Road Redemption (2017)
A scrappy tribute to the long-lost Road Rash series whose raw spirit just about overcomes its shortcomings.
- Tai Road Redemption
- Road Redemption 2017
- Road Redemption 2017 Trainer
- Road Redemption 2017 System Requirements
- Road Redemption (2017) Cast
- Redemption Road 2017
Before I go on to lament the 14 years that have passed since the last Road Rash game - 2003's Jailbreak on Nintendo's Game Boy Advance, for the record, itself a port of an earlier PlayStation game - let's spare a thought for the three years that have passed since Road Redemption, developer Ian Fisch and his small team's spiritual successor, first broke cover. This is a game that's been slowly blooming in early access ever since, and one that's only now ready to be pushed across the finishing line.
Sep 22, 2017 Top 5 - Best Assassin's Creed Cinematic Trailers (2007-2017) NEW - Duration: 15:27. PJtheBestGamer 2,145,476 views. Road Redemption is a vehicular combat racing video game being developed by EQ-Games and Pixel Dash Studios as a spiritual successor to the Road Rash series of vehicular combat racing video games. An in-progress version was available through Steam Early Access. The final game on PC was released on October 4, 2017.
Road Redemption
- Developer: Pixel Dash
- Format: Tested on PC
- Availability: Out now on PC
It's a game born of a fannish devotion, first sparked in a rental Louisiana rental store when Fisch and his brother got hold of a copy of Road Rash on 3DO, and Road Redemption feels - for better and worse - like a fan-made game. There are rough edges, for sure - and for that matter, plenty of rough surfaces to boot - but there's also a game that's come about from a handful of devotees who ask the same questions we all so often do of our favourite games. What if? And how about?
So this can feel like a Road Rash filtered through the raw, unruly imagination of the infatuated teen. Wouldn't it be fun if that combat system was fleshed out with counters and critical hits? How about four-player splitscreen? And how awesome would it be if you were on one epic road trip, from bleached deserts to post-apocalyptic wastes, duking it out with various gangs? And how much more awesome would it be if it was a roguelike? And hey - how about jetpacks too?
Road Redemption adds all those things and more, but not before it nails the fundamentals of its inspiration. This remains a game where you take a motorbike out on a series of point-to-point events, threading through traffic and slinging a fist, foot or whatever weapon that comes to hand at your opponents. It's a game that understands how important it is to get that crunch of lead pipe on leather down pat - here told with the briefest hit pause and a little screen shake, as well as a nice little tug of force feedback in the pad - and the slice of a bowie knife on bare skin, or simply the joy of sticking some dynamite on a rival before nitrous boosting to safety.
The brutality is doubled down on, while elsewhere the original core is built out. The roguelike structure works remarkably well - reach the end of a stage and you're able to spend the money you acquired by knocking out opponents or racking up near misses on upgrades or totting up a little health. Bank a little XP and at the end of the run there's even a skill-tree for permanent upgrades that'll help you next time you set out. It all sets up a nice little groove to get caught in, a neat loop that rewards returning to the open road.
Don't let that deceive you into thinking that Road Redemption is smart, though. Far from it - this is a cheap and nasty game, though I mean that in a mostly positive sense. It's got the shambolic production values and raw energy of a straight-to-video 80s action flick - maybe one you might find a dog-eared VHS of in that same Louisiana rental store where Fisch's obsession started - and is quite often all the better for it. Revel in the shotgun reload animation, culled directly from Terminator 2, and you'll know where Road Redemption's heart lies.
Just as often, though, Road Redemption's rough and ready nature can get the better of it, and it falls short of its inspiration in a number of ways. The handling is, across the selection of unlockable bikes, plain awful. There's no weight transfer from the front wheels to the back, and no real sense of feedback from the bike, leaving you to glide, frictionless, across every road. The 1992 Mega Drive original of Road Rash had more convincing handling - and, in truth, it looked a fair bit better than Road Redemption, too.
This is an ugly game, its environments strange smears and its assets anonymous sketches, and as such it loses so much of the character of the originals with their sweeping shorthand for the great American outdoors. The factions you come across, too - hollow Xeroxes of Mad Max villains, complete with charmingly amateurish voice-acting - don't resonate anyway near as much as those you shared the road with back in the day. Though bear in mind these are complaints from someone who still holds a candle for Natasha and still bears a grudge against Biff, and who's read Sega Power's Road Rash novel through more than once.
And despite all that - or maybe because of it - I've got a massive soft spot for Road Redemption. The handling is awful, the art is a wreck and I don't think you'll get more than half a dozen hours out of it before you can stomach no more. But in the unabashed energy of Road Redemption, in its unhinged anarchy and cut-rate thrills, there's still something special to be found: a scrappy redneck racer that puts up one hell of a fight. In its own offbeat way, it's perhaps truer to the spirit of Road Rash than even Road Rash itself.
Tai Road Redemption
| Road Redemption | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | |
| Publisher(s) | Tripwire Interactive |
| Engine | Unity |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Vehicular combat, racing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player,Multi-player |
Road Redemption is a vehicular combatracing video game developed by EQ-Games and Pixel Dash Studios as a spiritual successor to the Road Rash series of vehicular combatracing video games. The game on PC was released on October 4, 2017. Console versions of Road Redemption were released on November 6, 2018 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
Gameplay[edit]
The game plays a spiritual successor to the Road Rash series of vehicular combatracing video games.[1][2] The game aims to replicate the arcade-like simplicity and silliness of the Road Rash games, while introducing more modern graphics and gameplay mechanics.[3] In addition to the melee weapons featured in Road Rash, Road Redemption introduces firearms in the players options for weapons as well.[4] The game will feature split screen multiplayer modes,[5] including the computer-based ones, which is more of a rarity for the platform.[6] The proposed Wii U version would have also featured the ability for multiplayer sessions to take place with one player on the television and the other using just the Wii U GamePad screen.[7]
Development[edit]
In 2009, Ian Fisch, a long time fan of the Road Rash series wrote a blog post on why the game needed a revival. He had intended for the blog post to be a call for developers Electronic Arts to revisit the series, but following the commercial failures of racing/combat hybrids such as Split/Second and Blur, he believed there would be no appetite for such game from an established publisher, so began working on his own take on the game.[8]
The game was first announced April 2013, alongside a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. The campaign raised over $173,000, successfully exceeding its $160,000 goal.[9] While the game was funded for development, it missed the 198,000 stretch goal for a virtual realityOculus Rift version.[10] Paul Fisch, a developer on the game elaborated on reasons why their Kickstarter campaign did not 'take off' in a piece for The Penny Arcade Report. In it, he blamed the timing of the campaign launch and general crowdfunding fatigue.[11]
The game was initially intended for an August 2014 release,[10] which was pushed back to November 2014 at the release of the alpha version in April 2014.[2] While an early beta version was released through Steam Early Access in September 2014,[12] the game missed its 2014 release date, and a lack of further updates in 2015 lead to fears of the game being cancelled.[7] An update in April 2016 clarified that development was still proceeding, with a Q3 2016 release date planned for Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux. PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Wii U versions are planned for sometime afterwards.[7] Initial 2016 updates did not mention the Wii U as a platform, again causing speculation towards cancellation of that particular version, but DarkSeas Games clarified that the Wii U version was still planned, but was relegated to a release window after the PS4 and Xbox One versions, citing extra work that would have to be done to get the game running on the less-powerful Wii U.[9] In May 2018, DarkSeas Game announced they had shifted development to a Nintendo Switch release.[13]
After the game's release, DarkSeas Game's also intends on making the game open-source, allowing for people to create mods for the game.[4] DarkSeas Game's also teamed up with Yacht Club Games to bring their Shovel Knight character to the game as a playable character.[14]
Reception[edit]
Road Redemption 2017
Road Redemption 2017 Trainer
Pre-release[edit]
In Eurogamer's Steam Early Access review of the game, Dan Whitehead praised the game despite its quirks and glitches, stating 'There are a lot of problems, in other words, and the development team has a lot of balancing and polishing to do if Road Redemption is to become a genuinely satisfying and well-rounded successor to its inspiration. Yet for all of the scruffiness, rough edges and half-baked ideas, the game works brilliantly where it matters.'[1]Polygon referred to the same early build as 'a crazier, deeper Road Rash' that was 'as fast, crazed and violent as its obvious inspiration.'[15] The game's $40 price point for an alpha release caught criticism from some websites.[2][16]
Road Redemption 2017 System Requirements
References[edit]
Road Redemption (2017) Cast
- ^ ab'Road Redemption Early Access review'. Eurogamer.net. 9 October 2014.
- ^ abcSavage, Phil. 'Road Redemption now available in alpha, providing you spend $40'. pcgamer.
- ^Maiberg, Emanuel. 'Latest Road Redemption video shows promising progress'. pcgamer.
- ^ abSavage, Phil. 'Road Redemption takes a swipe at Road Rash with its combat-heavy Kickstarter'. pcgamer.
- ^Chalk, Andy. 'Road Redemption adds split-screen multiplayer, gets an E3 gameplay trailer'. pcgamer.
- ^'Hands on with Road Redemption, a motorcycle combat racer coming to Xbox One and Windows'. Windows Central.
- ^ abc'Road Redemption slated for PC this summer'. Eurogamer.net. 1 April 2016.
- ^Martin Robinson (2014-05-16). 'How Road Redemption is reviving a lost genre'. Eurogamer. Retrieved 2016-10-22.
- ^ ab'Road Redemption Developer Says It's Still 'Actively Pursuing Wii U Development''. Nintendo Life.
- ^ abPrescott, Shaun. 'Road Rash-inspired Road Redemption secures Kickstarter funding'. pcgamer.
- ^Paul Fisch; DarkSeas Games (2013-05-09). 'Road Rashed: 5 reasons why the Road Redemption Kickstarter failed to take off'. The Penny Arcade Report. Archived from the original on 2013-05-28. Retrieved 2016-10-22.
- ^Chalk, Andy. 'Road Redemption roars out onto Steam Early Access'. pcgamer.
- ^Life, Nintendo (27 May 2018). 'Two-Wheel Insanity Simulator Road Redemption Is Switch Bound'. Nintendo Life. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
- ^Prescott, Shaun. 'Road Redemption gets playable Shovel Knight character'. pcgamer.
- ^DanielleRiendeau. 'Road Redemption is like a crazier, deeper Road Rash'. Polygon.
- ^'Don't Be Rash: Road Redemption Alpha Out Now'. Rock Paper Shotgun.