Recent reviews by vilvec

The trailer is quite a good representation.
Good atmosphere if you're in the mood. A film noir you can play. That's it. Other than that, it's a good point and click adventure game. There are two points in the game where you can get stuck due to random unclickable clicks. Over all, I think 7-8h of entertainment can be expected.

On mechanics side, you go through dialogue and some scenes, click a few things and that's it. Common point and click gaming. But, Chicken Police throws in an investigation mode, which is quite good in principle. You are police, so you choose from a few questions that help you gain trust of a suspect and unravel what they try to hide. Not sure it works too well, but it is a good take on gamifying point and click adventures that usually just allow you to click certain things, combine inventory items with the environment and oftentimes get quite unintuitive with the combinations they expect. So I think, this is a good take.

Another mechanic they brought in is combining items and cues, which is fun as well. It isn't used much, but it's also a good mechanic to draw conclusions. In it's linearity, the gameplay aspect is limited, but it's a good direction in my opinion.

Other than that. The story is good if the vibe appeals to you. It's sort of cliche, but also classic and the atmosphere is great. The credits explicitly bring up authors known for those stories, like Raymond Chandler and Haruki Murakami. Also, Spike Spiegel is quoted. So to me, that game feels like a work of passion.

The art & music are great, the twist with humans with animal heads gives the game it's unique charm.

In the end it's not all that deep, but a very enjoyable journey that I would recommend.

A true arcade racer. I'm regretting not trying it earlier.
A first draft after 4 hours.

Presentation is probably mid, story is a bit cringe, as usual for such games, but at least it's not as bad as any of the GRID games or NFS.
Sound design could use some work, lately it seems to be taboo to have screaming engines, this being the nth game that does somewhat electro racing sounds. Not a fan.
OST is good, with a hint of Ridge Racer Type-4.

What I am a fan of though is: proper track design as if we were in the arcades in the 90ties when Sega & Namco outdid each other with every iteration.
No boost! Finally a game that trusts me to do well without ♥♥♥♥♥♥ cheats as well as a good sense of speed. Didn't have that since Ridge Racer V. That's 25 years ago. Let that sink in.

Quite a lot of cars that represent difficulty. Like the original Ridge Racer.

Story & progression is very much like what Ridge Racer Type 4 did: In RR4 you choose the team for difficulty, in Intertial Drift you choose the driver/car. Finishing a championship on easy unlocks a championship on hard and so on. It's really well made. As said earlier, the story is a bit cringe. So before each race there is a talk between people and afterwards. Can be skipped though.

On skipping: I';m a bit annoyed that I need to choose the race again if I want to retyr instead of instantly having an option for retry when I crossed the finish line.

But overall: a gem. I love it quite a lot despite it's little quirks. The game itself is fun and engaging. The pain it leaves as it didn't sell well enough to warrant a successor. The mechanics of this game genuinely pushed arcade racers forward - something that didn't happen for more than 2 decades of racing games that brought licenses, customization, open worlds and endless content that changed every few weeks. Everything but interesting driving models & good track design. This little gem actually offers those two: interesting driving & great track design. I sincerely thank the developer to push such a product - from what I read it was in conception from 2013 onwards, meaning someone in Ireland constantly worked and refined it until it was ready for production, then got it approved, probably took quite some risk to deliver such a unique game. What a guy, what dedication. I'm very grateful that someone cared enough to bring back a good arcade racer.

Not impressed.
For a game that should be "overwhelmingly positive" it's quite the disappointment.

Yes, it got that vibe of the american 80ties and good music.
Graphics are fine. Sound design is very meh.
Gameplay is just ...nothing. You drive in a straight line forever. The only thing to do is to pass other cars as close as possible without crashing. The longer you drive the more money you earn. Then you buy nicer (not always better) cars. I'm quite surprised that this has such high ratings.

Don't get me wrong, it's perfectly fine to chill and listen to music, but that's not "gameplay". You could watch a video of someone driving on a highway while listening to music. Sure, you can avoid some traffic and spice it up with two way traffic. But then the bar is really low.

I suppose this is stoners paradise of a game.
I did find a good use for the game later on: It's a good thing to do when you're on a phone call that doesn't require too much attention.

Yes, I like & recommend the game.

It might seem similar to my love for UBERMOSH, but wait. UBERMOSH lives from it's enemy behaviour & AI. Kill Knight lives from it's input complexity.

So it needs a bit of getting used to as there is timing, context sensitive triggers and attacks that need prerequisites. And all flows into a beautiful rhythm that is sort of a song that needs to be learned before it gets fun. But when it hits, it's wonderful.

I really enjoy being completely sucked in as it needs all my brain to have all options in mind and use them accordingly. It's something that shuts your brain off because it's overloading. It might get easier over time when you're used to the patterns, but while learning, there are too many options in my head to really concentrate. So it's a brain-♥♥♥♥ game that I love. It constantly pushes you into a corner and taunts you.

After some more time and slow descent into harder difficulties: the enemies get faster, more aggressive, so the scaling works really well. To a player like me, there is tons of replayability due to the monster variety that wasn't apparent at first. There are nice strategies to overcome with certain enemy types that allow to develop skills over time and give more depth to the gameplay. That kind of game knowledge isn't needed at first, but become really beneficial in later stages.

The load-outs become more meaningful as well and your choices influence the way you play. At first it might seem like choosing the equip that lets you survive, while later you can focus on certain playstyles. The challenges seem superficial at first, while showing you how to take advantage of a certain playstyle later.

So in the end, this has become a game that I liked a lot when I learned to play it, but appreciate more and more while diving into understanding the mechanics. It feels incredibly fair, if you die, you are just not good enough. So it keeps being a challenge that can be overcome while getting better at it. It needs good game designers to achieve such a gem.

Also: music is great. Not brilliant, but the right kind of awesome.

Also: Works really well on Linux <3

Yes.
It's fun racing with formula cars.
So. Overall, you can feel that the developers put a lot of love in this game. With the ethos of Formula 1 respected, an atmosphere that makes you immerse yourself in the idea to be a Formula 1 driver. With the skill to bring a believable but approachable and challenging gameplay to the table just so you can have fun. Everything is geared to make you happy and reinforce the fantasy. And that makes it a great game and a wonderful nod to formula racing in general.

Looks & music are great, but you can check that in the trailer.
More importantly the gameplay is great. It evokes driving a Formula 1 car and it's using gaming mechanics to enforce that atmosphere.
So although it's a heavy arcade title, in contrast to all the sims out there, it expects you to drive as if you would drive a racecar: you break before a corner, push the car in, maybe keep the brake on turn in but fade off and accelerate out of the corner so you end up on the curb. So far, so good. Of course braking isn't that harsh so you can break mid-corner and you won't loose the car. You can take some gras and you won't spin - too much though and you will slide and probably spin. So it's all on the forgovong side of things, mostly so you can live you fantasy of being a great racing driver and enjoy the speed of the constant accelerate - break, steer - steer, apex, accelerate. It doesn't reward drift, but you can but a wheel on the inside curb as if you'd be a rallye driver - it will damage your suspension though.
The damage model is well done and balanced in my opinion. It rewards clean driving which is perfect for a formula racing game while also giving you a chance to complete races even with broken parts. It's a big debuff, sure, but it doesn't mean you have no chance.
Much to my disappointment New Star GP thought it needed "boost" as much as any racing game since ...2000.
I don't know what's the fascination with a 2nd accelerator, but here we are. Good arcade racers like Rage Racer and Ridge Racer V would just accelerate you so harsh that you needed to break before understanding. But now, if you're out of boost, you go 220kph, maybe 240. If you got boost, you go 340kph in the 1990 cup. That means we have 2026 Formula 1 cars, if the battery is dead, you coast around. I don't understand why that needs to be. Make the cars go fast instead of making me play a mini-game of managing boost to keep the speed over 260kph. Yes, I know there is some depth to this. Boost offers some grip in corners (stupid, but ok), it allows to hide smaller mistakes so it eleviates some punishment. Cutting boost while shifting is more efficient. You accelerate out of corners to a certain speed and don't use all for the longest straight. So it makes the track sort of a puzzle to solve and there are a few spots where you can boost so your average speed overall is better. But as you can see: You're playing ressource management while playing an arcade racing game. And it means that the speed isn't as fast as it could be, because boost always needs to give you the impression that you jump to a higher speed level. That in turn means the engine kinda stalls at medium speeds. Which is absolutely awful if you play because you like racing and going as fast as possible. To be fair, it fits the image of current Formula 1: they play around on their little computers on their steering wheel basically every corner, adjust break balance, damper settings, kers recuperation and engine modes. Augh, I just can't, it's dreadful.
Another management game they put in for excitement is pit stops. Fuel load and tire compounds can be chosen by you and do have quite the influence on performance. You usually decide between 2 stop & 1 stop as well as hard or soft tyres. You can make soft tyres work with one stop strategies, you can win a two stopper on hard tyres. Rain will come up once in a while and test your strategic decision making. It generally possible to drive with softs in the rain and generally the wet tyres survive one extra lap in the dry. Again: not realistic, but it serves the game mechanics well and gives you the option to try some strategic maneuvers that make you feel smart which wouldn't really fly. But for the fun and immersion it's wonderful. So that managing minigame is really great. It has some depth, but it doesn't punish you too harshly for making a wrong decision.
I wasn't surprised about stages for top speed, acceleration, handling and some other stuff (efficiency, gear, grip...) but that was good. But you manage a team and their mood influences performance to some degree. You can't always make everyone happy, because as soon as you decide, one is happy, the other a bit sad. This brings in some interesting dynamics into the game and helps to immerse yourself into the fantasy of a Formula 1 driver who has to be aware of his image, the press, the working with engineers and development. Good and fun. These people give you perks that you can use. So you have little buffs like better slipstream, extra money from sponsorships or warmed tires on a pit stop. It's good variety and helps to manage the difficaulty as well (as there are perks for easier collisions and better driving on grass for example). A nice addition from a gameplay perspective as well as from a atmospheric perspective.
AI is quite aggressive - but that depends on your friendship status. If you badtalk someone in interviews or drive them off the circuit, crash into them from behjind and such, the will block you or push you off. If you win too much, they get stronger to a point where they are basically unbeatable for one race. Developers commented on that as they didn't want you to win every grand prix on the calender of one season. Fair enough, although I like to win everything. An interesting approach and I didn't have too many problems with AI yet. They are harsh, but manageable. Might be that I'm not in the last championships yet, so that sentiment might change. AI drivers to me are just there as obstacles. I don't play racing games online, I only drive for the single player experience. So as long as AI doesn't interfere too much and sets times that I can beat with some amount of training, I'm happy. My ideal AI was Ridge Racer where every AI basically just drove consistent times, which in turn meant you'd need to beat a certain target time to win. Everything more is lost on me, I'm not playing for excitement and interesting duels. But as said, AI was fair enough so far.
I can't believe I actually talk about track design. It's good! That was a real surprise. Yes, the circuits are obviously based on real life tracks from Formula 1 calenders of the various decades. But, they are well adapted for the game, have interesting parts where a hanging curve needs you to go a bit slower, have a blind turn in somewhere else and a bump on another. It's not as good as the masters in the end nineties where tracks where build for the specific cars of the game and each of the 5 cars had a different strategy to get the best time out of the circuit. but it's really well designed. I havent' seen that since Xenon Racer and my impression is that it's better than Xenon Racer. High praise for a part of racing games that was usually just winged in the last decades by now. Curves and set pieces don't make a good track. Corner combinations, elevation changes, bumps and variety combined to really work well with the mechanics of the game (some tracks allow 3 laps on soft tyres, on some you need hards, some need more fuel per lap than others, restricting you strategy options) and the cars that race on there (which is sort of easy here, because it's "one car" that gets faster with varying designs & shapes). Compliments on that achievement as well.

In my opinion it's not a good game because it just doesn't control well.

Yeah, art direction is nice. Music is great if you're into that sort of thing.

But gameplay wise it's awful. It offers speed, but as soon as you get into a groove, it switches. And even when staying for a short time, the camera sways around which influences projectiles as well as perspective. I usually don't have problems with recognising where to go, but in that case ...it's wild guesswork.

It boils down to memorising each level which might be a challenge for those who look for that. But the randomness with which the rules, targets and criteria change is not for me. Might be a welcome variety to some, but to me, it just means that the direction was all over the place.

I suppose it might become groovy when you got it down, but the mechanics aren't that deep, so rerunning just means to overcome the constant switcheroo.

Didn't help that I didn't connect to the story that was told. So happy for those who liked it, but this game is mostly frustrating because it constantly breaks it's own flow.

For reference: I did play through the main branch and didn't start a single further arcade stage or zodiac challenge. So yes, there is more content past the main storyline.

Such a missed opportunity in my opinion.
I will admit though, it doesn't try to be what I hoped to find. Sure, there are things that would lead you to think SCUD Race, but in the end it claims early 90ties, so Ridge Racer & SCUD Race are not the games they strived to bring back. Doesn't change what I think about the game, but it changes what expecteations one should have. So. What would be early 90ties? Maybe Stunts, Outrun & Lotus Challenge or such where track design was mostly just some random corners. Not sure how well Virtua Racing fits as I never played it and am therefore not sure if track design was as much of a thing as in the later Daytona USA or SCUD Race. The only games I remember bringing up drivers would be Outrunners and Slipstream 5000, so that's quite a rare and cool feature.

But first, let me shortly catch what I loved about arcade racers and what no arcade racer since Ridge Racer V ever got right. What made the all time greats great was:
Easy to get into, hard to master handling.
Sublime atmosphere and design, often accompanied with great music.
Track design that was fine-tuned to be a puzzle to be solved by understanding the mechanics of driving - at first easy, later on you'd need to understand the mechanical depth each title offered (best examples are: Rage Racer, SCUD Race/SuperGT, Ridge Racer V).

So with this game it's incredibly frustrating, because it starts off with banger music (probably not to everyones liking, but it fits so well and takes a nose dive into oldschool racing game soundtracks), stunning visuals that haven't been seen since the early voxel racers. A short shoutout to awful stereotypes just for the giggles. It's stupid, but that's good for a giggle.
Then the gameplay is good fun although it's the old problem that nearly all boost games have: If no boost, you jug along as if this was a sunday drive, not a race. But then again, in time trial you start off with full boost and chaining them properly means you blast along for the full race course. That is good fun. So it's a bit simple, but many new arcade racers couldn't hold their audience as they were too hard, even if rather easy compared to the old arcade racers they were inspired by (think Xenon Racer). So - fair enough, let's have a more approachable game and enjoy the fun.

After a few laps on various time trials, another feeling creeps in: This isn't an oldschool arcade racer as promoted, it's more akin to Horizon Chase. Corners are for gaining boost, not because the course is designed for the cars that we race. So: track design is bad. It has some nice throwbacks in the design, but the track layout is just some corners that lead to a circuit. Not sure if there was many though behind it other than: this should look okay, put an obstacle here and be done. That's why it's so close to Horizon Chase with better graphics, better atmosphere, smoother gameplay. While that could be fun, let's come to the last point.

The AI drivers. No care in the world for winning. Not even on normal. Absolutely hell bent on crashing you. Yes, you can catch certain bumps. But there is no clean racing. Ever. It's more of a fun bump around until one lands in the barrier. This last part is a deal breaker. One could have still enjoyed a rather simplistic game with bad track design, but getting dive bombed all the time is just not interesting. Maybe people who like Mario Kart will like it, but I certainly don't.
Now. Does that mean that you might enjoy it? Yeah, sure. It's just not for me and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

I appreciate the design, the music, the car variety with the various handling styles and some fun on the Time Attack. The slipstream mechanic is rather neat to counter the boost mechanic and can feel awesome. But in the end it has too much variety, so it didn't have time to develop the things that actually make arcade racers great: depth in driving mechanics and depth in track design. Opponents can just be around to give you a certain time that you need to reach. I need noone to fight with me or bump into my car. Sure it's exciting and a great randomizer so you can't always win. But as it goes with randomness: it's also frustrating and unfair.

So overall: Nice work, but lacks the essential depth that old classics had.

Might need more time with it, but I don't find it engaging. It's not as dynamic as the trailer suggests - it requires far more precision than anything. The created oppressing atmosphere isn't for me either. Some russian constantly pushes the stakes, sends an entire army for you. The character feels quite sneaky, but requires an all out attack pattern. I can see this as one of those old-school arcade game that were never all that much fun as the punishing part where you defeat the odds with lots of repetition and precise inputs while already awaiting what is to come.
It's quite a try-hard game, where I definitely lack the skill and patience that it needs. That may appeal to many, and there are certainly genres where I enjoy that challenge, but this doesn't click with me.

Let's say first: I had some fun with the game.

It's everything that I'd await from a destruction based western game:
Tile based track design that doesn't care which car you drive. So you can race each track a few times without memorizing it too much. No need to come back to a track to find a different apex approach. There are tricky tracks in the Time Attacks, but those are more tricky in the sense that you need to keep your roof looking upwards, meaning they are stunt challenges, not race tracks.
Car designs based on Americas greatest: Dodges, Vipers, Pickup Trucks, some exotics (mostly Lamborghini derivatives) and a somewhat Skyline.
A broody atmosphere with war on the streets for domination, dark characters with no names that loom over an intimidating city.
Boost to kill, but a good focus on being first - destruction is just a way to overtake, less to really kill everyone, like Carmageddon would promote.
Vehicles feel heavy with lots of momentum. To keep your ears entertained they don't count gears, the just ♥♥♥♥ to 27th gear if the sound is right. So no, there is no manual shifting, obviously. This is something that came with Burnout and Flatout. Sounds good, but is very stupid. Basically what The Fast and the Furious did.
Drifts are better caught with a tap on the wall than kept for acceleration.
AI is rather driving into you even if that means not overtaking you - likely for the usual excitement of wheel to wheel racing.
There are other things to consider like: FWD cras have skidmarks at the front, but still power oversteer (meaning if you stay on the loud pedal in a corner, you drift. or you sustain a drift by staying on the gas). How bad can you be at vehicle dynamics to think this is okay? Even in an arcade context, there are uncountable ways to find solutions. But no. Yeah, 4WD cars drift like RWD as well. No surprise there. After the FWD nonsense basically not even worth mentioning.

Every single thing on this list is the exact opposite design philosophy that Ridge Racer always had. But I won't be the first to tell you that this is not Ridge Racer. But I want to emphasize: I don't think you could design such a strong opposite to Ridge Racer even if that was your goal. Hitting each mechanic, design decision and implementation of atmosphere to go the exact other direction is sort of impressive. Just to drive that point home: The DLC cars from Ridge Racer are fragile and slow - but do offer a weird way to catch higher drift angles what allows more frequent boost. Other DLC vehicles fit perfectly into the world and have that usual little bonus over the ingame cars being better at everything in that particular kind of car, but just slightly. So even there, the design team felt the need to remind you that Ridge Racer is not what they wanted.
On the music side, there are some old classics from Ridge Racer, mixed with stuff like Skrillex's Kill them all. I know this is getting tiresome, but It's just impressive that there isn't a single thing that you can look at that wouldn't do exactly the things that Ridge Racer would avoid.

But back to the actual game itself. It is kinda fun - in a shallow way. The same way you'd play through Flatout 2, enjoy the ride, keep some nice memories and forget about the stuff that was rather meh, because whatever it is you do, it doesn't last long. You do every race basically once or maybe 3 times if it doesn't go well or the mode isn't fun for you. After that, I doubt anyone would go back. Maybe for a short chill game, but nothing more. When it's through, that's it. Basically no replayability. Because whatever the mode or whatever the track it is similar as much as it is varied.

In general the menus are fast, responsive and neat - sadly the result screen forces a slow animation - which is specially frustrating when you lost by some physics glitch or random crash shortly before. But, on the other hand the menu for retry is really fast. The camera options are okay, but I couldn't find a way to change the standard one. So you change camera with every start if you don't want the standard one. Funny enough, it keeps the choice on retries.

Another thing that I genuinely liked are the notices on sides, bridges or corners that look like augmented reality: showing you how many laps are left or how far behind the 2nd place driver is. A neat design and it usually works - it's just sometimes when you wonder how many laps are left and it shows you the gap to the next opponent or the other way around. I appreciate the idea and though.

I enjoyed the game for what it is. I was surprised that it was actually okay fun. Special mention of rough engine sounds that I rather like. I also like that they designed cars instead of licensing the same cars that every other racing game has (although that likely stems from destruction instead of a genuine wish for interesting vehicle designs). I like that they tried to bring Flatout on tarmac and combine it with old Need for Speed shortcuts. So there is a case for having fun with the game and it's unique approach. But I wouldn't recommend this to anyone without caveats. There were games that I recommended despite caveats, this one falls sharply on the other side, where I'd generally say: no, not worth your time, but you can consider it, if... the stuff above seems fun enough as a filler for unused hours where you want to let you brain power down.

I enjoy that game quite a lot for it's fluid and momentum based gameplay. So, in short: recommended.

It's a rather short game as far as I can tell, but with tons of replayability.
The strongest point is the movement, although I needed a bit to adapt to it's unique quirks. Strafing while wall running seems unintuitive at first, but when accustomed, it's great.
If you can maintain your momentum it feels really fast and fun. That usually needs some scouting for a good path to keep up you fuel for boost, on the other hand these are good indicators on how to traverse points. There is still variety in the paths to choose and some extra lifes and extra checkpoints to gather.

Fighting against turrets and some crawling robots as well as a flying one that has a knack for pushing you off. I sometimes only incapacitated these critters only to be chased again. There is some fun to be had as there are some stages that feel a bit like urban warfare where you expect a turret after every corner. Over all I prefer if these turrets are used more sparingly, then you could just blast by or shoot them with one hit. Some are tankier and specially the robots need too much attention in my opinion. Of course, you can outrun them if you keep your momentum up, so this is likely a skill issue.

There are mines and static explosions as well that need to be avoided. These are mostly about timing. These can make you need a few tries to get it right. To me these were more annoying than helpful - but again, likely a skill issue.

At last there are levels that want you to just observe and find a path, with an occasional small turret. These levels are my favorite and in my opinion, the game shines the brightest in these.

I enjoyed the art style and music too, although the music has some bad entries that try too hard to pressure you. Some of the music is really enjoyable and brings the experience well together.

Lastly, the story that is positive and relatable enough although there is much that is left unknown. Maybe it will go further with it's theme of a recovering cyborg, but I don't expect to have missed much.

In conclusion the game itself can be frustrating in short moments while keeping you engaged and having fun. Due to the movement and the tight controls with it's well-thought through scheme it's a joy to play. It also delivers a unique aesthetic and atmosphere on top.