22 Racing Series First Impressions

Strategy in nuclear motion

By Christopher Falcon
5 years Ago

Racing games, whether classic or modern, always have some unique draw when it comes to what makes them unique&period; Gran Turismo, for instance, is known for its simulation-like racing on real-world circuits&period; Mario Kart has its items to add some chaos to the normally colorful and quirky style of it, a stark contrast to Gran Turismo&period;&NewLine;Uniqueness is what brings us to today’s game, being 22 Racing Series&period; Revealed during the Steam Games Festival, and developed by GOATi Entertainment, this game’s main draw is to play on real-time strategy alongside racing&period; So, how does it do that, and what does this demo have to offer&quest; Let’s break it down&period;&NewLine;<h3><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-167944" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/09160818/20210208200458&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt="" width="1920" height="1080" /></h3>&NewLine;<h3 style="text-align&colon; center">22 Racing Series&colon; Strategy and Speed Woven Together</h3>&NewLine;In the tutorial, the game takes a heavy emphasis on explaining the game’s core mechanics to you as best it can&period; Every race is going through a tube that twists, turns, loops, and opens up to the exposed environment&period; You have your usual steering, acceleration, and boost, but that’s about it with what it has in common with other games&period; &NewLine;The strategy comes into what the D-Pad, X, and Y buttons do&period; Tracks in 22 Racing Series are broken up into &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;sectors”&period; The racer with the fastest time through the sector &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;wins” that sector, and gets Energy Points&period; You can spend that Energy in one of various ways, such as&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>Engine Upgrades (so your vehicle has higher top speed)</li>&NewLine;<li>Boost Upgrades (Boost is more effective)</li>&NewLine;<li>Energy Pad (A ring is dropped behind you that only you can interact with&period; It helps to win sectors you previously lost)</li>&NewLine;<li>Boost Trail (For a couple of seconds, you leave a trail in the same color as your car, and only you can interact with it&period; It makes your car go faster&period;</li>&NewLine;<li>Or you can just pour it into raw boosting&period;</li>&NewLine;</ul>&NewLine;<h4><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-167941" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/09151532/20210208195440&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt="" width="1920" height="1080" /></h4>&NewLine;<h4 style="text-align&colon; center">The Downforce Reduction System</h4>&NewLine;The game has a feature known as the Downforce Reduction System (DRS)&period; This part of your vehicle is on by default, but you can toggle it with the X button at any time&period; While it’s on, your car has better handling and sticks to the track better&period; However, disabling it will allow your car to go significantly faster, but it’s a bit tougher to keep in a straight line&period;&NewLine;Effective navigation of the game seems rather predicated around this mechanic, as you’ll have to pick and choose which is more effective for which sectors&period; However, there’s another piece of the puzzle, called Nuclear Boost&period;&NewLine;<h4 style="text-align&colon; center">Speed Goes Nuclear</h4>&NewLine;Nuclear Boosting is another part of the puzzle&period; You have a sub-meter on your car, known as Nuclear Energy&period; Unlike Energy Points, Nuclear Energy recharges over time, even when you don’t win whatever sector you’re in&period; Nuclear Boosting can only be used when DRS is set to OFF, so it’s a stronger boost, but has a commitment factor to it&period;&NewLine;After being used, it can’t be used again without recharging to 100&period; Using Nuclear Boost is a surefire way to win some sectors, but it can’t and shouldn’t be used everywhere&period; You’d be gimping yourself doing that, due to the requirements to even use it&period; However, that isn’t to say its benefits aren’t powerful, not at all&period;&NewLine;<h3><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-167942" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/09151728/22-Racing-Series-Esport-Real-Time-Strategy-Racing-22&period;jpg" alt="" width="1920" height="1080" /></h3>&NewLine;<h3 style="text-align&colon; center">What the 22 Racing Series Demo Allows You To Do</h3>&NewLine;The demo for 22 Racing Series allows you to play the tutorial in its entirety, to learn the game’s functions&period; In addition, you get to free race in Practice Mode, and you can take on Hot Lap mode in two different courses&period; Hot Lap is like the Time Attack modes of past racing games&semi; you race to try to get the fastest time possible&period;&NewLine;Aside from that, you have access to a PVE mode where you battle AIs outside of the tubes of the main tracks, and a Co-Op mode where you and a partner race to beat two AI racers on a track of your choosing&period; You can play this mode solo or with local split-screen&period; Other than the Hot Lap leaderboards, I’m not certain how online modes will function, but we’ll update as we know&period;&NewLine;<h3 style="text-align&colon; center">Closing Thoughts</h3>&NewLine;Overall, 22 Racing Series, with its unique mechanics and focus on sector-based racing, leaves a very satisfying impression&period; It runs beautifully, has very vibrant colors and sound, and has simple to get into, but tough to master gameplay&period;&NewLine;If I had to have any gripes with this demo, it would be the presence of the vehicle customize menu&period; It’s not meant for demo use, so why is it there&quest; You could have not included access to that mode, and enabled manual volume control&period; It’s very odd that a demo disables audio volume control, but it isn’t a total dealbreaker&period;&NewLine;To put it simply, 22 Racing Series is a great racing game, albeit a bit hard to fully play&period; You can view the game’s website <a href="https&colon;//www&period;22series&period;com/">here</a>&period;&NewLine;22 Racing Series is slated to release sometime in 2021 on PC via <a href="https&colon;//store&period;steampowered&period;com/app/422890/22&lowbar;Racing&lowbar;Series&lowbar;&lowbar;RTSRacing/">Steam</a>&period;&NewLine;What did you think about our 22 Racing Series First Impressions&quest; Do you want to try this game&quest; Are you waiting for a full release date&quest; Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below&period;&NewLine;If you liked this article and like racing games, be sure to read our article on Fast Racing Neo <a href="https&colon;//bagogames&period;com/fast-racing-neo-an-ambiguous-love-story/">here</a>&period;&NewLine;

Categories: Game Previews, PC Previews
Tags: 22 Racing Series GOATi Entertainment PC Steam

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