I'm surprisingly conflicted with my thoughts on Redout. For the first little while or so, my thoughts were nothing but positive despite my inability to play well. While they are still positive, there are a lot of issues that quickly came to light.
Chief among those issues is in the enemy AI. The difficulty of that AI is so unbelievably inconsistent, resulting in the majority of tracks being easy first place finishes. However, random races here and there would present AI that almost seem unbeatable at times. One great example of this inconsistency was one of the Class 3 races, where I died several times and still got 50 seconds ahead of second place. Meanwhile, a random Class 2 race had me struggling to get even fourth place.
Another major issue is how focus was put on content. The game has more than enough career mode tracks to keep you busy for a good 10 hours or so, but often lacks variety. There's a lot of rehashes of tracks used previously which isn't a huge issue on paper, but is when you're running the same track in the same event for the third or fourth time. Meanwhile, there are a total of four cars with upgrades that offer zero choice and are pure improvements without any downsides.
Among a handful of other smaller issues like certain modes ruining the pacing, it's a game with a ton of rough edges. However, it still manages to pull off that speedy futuristic racing I came knocking for. It's exhilarating barrelling down a track at 1200 KPH, and while that spectacle has worn off a bit, it's still quite fun.
On top of this, the visuals and music are mostly great. Barring a few exceptions, the worlds the team built are all well crafted and feature plenty of unique locales, while the music only gets better with each world you unlock. Atmosphere can play a huge part in games like this, and it's where the shortcomings are partially forgiven.
Given I got this for free off of EGS, I can't complain too much about it. I'd say it's worth a few bucks if you like a good arcade racer, but wouldn't pay more than that.
Chief among those issues is in the enemy AI. The difficulty of that AI is so unbelievably inconsistent, resulting in the majority of tracks being easy first place finishes. However, random races here and there would present AI that almost seem unbeatable at times. One great example of this inconsistency was one of the Class 3 races, where I died several times and still got 50 seconds ahead of second place. Meanwhile, a random Class 2 race had me struggling to get even fourth place.
Another major issue is how focus was put on content. The game has more than enough career mode tracks to keep you busy for a good 10 hours or so, but often lacks variety. There's a lot of rehashes of tracks used previously which isn't a huge issue on paper, but is when you're running the same track in the same event for the third or fourth time. Meanwhile, there are a total of four cars with upgrades that offer zero choice and are pure improvements without any downsides.
Among a handful of other smaller issues like certain modes ruining the pacing, it's a game with a ton of rough edges. However, it still manages to pull off that speedy futuristic racing I came knocking for. It's exhilarating barrelling down a track at 1200 KPH, and while that spectacle has worn off a bit, it's still quite fun.
On top of this, the visuals and music are mostly great. Barring a few exceptions, the worlds the team built are all well crafted and feature plenty of unique locales, while the music only gets better with each world you unlock. Atmosphere can play a huge part in games like this, and it's where the shortcomings are partially forgiven.
Given I got this for free off of EGS, I can't complain too much about it. I'd say it's worth a few bucks if you like a good arcade racer, but wouldn't pay more than that.