Wreckfest - Review of the PlayStation 4 version

1 year after its release on PC, Wreckfest arrives on Playstation 4 e Xbox One.

The game was developed by BugBear Entertainment, a software house that became famous thanks to FlatOut, the first racing game to have introduced a collision system ed impressive physics.

After passing the baton of Serie a Team6 Game Studios, BugBear Entertainment try to return to the fore with Wreckfest, the spiritual sequel of FlatOut been in Early Access for more than 4 years.

It will be successful BugBear Entertainment to replicate the success it had years ago?

All the champions start driving lawnmowers

Wreckfest presents a simple and intuitive menu divided into 3 macro sections: Play, Garage e Various.

The first will provide us with several game modes including la career mode and multipleayis online.

The second will give us the opportunity to enrich our garage with new vehicles with an adjoining customization on the side aesthetic e performance.

Finally, the third will show us different game options such as difficulty, game controls, the HUD, the audio / video sector and driving aids.

The career mode he will put us at the wheel of a lawn mower and will accompany us through a path designed to make us drive all types of vehicles. We will have available five leagues, unlockable through the stars that we will get with the achievement of the main and secondary objectives proposed by the various competitions.

This mode focuses heavily on variety, in fact the races will always be different e absurd in certain cases (we could, for example, find ourselves driving the aforementioned lawn mower against 23 combine harvesters).

At the end of each race, the player will earn credits and experience points which will serve for unlock and buy new vehicles o enhance those in our possession with new parts, as well as being able to change the aesthetics.

The online multiplayer mode will allow us to compete against 24 players and to customize the competition rules to your liking. Worth mentioning is theabsence of lag (except slow connection) and the quick matchmaking. The lack of a modality offline multiplayer but it makes itself felt in a title like this.

Destroy them all!

Wreckfest is a racing game devoted to the arcade that tries to wink at sim-games: we can in fact, through quick adjustments to be made in the pre-race, act on suspensions, on transmission, on the differential e on the brake system, so that the car can always give its best in all competitions.

The game is all about excellent physics which is flanked by ajust as good artificial intelligence, two factors that contribute to making every race unpredictable. In this game everything is destructible, from the simple body most important parts of the vehicle such as the change and engine, with related consequences related to both the damaged piece than toextent of damage.

By default, the damage parameter is set to "Normal", Which will only make them present aesthetically and losing the factor"Destructibility". We immediately recommend switching to "Realistic" for a greater immersion.

The gameplay is heavily based on personal choices, since we will never be obliged to drive in a certain way, unless explicitly requested: we will decide the driving style to adopt, with associated positive or negative consequences.

Another interesting component of the game is upgrading the vehicle. By improving the mechanics of the vehicle we will get more speed, very useful in racing, while by modifying the bodywork we will be able to choose between agility or resistance (the first will increase the maneuverability of the vehicle, the second its resistance).

From this point of view, however, we would like to say that the vehicle customization it could be managed better, by going to insert more liveries, decalcomania e colors so as to be able to make "only"Your car.

On PC this was mitigated by mod support, but being here on consoles we will have to simply be satisfied with what the game will offer us.

An engine with a lot of horsepower

Technically Wreckfest he manages to defend himself well, especially thanks to the proprietary ROMU graphics engine which manages to handle the deformations of the various vehicles very well and in a realistic way, making every impact very accurate and dynamic.

The presence on the screen of numerous elements such as: debris, semi-destroyed cars, fixed and mobile obstacles do not affect the fluidity, maintaining 30 FPS roccei in any situation.

But it's not all roses and flowers: the game features several graphic glitches and suffers from a slight pop-up effect, often making game elements like the machines themselves appear out of nowhere.

Overall they could have also better optimize the graphics engine, which will lead the title to have, in addition to what has been said before, very long uploads.

The game presents more than twenty tracks, all different from each other, and a good number of vehicles modeled in every detail.

Overall the sound sector it results a lot accurate and spot on. The title proposes a tracklist composed mainly of pieces Rock e Punk that blend well with the atmosphere of the game, especially in the Destruction Derby where absolute chaos reigns.

The roar of the engines is generally well reproduced in most vehicles, albeit in some specific cases It results to be not very credible, thus dampening the atmosphere of the race.

Conclusions

The work done by BugBear Entertaiment manages to fully grasp the spirit of FlatOut, making Wreckfest a worthy successor to that now waned series, also thanks to the system of dynamic damage joined to one gameplay well structured and suitable for everyone, guaranteeing many hours of fun especially for the most passionate of the genre.

Unfortunately however the game possesses minor graphic glitches and a pop-up effect which at times could lead us to defeat. In general, however, these problems will affect the playability of the title only in very rare cases.