Re-Volt





I don’t like racing games, it’s become clear to me. I don’t enjoy Gran Turismo, I don’t play Need For Speed, and I only truly played one racing game I enjoyed, Mario Kart. But now, I’ve found another game worthy of being so excellent, so refined and polished, that I can actually go on saying that I love this game. It’s entirely perfect in my eyes, and there couldn’t be a better racing game. That’s a opinion of course, but a opinion needs reasoning, and that’s my next step.

The first thing you’ll notice is the standard resolution of Re-Volt, at a low 640-480. Once you’ve made a visit to options, and you’ve set it all the way up to 1024-786, you’ll notice the beauty of this game. Reflective surfaces are everywhere they need to be, the clean floors of a grocery store, the sleek and shiny RC-cars, and the marble floors of a large museum. Effects are vibrant and colorful, not to mention pleasing to the eyes, everything from a flare impacting on another racer, or a oil puddle sending vehicles trailing off with oily skid marks, look perfect.

The vehicles in Re-volt aren’t exactly what you’d expect, instead of some Porsche that can speed over 200 MPH, you commandeer small RC cars that zoom around the interiors of various buildings. Although this might drive off the more “hardcore” gaming crowd with it’s initial childishness, missing this would be a foolish mistake. On harder difficulties, the computer racers are brutal and unforgiving, weapons you unleash on other vehicles are perfectly balanced and all serve a use, and there are even unlock able RC’s. Weaponry ranges from homing fireworks that you send after targeted enemies, rolling metal balls to speed down the path of oncoming opponents, and even a kamikaze like “self-detonation” weapon that’ll send nearby cars flying. Weapons aren’t merely here to be fired off in full blazing glory, each and every one of them has tactical purposes. Using oil-slicks in narrow doorways can force cars to run through the slippery mess, or maybe even using “self-detonation” to send other cars off the path. You’ll hardly find yourself bored in the various tracks that each offer another play method to perfect.

Sound is another joy. Your environment actually makes you feel small, like the little RC you are controlling, all provided by the echoing and humming of the large interiors. The exteriors are filled with the expected sounds, your RC grinds as it zooms across gravel, there’s a nice feeling of a Sunday afternoon as you race through a suburban neighborhood. My favorite atmospheric sounds though, is the little buzzing your RC creates. It’s a subtle yet perfect touch, and it never seems to grow annoying or repetitive. Always, that buzzing keeps me coming back.

Overall, I can’t give Re-Volt any negatives, most likely the only problem would be the loading length. Even on my high end PC, it took about 20 seconds to load a certain level. Another problem would be a incredibly rare bug, where the loading screen flips sideways from some reason, (The game runs normally though.) But these are all minor problems, and won’t detract from Re-Volt’s final score.

I stand by my 5, you can’t keep a good racer back. Once you know you’ve found a racing game with merits, you’ll play it for quite some time. Re-Volt is a addictive racer that will most likely please you, and if it doesn’t, well that’s your taste in gaming. Despite it’s large size, just wait for the download, it’ll be worth it.

If you'd like to play this game with your friends online, head over here and get RVHouse, with which you can host and join online Re-vol games. There's also still a large community behind this game.