I’m a sucker for a good stunts racing game, especially if it gives me the opportunity to do awesome things that that most racing games today don’t offer. Unfortunately, while Rekt! High Octane Stunts offers a fun experience for a couple of hours, I feel like this Tony Hawkesque experience isn’t quite what I was hoping for.
Rekt! Gameplay
Rekt! High Octane Stunts has a clean and fun arcade experience. Players are able to choose a practice mode, high score mode, or a local co-op mode. Once in practice mode, players can drive up ramps to execute flips, drift, and drive up a loop-de-loop on a preset course which awards points and currency.
The points players gains go towards unlocking new cars, which is done automatically after you leave to arena. Players also receive a currency as they complete objectives given at the beginning of each run. This currency is used to unlock the other four available arenas in the game. The currency gained from the objectives also goes towards upgrading your cars. Rekt! High Octane Stunts has over 50 cars to choose from and players can improve the cars’ speed, boost, grip, and flip. capabilities.
My biggest issue with Rekt! is that there aren’t more maps to experience. While it’s neat to have maps change colors as you gain higher points, I would love to have more variety in arenas. In fact, I expected that a game titled ‘High Octane Stunts’ would allow players to make their own courses, even if it was done with pre-generated assets. This would add to the replayability of the game, in my opinion.
Most of the racing games allow remapping of the controls, which is one reason that caused me a great deal of frustration. While the controls are relatively common in the racing genre, I hate that I can’t change anything like the sensitivity, camera POV, or the air roll buttons. Also, on the topic of controls, the keyboard controls are counter-intuitive and abysmal! To drive, players use the arrow keys but the air roll keys and boost are elsewhere! As a person that uses the WASD keys for everything except DDR or ITG, this set up is awful.
Graphics
I do enjoy the graphics of Rekt! High Octane Stunts. It is low poly in design similar to an old arcade game like F-Zero (which is the closest graphical comparison to this title). The overall look isn’t an eyesore. As I mentioned previously, the arena map changes colors after players successfully land their tricks.
One of the neat things about Rekt! High Octane Stunts is the fact that every time a player botches a landing, the car will visibly become damaged. This is an element of several racing games, but this one represents it more intensely. Instead of bumpers falling off or scratch marks appearing, the entire side of the vehicle will contort.
One of my concerns with Rekt! is the lack of accessibility. There isn’t a mode specifically designed for those who are colorblind, nor are there options to increase or decrease the brightness. Rekt! gives players basic options like: Resolution, graphics level, visual effects, windowed mode, and V-sync. Though, I will give the game credit that I could run the game smoothly without much issue – despite my PC issues.
While I’m on the subject of graphics, I absolutely despise split screen. Not only is it harder to see what is happening, but it means there’s no real multiplayer. To me, racing games are better against other players or an AI.
Pros and Cons
Rekt! High Octane is not a bad racing game at all. It’s fun to play around on a couple different arenas to land some killer tricks. That said, it also has a few issues, so let’s look at the pros and cons.
Pros:
- Suitable for All Ages
- Do not need a high performance computer to play
- Local Co-op
- Highly affordable
- Decent car customization
- Lots of car choices
Cons:
- No control remapping
- Split screen multiplayer
- Little graphics customization
- Points are not banked at the end of a run
- No player custom maps
- Too few maps to choose from
- Boost doesn’t give that much extra speed
Final Rekt! Thoughts
Rekt! High Octane is a great game to pick up and play with the family. It’s not graphically intense, has a couple of neat maps, and allows for a hours of enjoyment. It is fun to play but I found myself getting bored of the experience. In my opinion, the game just needs more substance to properly enjoy. Rekt’s design is fantastic, the music is futuristic and fitting, and the level design is excellent.
