This is such a neat concept for a race game that I'm surprised no one has done it before. Re-volt is a race game where instead of trying to emulate gas powered cars, you are racing radio remote controlled cars. Most importantly, this game feels like you are racing little electric cars, and doesn't feel like racing regular cars, with the graphics making you look like you have shrunk.
I tend to enjoy playing arcade racing games over car simulators. Initially Re-volt appears to clearly be an arcade game. Actually, this game succeeds as both an arcade game and a car simulator. Remote control vehicles do not handle like a real one does. They accelerate quicker and quickly hit their terminal velocity. They can turn on a dime, where a car's G-forces would injure the driver. They can take what would be a large jump in car with little problem, but landing without going out of control takes skill. Even the controls are limited like a real remote controlled car would be. There are no emergency brake power slides with these vehicles. The courses offer variable traction surfaces that really feel different, and definitely need to be raced over with their surface properties in mind.
There are thirty six various cars, although only eight are available in the beginning. Each car has three variables: speed, acceleration and weight. Weight is more than just a factor regarding speed and acceleration like a regular car simulator would be. On the different surfaces, weight can make a huge difference. It also matters when bumping other cars, which is a common occurrence in any close race.
The graphics in this game are excellent. The motion is smooth, and the game plays very well on even a slightly older system from what I've seen. The vehicles all look different, and the motion is realistic. Their antennae's move back and forth as you turn and slide, and even accelerating will give them a little sway backwards. There is also one other well done bit of vehicle graphics. When you win a championship, the game shows the winning vehicles on little podiums. I can't quite explain how, but the cars do actually look 'happy' the way they are bouncing around. Maybe, I'm just imagining it.
There are 13 different courses, with only four available in the beginning. All the levels are varied, and each section looks different than any other. The surfaces vary within each level from very slippery to high traction. There are suburban streets, a supermarket, a museum, a botanical garden, a toy store, and an old west town, just to name a few. The suburban streets can take you under parked cars and through a sewer pipe. The supermarket level starts on some floors that seem to have been a little over-waxed, that is until you drive into the ice-covered freezer which defies any cars desire to turn under control. You even briefly leave the store through automatic doors to race on concrete before re-entering the store onto the waxy floors. The museum is cooler than any museum that probably exists, but oh, what a race! You pass through narrow corridors of paintings. You drive under giant dinosaur fossils. You even race on a glass floor through a holographic planetarium room. Little touches like passing through red laser alarm beams add a nice touch. The botanical garden features uneven ground and large jumps over water. The Toystore is as maddening to look at as the Museum. Balloons float by, electric puppets wave at you from the sidelines. You race along miniature bowling alley lanes, and across a walk-on piano like in the movie "Big". The Wild West town has horribly difficult turns on what feels like sawdust. And you even go up ramps onto walkways above the streets with no railings. You drive through saloons, quickly onto the dirt areas dodging tumbleweeds.
If I have any complaints, it is that most of the levels are fairly static. There will be a few balls rolling around, and some regular things to dodge, but there aren't that many items that move. I might have liked to have dodged shopping cars in the supermarket, or maybe even tricycles in the streets. There are various places to take small jumps, but you tend to lose speed while flying through the air, so for the most part you want to stay grounded.
The courses are truly three dimensional, and I was pleased to see in the museum level that I took a turn through a door and found a little room that you don't race through. I'm not sure if it was put there by mistake, or will show up in another track, but I appreciated the detail.
With only eight of thirty six cars, and four of thirteen courses open in the beginning, the game seems a lot smaller than it is. In order to open up the others, you have to finish many of the various types of races. Aside from single races, there are also time trials to complete. Each course has a mirror image version, and a reversed course to race. The first four courses, and three groups of three other races make up the four different championship tracks. When you finish one championship in first place, the next one opens up for you. Finishing all the time trials, or single races will give you new cars to choose from. The computer, unfortunately, seems to be able to get the newer cars much sooner than you ever could.
Some race courses even have stars hidden on them. Usually somewhere that you wouldn't find unless you crashed off the course, or turned around by mistake. Collecting all these in a race group will also open up other vehicles.
I have to admit that it is quite difficult to unlock even the next tracks, and the time trials seem almost unreal in their difficulty. I think I got lucky and chose a good vehicle to stick with, until the next championship gives me access to some other ones. I just fear that some people will give up before they ever get to see the next group of incredible courses.
There are also a number of power-ups that give the game more of an arcade game feel while playing. However, they can be turned off for the purists. The power ups are fairly varied, and do very different things. You have an oil slick that stays on the track long enough to mess you up the next time around. There are giant balls that roll out from behind you, but stay on the track indefinitely. You have mini rockets that can knock over your opponents. There is even an electrostatic charge that will steal battery power from an enemy vehicle near you stopping him, and accelerating you. Another one supercharges you car making you go at least 50% faster, but you had better hope there aren't any turns up ahead. Another offensive weapon shoots an odd force beam in front of you that seems to create a bubble of warped reality that travels in front of you. It is a very odd weapon, but I find it extremely cool to watch. There are even water balloons that I never did get the hang of aiming right. There are so many powerups, that sometimes the game more resembles a deathmatch than it does a race.
I wish the games interface could be a little more customizable. The car is at the very bottom middle of the screen where all the action tends to take place, but most of the other readouts aren't. The powerup identifier is in the top left, and is hard to see when the race is very frantic. Even when there aren't any opponents nearby, the course has very few straight-aways where it is safe to even blink, much less look around the screen. On the bottom, near the car is the speedometer, which is pretty useless considering you have only one gear and you hit top speed with maybe two seconds. Come to think of it, it is pretty weird playing a racing game where the top speed is only around 31 mph.
The game works with force feedback, but its effect is only moderate. You won't feel it at all taking turns, and sliding on slippery surfaces. You will get a sharp jolt when you hit a wall, or another car. This is appropriate to how hard your vehicle hits, and will mess you up when it should.
The game also comes with a track editor, but for only one environment. I found this particularly depressing since it is a fairly boring environment as compared with the wonderful ones the programmers made for us.
This is a great game that should appeal to both the simulation fans, and the arcade racers. I'm not sure, but if this is a console port, it is one of the best ones I have ever played on the computer.
For those who are horribly stuck, here are some CHEAT CODES:
Enter any codes of the following as your name at the name wheel.
Code / Effect:
Carnival / All cars
Sadist / Select weapons with right-shift
Tracker / All tracks
Changeling / Change car during a race
Makeitgood / In-game editors
Tvtime / Use F5 and F6 keys for camera views
Drinkme / Small cars
Urco / UFO is selectable!
Joker / Identical cars in multiplayer
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