By Donna Desborough
Upshift StrikeRacer is a racing game as the name implies. You have cars and a
track and you race around it online with other people. Sounds perfectly normal,
right? Here's the nifty bit of clincher though, you get guns. So when that guy
speeds past you nearly running you off the road get out the rocket launcher and
blow him away.
StrikeRacer is still in beta and there isn't any real story to be seen
currently. If the future holds a reason for all the racing around with guns we
will see. These are still the early days though. Having just come out of closed
beta into open beta there is much testing yet to be done.
Visually StrikeRacer isn't the most beautiful, but it doesn't lag behind much either. It has some rough edges that a bit of anti-aliasing could surely fix. The style overall is a generally realistic look with some fanciful cars and modifications. Some of the guns just look like they've been glued to the car, unfortunately making them a bit square looking. When you're racing around the track trying to blow up the guy in front of you, you really don't notice it. I do hope that they smooth out the backgrounds and tracks a bit though. Even when racing I notice the roughness of my surroundings.
Visually there isn't a lot to the world. You have race tracks set into different areas. The variation is limited at the moment to some city, desert and stadium surroundings, but as testing continues I would think they'll add more tracks in more diverse areas.
As with all games, there is ambient music and sound affects. The music is
nothing to write home about, but it's fitting to the game and is enjoyable to
listen to while you're racing. I hope that the soundtrack will be improved, but
really I don't know that much more can be done to it. It's not bad, just
average.
As you'd expect there are the normal sounds of cars and explosions and gunfire. Again nothing spectacular, but they are fitting and pretty good. There isn't a big range of sounds you can put into a racing game, so there's no let down there.
Currently there is only one server available in the open beta for playing on and that's the Pro Racer server. The other server options not yet available are Rookie and Master.
You have the option of Strike Racing or just normal racing. Strike Racing is
with all the armaments, while normal racing is without them. There is no
difference beyond this as far as I can tell. I personally prefer Strike Racing,
but sometimes you may just want to race without the guns. StrikeRacer manages to
cater to both types of race game lover by having both modes of play. The other
options for play are the time trials and the tutorial. Obviously the tutorial is
a good place to figure out how the game works without any pressures of other
players or winning. The time trials are you alone on a track racing to beat the
best time. Once a week a prize of Rep is given for the top three times on each
track.
StrikeRacer also lives up to the need for modifying your car. The shop has many options for creating the car of your dreams, although the current selection is limited. You can buy new cars, body kits, parts, weapons, finishes, and items. What cars you can use are based on your level in the game as a player on the server. The cars then can equip the other things you can buy in the shop. The body kits are pretty straight forward and easy to understand. Each car type has its own selection of upgrade body kits that improve it in some way such as armour and acceleration. The only parts available for testing are tires, and the only finishes are paints. There is a small assortment of different weapons that are split into rear, gun and ranged. All of these things can be bought on the Rep you've earned in the game from running races and have an expiry date of 1, 7 or 30 days with Rep prices to match.
The additional items section is a little different. These are things like decals and min scanners. Unlike the other upgrades these are bought with real money. Outside of the game you spend real money to get the in game currency of Potatoes. You use these to buy the items, which you can then equip on your cars.
You equip your purchased items in your garage to whichever car you're using.
With few exceptions, such as the body kits, a majority of the upgrades you buy
in the shop can be put onto any car. This is something I was happy to see. If I
buy a really nice car I wouldn't want to have to buy all new gear to go on it.
Overall I really do like Upshift StrikeRacer. There is something satisfying
about being able to shoot the guy who just passed you on the race track. I don't
normally like racing games of any sort, but this one I think I'll be playing for
a while. Even if it isn't the most sophisticated and beautiful game out there
it's a huge blast to play. Guns and racing are definitely a good mix and I'll be
keeping an eye on this one as it develops.
For more information please visit http://strikeracer.gpotato.com/.