Road Redemption is a spiritual successor to Road Rash and that’s about it. It takes Road Rash’s concept and expands it with guns, grenade launchers and new mechanics but is it simply a nostalgia trip or can it stand on it’s own? let’s see.

The first time I heard of Road Redemption was a kickstarter that I went to check out. The Kickstarter had a goal of $160,000 which seemed very low for what they were attempting yet everything else looked like a dream come true. Could I finally play Road Rash in a 3D world? Could I finally shoot the race leaders just as they reached the finish line thus ensuring my victory? The trailer said I could but let’s talk about the final game.

Story:

The story of Road Redemption is straight forward and not worth talking about. Some big guy has been killed and there is a huge bounty on the assassin. All the biker gangs in the land are buying guns and preparing to go after him to claim the bounty.

Graphics:

Road Redemption’s graphics while nice, are dated, they do look like a successor to what I would imagine as Road Rash in 2009 but not in 2017. The world seems bland, the other bikers have hardly any variation in their colours especially within gangs. The smoke from the tires are there but they don’t deliver due to the floating feeling from the driving.

The worlds are either snow or sand and that too the most common variants of those two. The few tunnels that appear don’t really feel like tunnels and just closed versions of the sand or snow areas but the lighting remains the same which is just disappointing.

The effects too are not great. When driving there are none of them, you’re just… moving. Weapon clashes are hardly noticeable and these are some of the most boring explosions I have seen in a while. 

Sound:

The music in the game feels straight out of an action movie but that’s the end of the sound highlights, you don’t really feel the sound of the tires screeching when you take a hard turn, the weapon sounds like weapons clashing or explosions are also not really worth mentioning. Most of the time the only thing you notice is the soundtrack.

Gameplay:

The controls are easy but are very floaty, I’m not sure if that is the games fault or just a poor choice when choosing the Unity engine. When using nitrous it feels like your super sonic but in reality your not going that fast. When turning you might as well be on a wave rider than a motor bike.

However this is where Road Redemption shines….. a little. The gameplay while basic is very straightforward, press left mouse button to hit left, press right mouse button to hit right and hit shift to block and finally control to kick, easy enough right? WRONG. Other enemies can block your attacks, some will open fire on you and some will cheaply spam you with attacks and kill you.

The gameplay is very against new players, you will spend hours getting the right idea of how to fight each enemy and due to the stale graphics it is not easy but once you do learn how to notice the tiny nuances you will be planing mentally how you want to take on someone wearing a helmet, someone with a glowing weapon and someone who is just glowing. You will kill fast, efficiently and without remorse, the kills will go up, you will plan the most profitable attack method without knowing it and you will leave a driverless bikes on the road with a head next to them.

The game has an XP and cash store, the XP store is permanent while the cash store is just for that game. Once you get some decent XP upgrades and learn the cash store the game becomes really easy especially if you know your combat tactics. Sad to say that is the end of the game. Once all the tactics are learnt there is not really much that the game offers and you will win easily.

Conclusion:

Would I still recommend Road Redemption? That is an easy one despite the fact it’s not a great game: The game is a nice way to spend a hour which is what you will spend playing the campaign. With a few friends it’s more fun since it supports local coop for up to 4 players and it’s a nice combat game most of the time. I wouldn’t call it a bad game just a little bit less than a well made game.

Do note the game is buggy and crashes easily, lags whenever it likes even on decent systems.

If you can get it for ₹400 or $10 do pick it up but otherwise let it pass by, your not missing much.

 

Final Score: 6/10