Let it be known that I love a good spiritual successor. We live in a time when many major video game franchises from years gone by are locked behind closed doors, with nary a chance of a sequel, reboot or remaster. But there are smaller companies out there who recognise the value of the ideas in these older games, and will step in and revive the ideals that the originals ran on. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Bloodstained and Parkitect have all been fantastic spiritual successors for Jet Set Radio, Castlevania and RollerCoaster Tycoon respectively. But for every 20XX (Mega Man done right), there’s a Mighty No. 9 (Mega Man done wrong). Wreckreation is somewhere in the middle.
Wreckreation is a game aiming for a very specific era of arcade racing nostalgia, when gaming was more exciting than ever and developers wanted to be bold. The likes of Blur, Split/Second and, of course, the champion of the open world arcade racer: Burnout Paradise. These games were vivid and bold, filled with drama and defined identity. Burnout Paradise is the obvious inspiration for Wreckreation, and boy are those some big boots to fill.
There is one other obvious inspiration here too: GTA Online. You may have heard of it. For many gamers, myself included, taking to the streets of Los Santos in races was immensely fun. Mix in the fact that you could build your own insane races — which Rockstar really upped the ante with when they introduced the Stunt Race Creator tool — and there could be no end to the chaos you could create. Imagine a whole game dedicated to this concept? Well, imagine no longer.
Problem is, Wreckreation is more impressive as a concept than it is in reality.. It’s not awful – I really want to make that clear – and it’s good if you want a brief blast of arcade-y chaos. There’s a good sense of speed, fun crashes and a large open world to explore. But there’s a catch. Actually, a fair few catches. Sure, the world is large, but it falls into the same issues that many older open world games stumbled upon — it feels far too empty. A handful of cars are on the road, and the same gas stations are repeated every so often.
Now, I’m not a stickler for graphics. I don’t mind games that look a bit naff but play well. Wreckreation is attempting to replicate the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, a time when graphics were starting to get really good. But instead of the bold, colourful arcade racers of that era, Wreckreation looks muted, muddy and flat. The major issue I found was that due to the muted colour and design, vehicles often blend into the distance. While Wreckreation has a fantastic sense of speed, cars often seem to appear out of nowhere, leading to unexpected crashes.
And on the subject of unexpected crashes comes another sticking point. The game features some cool checkpoints. The physical word “CHECKPOINT” sits on the track as a 3D object, and I cannot deny that bursting through it at high speed, seeing the word disintegrate into pieces, is cool. But on more than one occasion I slammed my car into something immediately behind said checkpoint, as it physically blocked the view of the road ahead.
Wreckreation can be an incredibly inconsistent game. The physics feel off at times. I’ve brushed a piece of scenery and totally crashed out, and other times I’ve slammed in face first and nothing has come of it. There are also occasional bugs. I noticed on a simple oval track on an airfield, I would regularly take out an opponent on the last corner and enter the ‘takedown’ cutscene, only for the game to restart me after the checkpoint, totally missing it — and by that point it was only really worth restarting the race again.
I would say that Wreckreation’s strongest point is its creation suite. Much like GTA, it does offer the opportunity to create some really unique races, and the opportunity to share them with your friends could be what really carries Wreckreation forward. The ability to create daft, ridiculous or epic races in GTA Online really added extra sauce when you were done with everything else Online had to offer. If Wreckreation can harness a community that wants to build upon this sandbox, it could become really interesting.
I salute any studio willing to take on this kind of ambitious project, but Wreckreation doesn’t really work for me. It certainly has the feel of “we have Burnout at home.” It’s a definite victim of scale vs budget, and there is fun to be had here, but there are issues. If you’re into racing games, there are plenty of other choices, and if you are looking for a Burnout successor, then this will leave you cold. I’m not sure who Wreckreation is meant for.
A Steam key was provided for the purposes of this review
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