game of the year 2016

I was really wanting to enjoy this game because I thought that it might be similar to Gallop Racer, the horse racing games that were PlayStation exclusives back in the day. Unfortunately, the game is a little *too* similar to those games in that it is meant to be played with a PlayStation controller. I eventually slapped the keyboard enough that I was able to figure out what the different keybinds were, but there are certain portions of the game that you are unable to get past if you are simply playing with mouse and keyboard. I wanted to enjoy it since I have really been wanting more racing games to play, but this just is not worth the money (even when it's only $1-2).

Oh, dear. I didn't look at the description carefully enough and assumed that if this was a VR game on the Rift, it would have to be a VR game on Steam too, right? Welcome to yet another Steam VR title to drop/not include VR. And in pancake, this game is just awful. It's awful in VR too, but even the full game is a joke. The controls are just mashing A repeatedly, and whipping your poor horse as you steer. The horse is either wild and fast, or sluggish like a tank mired in mud. Even when it goes on sale, and I got it for .99 cents USD, it's not worth the price. I'll likely tinker around with it a bit more, but as it's pancake, there are surely better racing titles out there.

When a problem comes along you must whip it, when your horse is too slow you must whip it. Race horses and whip them but no animal cruelty because they aren't real.
https://youtu.be/wcloep7oKU0

To think this worthless studio has multiple "games" out...
Never bother with this studio, it's all filth that's not worth playing even if it would be free

I hoped this would be a fun and simple time-waster, but sadly it was anything but that.

Not only is there no hint IN GAME as to what the PC contreols are, but the ones stated in the description here on Steam are wrong. W is accurate, it controls your horses speed but...you need to repeatedly press it to not lose speed. That's garbage controls already. But A and D do not control the sideways movement, it's the left and right ARROW keys who do that. On top of that the space bar made me jump (in a non-obstacle race, mind you) and I really have no patience to go and find the whip key. Sorry, but that is really bad key placement. Which would not be an issue if the settings had an option to change the keys...which it does not.

So, no. Not recommended for anyone, especially at the original price (9,99 Euro).
Maybe controller players can have fun with this, but I for one cannot play this as is and I will not go and buy a controller that may or may not be compatible with my PC just so I can test this further.


On the bright side, due to the current sale I only wasted 0,99 Euro. So I barely care about that part.

Absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Desperately, I tried to name my horse "Fister Gently" as is the family name of my long line of thoroughbred horses, but alas, it did not allow me to save this name. I entered my first race, with my trusty horse "MyHorse" and proceed to mash the "W" key until my arm fell off. After retrieving my arm, I lost the race. 1/10. Cannot recommend.

I completed the first season so far and already now I can tell that the game is difficult to play due to several issues.

First off the controls are not explained at all.
As of now the store page says "Partial Controller Support" which implies that keyboard or mouse should be fine and some controllers somewhat okay.
That's not really the case, though as the menus and the game show PlayStation buttons.
At least you also can navigate through the menus with the mouse and the arrow keys, enter and escape.

During the races the mouse has no function at all and the keys as suggested by the dev on the discussion forum DO NOT WORK as stated.
Here is what I found out:
To move forward, [W] repeatedly - in quick succession during the whole race, ouch!
To turn left and right, use [LEFT_ARROW] and [RIGHT_ARROW].
To whip, use the right [CTRL]. Not the left one!
To jump, use [SPACE].
To change camera, use [C].

The worst part is after you finished a race and reached the last screen of the score boards, there is no way to proceed. It only shows a PlayStation button as usual but no key on the keyboard seems to work.
Workaround: [ALT]+[F4] and restart the game. Very annoying. At least it seems that your score will be saved at that point.

Like the controls, you won't find any valuable explanation of how it is supposed to work.

All you get is:
"- For better start acceleration, align the moving arrows in a single line.
- Whipping will be available as soon as your whipping bar is full, choose it wisely. Its the only way to win the race.
- Whipping continuously will anger your horse and will affect your horse's speed."
[sic]

The only bar there is seems to for stamina - not the whipping "bar" which is circle-shaped.
The description doesn't tell you in what way the horse's speed will be affected.
It seems that the horse is fastest if all mad.
Overall, it doesn't really explain how the stamina, anger, whipping systems actually work and how to handle them.

At least the different racing types are more or less self-explanatory.

Another negative would be that the different horses are not balanced, some are better in all stats than others. Even one of them seems to have all stats maxed out.

I'm okay with the looks, but for a game that is seemingly from 2016, you could call the graphics old, outdated and dull.
Only the cartoony horse in the status interface is a negative to me, it doesn't fit with the rest of the setting.
The lighting during night races is probably the most notable thing to me; not over average, though.

There are 6 different horses which are recognisable as such. Anatomy is correct, textures are not very detailed. Your male jockey can choose from 6 different apparels.

The sounds are same as the graphics - okay but a bit dull and old, nothing special about it.
The music during races is sometimes surprisingly nice.

• GAME BREAKING:
At certain races you will never proceed to the score boards after crossing the finish line, the time keeps running, you can't do anything other than press [ESCAPE] for the pause menu. Following levels are affected:
- Season 2, Level 1, Time Trial Race
- Season 3, Level 1, Time Trial Race

• BROKEN ACHIEVEMENTS:
- Win 50 Races
Complete 50 races by finishing top three in each race.
- Complete the Game
Complete all the races in each season.
- Win Championship in Top Three
Complete the Game and Win the Championship in top three. -20.9

• The game prompts you to name your Horse and Jockey, but it won't save them and resets them to "MyHorse" and "Player".
• You can access all the 11 seasons à 5 races from the start which makes not much sense.
• The game won't tell you which races you completed already nor how many points you gathered so far.
Let's see if I can even finish the whole championship that way.
• When you quit a race, there will be no mouse cursor on the menus anymore.

~~~~~~~~

- Overall -

You need to tap a key repeatedly to move forward which will strain your arm while some cartoony horse head snorts at you angrily till you reach the finish line where you need to shut down the game because else you won't be able to proceed.

It is very annoying to restart the game after every race and to top it off, there are two broken races and three broken achievements.
0 / 4

I refunded £0.69 to my steam wallet because I felt ripped off.