Redout 2 review

Like most sequels, Redout 2 intensifies the foundations of its predecessor. Earning a win was tough before, but with a twin-stick control scheme and courses seemingly built for carnage, now the game will truly test your reflexes and patience. Miss one of the grueling jumps, and you’ll probably need to restart the whole race.

The anti-grav racing genre is still defined by the two legends: Nintendo’s F-Zero and Psygnosis’ Wipeout series. Each respective franchise laid the foundations for futuristic racing, delivering breakneck speeds and circuitous tracks that seemed like colossal, 23^rd century roller coasters. Both provided richly imagined worlds of idiosyncratic aesthetics, depictions of bleeding-edge machinery, and leagues that brandished established histories.

Although it’s been a decade since the last new Wipeout entry and eighteen years since F-Zero Climax, each new anti-grav title is destined to be compared to this pair of quintessential racing games. While the release of Redout 2 is blemished by an incomplete feature set and a difficulty that mirrors the sophistication found in Assetto Corsa, it will undoubtedly please thrill-seekers who find gratification in gradual mastery. Pick this up and you’ll be studying technique for weeks rather than reveling from those pushover podium finishes. While some players might miss the weaponry, there’s enough more than enough adversary between infallible AI opponents and courses that edge on the sadistic.

Riding the Twin-Stick, Turbo-Powered Widow Maker

One of the biggest changes from indie developer 34BigThings’ inaugural entry is found in the game’s handling. Here, you can turn your vessel with the left analog stick, doing your best to keep your craft in the middle of the game’s sinuous speedways. But you’ll also learn to use the right stick to strafe, which is particularly efficient across serpentine paths. Changes in elevation compel players to adjust the pitch of your craft, or else physical contact with the course will bring on deceleration.

Redout 2’s courses are filled with hairpins, barrier-less bends, and jumps that will launch you across uncomfortably wide gaps. So, intermittently, you’ll have to use both analog sticks in tandem. Memorization of the game’s 36 tracks (mirroring provides a count of 72) is crucial for everything except casual difficulty. But until you commit every curve to memory, you’ll need to ‘read’ every imminent curve, twist, loop, and coil. When you’re careening across courses at a simulated 2000 kilometers per hour, Redout 2 allows for an infinitesimal margin of error, and isn’t far removed from a staunch F1 simulation.

Even the Rookie Academy is an Ordeal

Despite the lack of weapons, comparison to a mech sim might not be absurd. Excessive heat is a persistently nagging concern. While there are two different types of boosts, each can increase the temperature of your craft, and if used excessively, steal from your lethargically regenerating health. Collisions also jeopardize your ship, so if you’re not completely vigilant, you’ll turn your lavish racer into a smoldering mound of molten carbon fiber.

For those who aren’t looking for herculean challenge, Redout 2 offers plenty of helpful assists. You can toggle on things like auto-management of things like pitch and roll, or even prohibit boosting when your craft in on the threshold over overheating. 34BigThings seems to be listening to players and is going to patch in an easier difficulty for those without the reflexes of a demigod. At present, until you develop a proper skillset, Redout 2 can be a blooper reel with a miscalculation in turning or boosting slingshoting your ship into oblivion, even with a multitude of activated assists.

Who Builds a Track on a Bed of Lava?

Players can opt to tackle the game’s arcade mode or particulate in a rather robust, five-tier campaign. The latter begins with a tutorial that will intermittently humiliate you. Remarkably, tracks have their own distinct qualities, with distinctive gravities, atmosphere, and ambient temperatures. While I was making some solid progress, Redout 2 thrust me face first into the lava-filled Tartarus Mines. Here, overheating was persistent from jumps that required boosting. Some bloodthirsty psychopath also placed a silo perilously close to a jump pad, leading to more than a few obliterated ships.

Processions of profanities aside, Redout 2’s courses are noteworthy. An announcer provides context, offering history and more than a few cautionary forewarnings during course flyovers. While the game’s depiction of futuristic racing isn’t as realized as Wipeout, there’s the untold backstory of exotic places becoming venues for sadistic anti-grav racing. As such, you’ll rocket through clouds, through the Mariana Trench, admire the sheen of Neo Tokyo, and even fell the pull of a black hole across the title’s diverse venues. Even the game’s soundtrack, fueled by notable electronic artists like Giorgio Moroder, Zardonic, and Dance With The Dead, is influenced by the action. The music will be fade out just as a jump crests or can become muffled as you sprint through a tunnel.

Sporadically Spotty Performance, Multiplayer Woes

On PC, Redout 2’s performance is mostly proficient. On a i7 rig outfitted with a 2070 Super, racing was interrupted by some sporadic sputters, even at a reduced resolution and visual quality setting. These weren’t dropped frames but pauses that lasted for a about a quarter of a second. This is rather puzzling, since the game visuals merely competent, with bit of low-resolution texturing perceptible.

Fortunately, the hiccups weren’t common, but for a game as fast as this, responsiveness needs to be unbroken. Although it’s not a technical issue, potential purchasers should know that Redout 2’s ranked multiplayer, season challenge, and community components aren’t live at launch. Like the first game, you must be logged into an Epic Games account to play unranked multiplayer. Unfortunately, I experienced a persistent error when attempting to make a connection.

While Redout 2’s physics and handling systems are advantageous, the game falters in other critical areas. When the game’s AI is set to its lowest difficulty setting, competition is manageable. But elevate the level of challenge and rubber-banding is present, with the game inexplicably favoring a single rival. Other won’t appreciate how unlocks are doled out in a linear fashion, rather than offering winnings and a place to spend them. Sure, there’s a bit of customization, but if you’re hoping for custom liveries or even sticker placement, Redout 2 won’t indulge. One last issue: rocketing off the track won’t immediately kill you in space. Instead, the game goads you into boosting in an effort to scuttle your own ship.

Conclusion

With a ridiculous sense of speed and a control scheme that allows you to perform some skillful maneuvering, Redout 2 demonstrates mastery of genre fundamentals. But in other notable areas, the game can feel rushed. Important elements like rival AI and multiplayer functionality need to be present at launch. Currently, if feels like 34BigThings is still applying finishing touches to the title. As such, you might want to wait and see how the game turns out. Without functioning multiplayer, there’s no need to jump into Redout 2 at launch.

Redout 2 was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.