Wreckfest : Initial Thoughts

Okay I finally bit at just under 8 quid.

Wreckfest is a game by the (remarkably still going) Bugbear Entertainment. Their first game was Rally Trophy which I was really impressed by as it featured a slew of older cars – the ones that were still minus power steering.

As a result you had to use much more skill, and yes, for a game of 2001 the graphics were impressive.

Then they did Flat Out and Flat Out 2. Neither of these impressed me though – coming from the glorious Destruction Derby by the sadly not with us anymore Reflections, who were I think based up in Liverpool.

Ohhhh…they still exist!! Of sorts. Newcastle Upon Tyne. Fuck my memory there. I’m actually quite happy UbiSoft bought them. You know why? Because if Microsoft had bought them they’d have been closed down and dissolved at least 10 years ago. This is one of the reasons I really, REALLY hope UbiSoft is not swallowed up, because in spite of all their seemingly never-ending Far Cry and Assassin’s Creed games (guess we can now add Watchdogs to that trait) they are a company that does genuinely still seem interested in games, not just the bottom line. Although with the French government’s routine support of their national companies, hopefully they’ll be safe for a good while yet.

Anyway back to Bugbear after that little tangent. Wreckfest is….whilst not really that amazing, certainly quite fun. Not “must play again as soon as possible” fun, but yes, definitely fun. The only unfortunate thing thus far has been the bizarre suspension physics. Or rather, complete lack of ANY actual suspension physics. I’m speaking literally. I went over a mound, the car jumped in the air, and came down without the merest hint of a bounce. That’s pretty jarring to look at in a game released in 2018. But the rest of the physics are really good, and all the bodywork crunching is fun. What I really want to do is have reach the bowl arenas – Destruction Derby settings. Nothing beat that game for me in terms of smashing up mine and other cars before or since. And maybe Wreckfest won’t either. But I’m still looking forward to seeing how it ends up comparing.