DeathSprint 66 Review (Hoblin)
There's plenty of potential here but it does feel a bit unfinished.
I'm enjoying it for the most part, but there's quite a few things that are stopping me recommending it:
It's Mario Kart, in a lot of ways, pity items for being at the back of the pack, start line boost for going at the green light, drift mechanic with a boost for holding it for a while, basically all the items you would expect from it, including the fun killing lightning bolt (EMP) that forces you to be slow, knocks you off traversal elements like walls to your death, and effects everyone. But if this wants to feel like a game that rewards you for less deaths and good movement through the track, the style just doesn't fit here. It doesn't feel like this was meant to be a party game.
Beginnings of races off the line are a mess. Everyone is just bumping into one another and knocking each other around, and the camera doesn't really know what to do with any of it. Even if you're ahead of the pack, the collisions from all other racers will quickly drop you to the back of the pack, and most of the time, I can't even see what is hitting me. A solid animation for a shove that's obvious would at least help with clarity. Perhaps having an automatic mag shield for all players at the very beginning might resolve that, just until the pack starts to break up.
Mines are expected to be jumpable. It feels like a gamble doing so, as it looks like you cleared it, but you explode. Jumping a lot earlier than you think is required seems to get around that, but watching bots jumping them, they jump right before and are fine. I just chalk this up to a bit of lag.
Drifting doesn't feel good, feels like you lost all speed, and the boost you get seems to be a bit random, based on speed and angle and you don't get it as often as you'd expect. Seems boosting into a drift and getting a harder angle is better, but it just feels kind of bad overall.
Fame feels random, I can go through a track without a death, and come in first, but I get more fame in runs where I get absolutely murdered.
restarting PVE takes way too long with an unskippable cutscene, and the same 2 or 3 voice lines from the announcer, which is just grating on a difficult track you might be grinding out. I'm not certain there are rewards for PVE either, but I could be wrong on that.
It looks like hitting faster speeds gets the game running into performance issues, a lot of stuttering and lost frames, and considering the speed being a big part, that really has to be resolved.
Matchmaking also seems to take a long time, and an option to ready up to go to the next race if all players are ready, would be nice to avoid the 40 second wait to get to the next one. It doesn't sound long, but when you're waiting for something, you feel it a lot more. This does not include the additional 30-40 second it takes for the level to load and connect the players up. The bots you get paired with are braindead. They will repeatedly run into the exact same gauntlet of traps in a straight line, and only just make it on pure luck. I just got done playing and I genuinely watched one stop, turn to the side, run into the side of the barrier and just jump to its death. I guess the timer counting down to its head exploding was too much to deal with.
Stage hazards are good for the most part, they feel avoidable and fair, and you benefit from knowing the track. But some are a genuine gamble. You took the wrong rail at the wrong time, or there was a trap that was right around a corner that you can't really be expected to see. Traps are fine, but placement really could do with some work. Making them stand out would be huge, as there's a lot of sections of red, with red traps in them like lazers, saws, swinging logs of spikes, and mines that players can drop (Or just appear on the track) that are also red. some colour change really would improve visibility.
Finally, customisation unlocks are just a bit lacklustre. Most of the colours I get are similar in pretty ugly schemes, banners are fine, the emotes feel like an afterthought that I can't see anyone really caring much about at any point. I'm at level 10-15 for each of the experience bars for reference, and each level tends to give something. I've got 2 skins I like out of about 10.
I'm not recommending you pick his up right now, not for £20, but I am recommending you keep an eye on it for improvements. I'll be happy to change this to positive if these things can be looked into.