The grass is indeed always greener on the other side. For a time – and one can argue the sentiment still lingers, albeit at a significantly smaller scale – being a futuristic racing fan was a painful endeavor. Where once the industry had a plentiful assortment of titles to indulge in growing up, soon that guaranteed reliance disappeared without so much as a trace. A radical industry shift or not, come the mid-2000s, the notion of “racing/racer” as a generic genre definer quickly became defined and dominated alike by that of its more contemporary settings. Be they arcade-styled or aiming to evoke a realistic vibe in both controls and visual fidelity alike, for a time it seemed as if a trip back to the future would never come to fruition. Doomed to confide in fleeting nostalgia for what once was. But things nowadays aren’t as doom-laden as they had initially appeared; much like a similar resurgence for 3D platformers as of late, that lineage of racers set in the far future – where wheels are replaced by anti-grav devices and race tracks resemble rollercoasters more so – is carried on by a handful of studios and developers.
The first real beacon came in 2015 in the form of Shin’en Multimedia’sFast Racing Neofor the Wii U. On a platform that could once proclaim the still-beloved F-Zero IP to be guaranteed a place on each of Nintendo’s home consoles and portable devices alike, come that same timestamp of the mid-2000s, the series had gone into unsuspected cryosleep. Thankfully Fast Racing Neo was more than happy to carry the torch with what was a marvelous reminder that futuristic racing was as much about sound and style as it was the mechanics of racing itself. But alas, this was a game tied to a solitary platform (excluding its inevitable porting to the Switch two years later). What did other platforms have to show for a similar length of patience at a fresh face? Enter Redout, developer 34BigThings answer to that most dreaded and Pandora’s Box-esque of propositions: what if you combined the thrill and sheer speed of a series like F-Zero and combined it with the snaking, rollercoaster-esque intricacy of course design a la Wipeout? An unfathomable, near blasphemous thing to ponder given how polarizing these two series so often felt if not mechanically, than at least on an aesthetic level.
And yet the Italian studio had just about pulled it off; there were creases and some nitpicks to raise, but 2016’s title just about manages to unite sub-genre fans far and wide with a game that wasn’t just good to control, but surprisingly vibrant to look at. Indeed, by far one of the original Redout’s most striking and stand-out elements was its artistic design. In 34BigThings' view, the future is as colorful as one can imagine – it’s an optimistic future whose unhinged palette is as immediate as the electronic beats that pulsate as part of its soundtrack. One whose winding, looping courses are as much liberated from prior era’s earthly or otherwise artificial palettes of dirt, gravel or tarmac alike. It’s important to give a brief overview on the strengths and the surprises of the 2016 title, for these aspects are very much present and apparent in this year’s sequel. And following on from last year’s diversion into space combat, 34BigThings return to track affairs with a pitch that in all honesty, seems relatively unchanged and unaltered from what one remembers of the original.
Brief a time spent it’s been – the build provided for this write-up lasting a mere two hours of availability before it was gone for good – returning to the world of Redout is as much a return to those very same early doubts that what 34BigThings are crafting is running the risk of cutting that genre niche too fine into some ultra-niche collective of fanatics. Namely, if this is your first time coming to the studio’s interpretation of racing, the emphasis on not just steering your anti-grav ship around corners, but strafing/angling it at the same time. Left analog stick dictating how you handle corners, with the right stick dictating how much of an influence your ship’s very direction holds on mastering said corners. And in some cases, those moments of controlling one’s self in a loop. Find yourself amidst a circular rotation and it’s best advised to strafe back to follow the shape of the track.
For as long as it’s been since I last played the original – similar to the anxieties held whenever returning to a series like WRC – I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t concern on how quickly memory of the controls would come flooding back. Thank goodness then thatRedout 2comes equipped with a streamlined tutorial that will give even the most freshest of faces to this sub-genre ample confidence in how to tackle the course. Not that 34BigThings' methodology in course design hasn’t itself received a boost going into the sequel. Limited as I am to how much of the selection of courses I can talk about, it’s both mildly frustrating and equally delightful that the Italian team can still find ways to seduce and subsequently trip up those who aren’t making tactical use of their boost ability. The idea being that – a humble borrowing from the mechanic of console F-Zero releases – one’s ability to boost is tied to the health of one’s ship. The more you speed up, the more this drains your ship to the point where overheating can mean you’re one ill-advised turn away from destruction. Even a secondary more-rapid form of boost – which recharges over-time – itself isn’t immune from this same balancing act of vying for first place, while at the same time keeping a careful eye on the condition of your ship.
But in all honesty, you can’t blame potential players from taking their eye off the most vital stats when the very environments you’re blasting through are once more as vibrant and as rich with color as they are. Even with the starting roster of tracks, you’ve got reds married up with cyan shades of blue. Oranges and purples too find themselves jostling for a momentary distracting of one’s attention. As it turns out, according to the team themselves, the presence and modelling of actual environments is a big component on the design side ofRedout 2and it shows. These aren’t just tracks spanning a vast horizon or held up above an empty skybox; the locale and indeed the notion of hopping between continents and indeed very planets feels like a much more centralized and focal part of Redout 2’s binding aesthetic. Weaving in and out of vast structures, zipping from ground level to aerial heights – open spaces that tease incoming loops and anti-grav conundrums requiring a careful measure of tilting and strafing on top.
There’s so much going on in each of these instances and that’s precisely why the originalRedoutstruck such a chord with so many who grew up indulging on this particular niche of racing games. A sub-genre known profoundly for more than its gameplay, but for its presentation, soundtrack, visual style and very manner in which the concept of anti-grav racing can translate into gameplay terms. 34BigThings are once again pulling from all corners of the sub-genre with Redout 2 and it’s clear, just like the 2016 original, this is a game built by people that are passionate about this genre’s legacy. Limited a time it was – and despite many an amateurish miscalculation on many a failed corner –Redout 2already has its hooks in deep. It helps that this is a genre with prominent personal history, but beyond such welcome nostalgia, it’s a welcome sight to see 34BigThings just as intent on inviting the freshest of faces with a sequel that is arguably more accessible than the original. And even if the end product turns out to be more of the same, that in itself is no bad thing. You’re telling meRedout 2could be the culmination of past series' greatest strengths in one package? That sounds like a win to me.
