quietest noises in the world, though a good fit for the action.
Pros
- The game lasts around 6-8 hours, depending on how particular you are about getting all the trophies and earning achievements.
- Between the different types of races and tracks, the gameplay has a good sense of variety.
- I like that there isn't just one type of boost; there's some range in strength and traits.
Cons
- The final race is a lackluster boss battle. Nothing else like it occurs in the game, so it takes a while to figure out. It's basically a survival mode run, where position means nothing, because the boss vehicle can warp in front and behind you at will. Instead, you have to stay away from it and blast it with weapons until it goes down.
- Power-ups are not in fixed locations on courses and spawn in intervals where the racers are. It can be frustrating and difficult to get a power-up at times, as one may spawn right in front of an enemy car, or an area you just drove past.
- When facing the AI, they can be really cheap in later races, as if they're ganging up to ruin your chance to win, rather than advance their own.
https://youtu.be/gtcZooJIfX8
Tips
- My personal preference was to drive the cars with high acceleration, regardless of what type of race I was in. However, in certain situations it may be helpful to switch to a car with higher mass and better handling.
- Sometimes, being in front isn't always the best situation in the early or midway point of a race, and you'll only win by lurching forward near the end.
Final Thoughts
Something I haven't brought up yet, but to me is a significant benefit, is that each race was completely separate from the others. Many racing games build around tournaments such that you have to beat 4 tracks to win, so you can do exceptionally well in multiple races, but lose out on total victory because you get screwed over in one bad race. BR's approach leads to less pressure, since if you fail a race, you just retry it without the burden of worrying how it'll impact your overall results. Case in point, there's some races in the midway point of the game I never got all the trophies on, while being able to do that on later races, and this didn't hinder me from beating the game.
This has the added benefit of making coop mode more enjoyable and helpful, because it doesn't matter if you or a buddy do horrendously in a few races, as only one of you needs to win for both to advance. My friend carried me through many of the survival races, as I wasn't as good at them, while I excelled in the KOH ones. Due to the relatively short length of the game, we finished BR on a weekend, but it's one we happily kept returning to, in spite of some frustrating races, because it was zany fun. I wasn't too interested in playing this game against my friend, though up to 4 players can race against each other, but it made for a great coop racer. I recommend it for a solid weekend playthrough.
