Today I have two games for everyone. The first game is a racing game titled Re-Volt. The second game is a Mech game but from a an overhead perspective titled Outbound. Without further ado:
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.
That large size he is talking about is only 58mb. Extremely small by today's games standards. Though this is listed at abandonia, be glad in knowing that it doesn't require dosbox =D
Download:
http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/908/Re-Volt.html
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Outbound
Enter a world where combat has emerged, and its time for you to fight against the enemy, to save your allies from sure destruction, using your robot suit to clear the path home for them. Enter the world of Outbound, where your enemy is gunning for you and unless you fight back, you will be a steaming pile of ash.
The story of Outbound described in game is as follows. "It is the fourth millenium, the old Federation of star systems has broken down, and power in the inner colonies has been usurped by the Centrists, a corrupt and amoral military coalition. The remnants of the Federation force are trapped between the main battle fleet of the Centrists and the distant havens of the Outer Colonies." So as a member, of the elite force that is part of the federation, your mission is to help the trapped forces get back to safety. Kind of simple premise, but at least some effort went into the actual story line.
Controls in the game are easy, move with directional keys, fire with ctrl key and use 1, 2, 3 buttons to change between your weapons, you will find different weapons and power ups in your different missions across different planets. Each one has a set of objectives you must accomplish before you can move onto the next mission. You will face though a lot of opposition from the Centrists, as they have deployed their forces on many planets, so you will have to destroy anyone who gets in your way.
Graphics in the game are nicely done, and look good, the environments have some similarities but with color scheme changes. Nevertheless, it all looks good in the end and even with multiple enemies on screen, there is not much if any slowdown. Which is good to see, you'll be dealing with lots of enemies trying to stop you, and it's a blast to see many enemies coming at you, trying to gun you down.
Which brings me to my next point, with the many enemies there are, it's given the game a high challenge, even the first level may take you a couple of tries before you can beat it. You only get 2 lives at the beginning and with multiple enemies it can be hard at first to face off against such odds. Nevertheless, it should not take most people too long to get used to the controls and really raise havoc.
If your looking for a game to give you a rush and be challenging and with a little futuristic feeling to, check out Outbound.
