Wreckfest

A feast for destroyers

When steel bodies collide at high speed, it would be pretty pointless if only the paint was scratched a little, although this is still the rule in most other racing games. You don't have to worry about such defects in the damage model in Wreckfest.

An artfully crumpled tin car may not always look realistic. If, however, the body disregards all the rules of geometry after a collision or if the rear, which has been compressed beyond recognition, reveals the rear wheel, then this is a feast for destruction enthusiasts.

This also applies to surrounding objects such as stacks of tires or boundary fences, which we simply take with us in an emergency on our deliberately reckless journey. The sound cracks out of the speakers really brutally. If 24 cars want to go through a tight bend shortly after the start or if everyone in the arena is heading for the middle of the square, Wreckfest unleashes a thunderstorm of sheet metal damage in a collision that equates to the Big Bang.

Of all things, the engine noises of the license-free cars drop a little. The roar of a Mustang-like muscle car is strong, but most other vehicles sound more like the two-stroke engine of a Trabant. In between races there are licensed rock songs for your ears. Unlike the legendary FlatOut 2 soundtrack, they come from less well-known bands, but they still fit perfectly into the tough full-contact sport.

Keyword contact: While contact is generally to be avoided in other racing games, in Wreckfest it is good form to push opponents off the slopes, provoke spins or drive them right into the rear of a curve. Why brake when you can slow down in another way?

However, everyone in Wreckfest drives like that, including the computer opponents. And it can be quite frustrating if someone shoots you off the track on the last lap, which can cost ten positions or more in view of the mostly tight field of drivers. If you lose touch with the field, you rarely catch up again due to a lack of rubber band AI . On the other hand, this is exactly what ensures exciting and credible races right up to the last corner, especially since the opponents also make understandable mistakes.

Chance goes with you

In view of the fantastic damage model, this is understandable: a large part of the 17 courses is also designed so that it rattles officially as often as possible. Sometimes there are no boards so that even a small push into oncoming traffic will push you, sometimes there are even intersections, which almost inevitably leads to pile-ups with up to 24 cars.

This can be great fun when you can just snake your way through. Or, especially at the start of your career, get really annoyed when you become part of the collision and the victory that you believed to be certain is still possible. Only in the course of time do you learn to drive with foresight, but even then not every crash can be avoided because Wreckfest incomprehensibly does without both rearview mirrors and other opponent displays.

More like FlatOut 1 than FlatOut 2

There are three types of destruction competitions. Unsurprisingly, the last man standing is won by the driver who survived to the end. Deathmatch is about destroying a certain number of opponents. If your car blows up, you just respawn, as you know it from common shooters.

You improve your chances by adding sturdy piling aids to the front, rear or sides. It is realistic, but unnecessarily fiddly, that the additional weight reduces the performance level of your vehicle.

Since the events always stipulate a certain class, you have to increase the power with every armor upgrade , which requires unnecessarily many menu changes - an automatic function would have worked wonders here. If you like, you can also customize the look of your speedster in addition to the performance tuning, or screw on the suspension, translation, differential and brake balance.

No matter what and how you drive: it feels good! In terms of driving physics, Wreckfest is based more on the simulation-heavy first FlatOut than on the second series part, which is brushed on action. There is no turbo boost, you have to take your foot off the gas in good time before corners, choose a clever line depending on the opponent's position and, above all, always carefully counter-steer to avoid spinning.

Both car properties, as well as coordination and flooring, have a comprehensible effect. Gamepad and steering wheel owners are also happy about the crisp force feedback and numerous setting options. And even with the keyboard, the cars can be maneuvered precisely through the chicanes thanks to switchable driving aids.

Sand Pit 1 or Sand Pit 2?

Although you can play all types of events in Wreckfest with or against the AI, the orgies of sheet metal destruction make the most fun online. Only then are team deatchmatches in destruction derby mode useful, as well as team races.

Bugbear does not provide its own servers, but you can open your own lobbies and influence the rules within certain limits. Bugbear also supports mods via Steam Workshop. You can already find dozens of skins, cars and even tracks there.

And that's a good thing, because Wreckfest itself only delivers relatively little content . On paper, 22 cars, 17 tracks and 3 destruction derby arenas still sound well-mannered, but there is a massive lack of variety, especially compared to FlatOut 2. Wreckfest doesn't even bother to hide that and simply calls its courses Sand Pit 1, Sand Pit 2 and Sand Pit 3.

On the track hui, off the beaten track

After around five hours of play, we saw pretty much everything the game has to offer. Even the brittle staged campaign only chases us through five leagues, each with a handful of individual competitions and short championships with faceless competitors.

Extraordinary events such as a destruction derby with lawnmowers remain the absolute exception. Apart from that, you reel off one standard race after the next and earn money and experience points. The latter unlocks new cars and tuning parts that you buy with the former, which quickly becomes routine.

But the decisive factor is not in the menu, but on the route. And when we trigger a pile-up on the last lap of an exciting race, the sheet metal just flies around our ears, we curve around the turning piles of scrap with a daring drift and are the first to cross the finish line, cheering, then we know how much we do it have missed all these years.