Obliteracers – Review

Oblteracers is a quirky little game that is very familiar in its appearance, with a variety of weapon pickups and some very strange looking characters to choose from, it’s impossible to not make the comparison with the very well implemented games of Nintendo, however, the developers Varkian Empire has made a very good job of putting a fresh face on a tried and tested genre.

The controls although are simple enough at times they’re a little tricky and sluggish, and I found it took me a little while to get used to them, but once you get the hang of the slide and shield use you will quickly realise this is not an all-out destruction game, and can be quite tactical at times

Viewed from a fixed camera on the race leader, all of the other cars are visible, but if you fall too far behind, you are out of the race, if you go off the track you’re out of the race, if you get destroyed you are out of the race, if you don’t make a jump you are out of the race. So staying on top of the leader is the best place to be. I found when out in front it was harder to win as most of the weapons fire forward, and the defensive ones need the other car to be alongside or just behind.

The graphics are excellently done and are bright and colourful, the tracks although visually fine are a bit lifeless, but you would not be playing Obliteracers for the graphic content, it’s all about having fun with your friends and Obliteracers certainly delivers that. With the option of playing online or locally, there are enough variations possible to keep you and your friends happy for hours.

This is more of a kart based weapon enhanced destruction game than it is a racer, with the sole purpose of the game being to destroy all of the other vehicles. The tracks were a little disappointing and some of the locations were quite confusing, a race track in the sky? Really?  That aside the thing I found most frustrating with the tracks was they all felt the same, it did not matter if you were on the wet deck of the cargo ship, the sandy dunes of the desert or the ice-covered surface of the sky road, they all felt the same. There was no additional slide or feeling bogged down and I found myself getting a little board, they look exceptionally good, but a little playing around with the mechanics of the game would have been a massive advantage for gameplay.

There are 4 game types to choose from, Endurance, Knockout, Survival and Leader the problem I had here was they are all too alike with Knockout and Endurance being almost identical, Survival is similar to gain it is all about the last player to survive. Only Leader is a little different in that it is more about you versus the pack, this game will be loved by many players, but sadly not by me, there is not a wide enough variety or requirement to increase your skill set to keep me interested for weeks.

The sound in the game is OK but again it is quite uninspiring and although it does not detract from the game, it does not really add anything either. I found the soundtrack to be repetitive and after a while quite irritating. Although if you are playing this game with friends, the sound will not be an issue in any way, but playing solo online or in the very limited career mode it does not take long to become tiresome.