Road Redemption

I was one of the Kickstarter backers who were excited to relive their memories of playing Road Rash. However, I do regret backing the game since the developers decided to cancel a lot of aspects they promised, delivered the game years late, and didn't communicate progress effectively during development.

So now the game is finally released, I have lost most of the excitement of actually playing it. The thing is, it doesn't really play much differently from a year or so ago. The major problems the game had haven't been fixed.

The main campaign mode plays with rogue-lite elements, so if you lose all your health, you are thrown back to the start, but do earn experience points which you can use to permanently boost your character for next time. I thought this was just a mechanic they added during the alpha whilst they worked on the proper campaign, but all they have added is dialogue with your clan or rival clan's leader.

There are different type of events, and you are given a random one. There are normal Race events, Takedown missions (defeat a certain number of enemy riders), Survival (reach the finish line whilst being chased by cops). There is also an event which I was convinced would only be available in the Single Race mode – Hallucinogenic Chemical Zone (aka Car Rain). In this event, cars rain down from the sky. This caused massive problems during the early alpha versions due to performance issues. Although they have toned down the drop rate (and now it performs smoothly), it's just a stupid event and shouldn't be here. Same goes for the Rooftop races; they are out of place and make the game seem like a comedic game.

In each event, there will be lots of bikers to smash with an assortment of weapons. There are mêlée weapons like baseball bats, shovels; sharp weapons like swords; explosives like C4 and pipe bombs; and even guns like machine guns and shotguns. Some of these riders will be marked as part of the enemy clan, some are part of your clan, but most are just fodder for you to maul down. Defeating riders rewards you with small amounts of nitro and health.

You can also be up against other vehicles like lorries and cars. These drive incredibly unrealistically; it seems like they are on rails and just end up ploughing into civilian cars and push them out of the way in an unrealistic fashion.

The physics are often wacky, so crashing at high speeds can end up causing you to fly backwards. Expect to see cars bouncing like a ball, or glitches like falling through the ground; things you would have expect the developers to fix during the lengthy delays to the game.

The game is very much focussed on combat, and uses rubber-banding techniques to keep the riders near you. If you get close to other riders, they will pull alongside you so you can take them down. You can attack left/right, block and kick. Kicking is great for knocking enemies into danger, or off bridges. Blocking prevents damage, and also gives you a critical hit attack on your next strike. You can decapitate non-helmet wearing enemies with your sword, bats can knock off helmets, and guns are great attacking from range.

I seem to remember Road Rash having a kind of rivalry mechanic, so taking down a rider in one race means they will seek you out in future races to get revenge. This kept the races intense and made you keep an eye out for certain riders. In Road Redemption, each event is played in isolation and the riders are just randomly generated and disposable. Additionally, in Road Rash, you really feared the cops; they were tough and could end the race if they caught you. In Road Redemption, they may have more health, but they don't pose any more threat and will not arrest you. They are basically a re-skin of a rider.

When you finish the race, you can spend your cash rewards on upgrades or health/nitro restoration items. These upgrades are only for your current play. If your character dies, you lose these, but as explained previously; you then get to spend your experience points on permanent upgrades. I think it is impossible to complete the game without many of these upgrades, meaning you have to replay the game several times to grind them out. Once you get a bit of practice, the game isn't that difficult until the final third of the game where there is a massive difficulty spike. The bikers have more health, stronger weapons and are more aggressive; meaning you often get killed with a few hits, especially when sandwiched between a couple of enemies. This makes the game feel really unbalanced and unfair.

There are riders and new bikes to unlock at certain points of the campaign, or by completing the campaign a set number of times. The unlockable riders usually make the game harder by having fewer health points, or being restricted in some way, such as weapons. Quite a few riders seem more like joke characters, so there's Santa Claus who gets penalised for kills, Jack-o-Lantern who gets penalised for using nitro, and Shovel Knight who can't use guns and will take more damage on crashing.

You can play single events in the Classic Quickplay mode, and battle people online in a team-based racing mode. Once you complete the main campaign, you unlock Campaign+ which features stronger enemies and more variation in events.

Overall, I think Road Redemption is a competent game, but nothing special. I think it lacks the intensity and excitement Road Rash had, and the difficulty spike at the end is infuriating. The silly aspects of the game also detract from it and should have been used as extra content rather than being included in the main campaign.

basically it brings road rash to the modern generation (more ps3 gen due to how it looks). Its good dumb fun, but its also a very janky and bugged game. The roguelike elements feel tacked on and are not really interesting to interact with. Its ultimatly a very average game that can provide some good moments, im happy it managed to leave early access after so long.