Radial-G: Racing Revolved Review – Racing Away from Reality

<p><em>You spin me right &&num;8217&semi;round&comma; baby&comma; right &&num;8217&semi;round like a record&comma; baby<&sol;em>&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I have never been more cautious speeding up in a game than I was with <em>Radial-G&colon; Racing Revolved<&sol;em>&period; Situated in a cockpit with a slew of other racers beside me&comma; my head was firmly facing forward&period; I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t even fathom looking to my right or left to try and catch a glimpse of my opponents&period; Then the race starts and it&&num;8217&semi;s either hit the speed boosts or be left in the dust&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a feeling of risk and reward that takes into consideration the fact that you&&num;8217&semi;re strapped into a VR headset with actual motion sickness as a potential result&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That is just one of the ways in which <em>Radial-G <&sol;em>felt like it understood the technology it was utilizing and how that can influence the game being made&period; While on the surface it looks like just another futuristic racer that would be a novelty and nothing more&comma; it quickly shows it has plenty going on under the hood&period; The core game is very arcade-centric as players select a ship to control and maneuver through a cylindrical course &&num;8211&semi; there are no walls to bump into&comma; just opponents&period; Each track has the same aesthetic&comma; but they occasionally contain hazards like gates that require you to go through the green area versus the red one&comma; or changes in gravity that put you on a track above you for a while&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Speed boosts are spread throughout the map&comma; as well as the ability to speed up on your own at the risk of losing energy for your shields&period; This introduces the other risk&sol;reward system that affects the entirety of the game&period; Use all your energy to gain speed and you&&num;8217&semi;ll wind up dead if an opponent unleashes projectiles on you or you just accidentally drive through a red gate&period; You wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t normally die instantly&comma; but without the energy there to charge your shield you will wind up dead quickly&period; Standard races don&&num;8217&semi;t see this as much of a problem&comma; but when you start entering other modes like Death Race and Championships&comma; then you&&num;8217&semi;re asking for trouble&period; I found myself letting off the boost if it wasn&&num;8217&semi;t on the track at a certain point&comma; but by the time the single-player campaign gets to the third tier of challenges&comma; you will have to engage more with the risk&sol;reward systems&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;132327" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-132327" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-132327" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;12&sol;06203419&sol;radial-g-racing-revolved-vr-screen-10-ps4-us-27sep17&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Radial-G&colon; Racing Revolved" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-132327" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Radial-G&colon; Racing Revolved&comma; Tammeka Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The greatest achievement of <em>Radial-G&colon; Racing Revolved <&sol;em>is its understanding of virtual reality&period; As previously mentioned&comma; it takes advantage of the fact that going faster means there is an increased chance of motion sickness&period; On top of this&comma; going faster while maneuvering around the cylindrical courses can cause some dizziness&period; These would be complaints in almost any game&comma; but because the core concept behind <em>Radial-G <&sol;em>is to hit neck-breaking speeds and toy with gravity&comma; I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t help but smile at how gleefully they go for it&period; And I was also never sick from the experience&period; Mind you&comma; there are moments when PSVR&&num;8217&semi;s spotty tracking makes you wish to play it on a better platform&comma; but those are rare instances in an otherwise consistently stable gameplay experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The actual only complaint I have with <em>Radial-G<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s need for speed is that the courses often have uphill segments that make it difficult to prepare for what&&num;8217&semi;s around the bend&period; While you can look around and see what&&num;8217&semi;s coming up&comma; you can&&num;8217&semi;t do that for the uphill moments&period; I found myself trying to stand up and look over the hill to see what was happening&comma; which is where bouts of motion sickness are bound to begin&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Playing the game is fun for the most part&comma; with weapons having varying effects that sometimes utilize looking around to aim or just take advantage of the course layout&period; The more cumbersome issues arise when trying to maneuver a vehicle to a specific speed boost you see or weapon pick up on the track&period; The problem is that moving left and right wasn&&num;8217&semi;t as responsive as my reflexes&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s a pinpoint accuracy that feels a little too unforgiving&comma; especially when other racers can appear in front of you after hitting a speed boost&comma; giving you little time to move out of the way before taking damage&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Radial-G <&sol;em>is a blast to play though&period; Even with some minor issues with its tracks and handling&comma; it just provides a feeling of speed in a futuristic setting that sticks with you&period; The electronic score feels right at home with the neon green and red gates and illuminated pick ups on the course&period; It also complements the velocity very nicely&period; My biggest gripe is that there is no real online community on PSVR&comma; leaving me with no opportunity to dabble in the game&&num;8217&semi;s mechanics with other players online&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a shame&comma; but the single player holds up enough to recommend the game for VR owners who need their speed fix&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;