Road Redemption has finally sped its way onto consoles after a nice little starting run on PC. Pixel Dash Studios and EQ-Games have given us something we’ve not seen in awhile on consoles; a 4-player couch co-op, motorcycle blood-fest! Everyone that grew up in the 80’s will remember a nice, simple motorcycle game called Road Rash. Well, Tripwire Interactive and Pixel Dash Studios have brought a spiritual successor to the PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. It is almost everything we could hope for. As most of you know, I love the Retro Gaming scene and playing this title brought back some pretty great memories. If I could only find 3 more friends to play.
The story in this game is pretty thin, but seeing as it is a motorcycle beat ’em up, I can let that slide. You happen to be part of a biker gang hoping to find and kill the assassin that has murdered a big wig in a drug cartel. If you beat all the other gang bikers and police officers to the assassin, you and your gang gain a huge payday. This is why you find yourself on all these roads beating the snot out of people at insanely high speeds. I guess that’s a good way to condone all this merciless violence. Either way, I enjoyed swinging a bat and a machete at them.
The controls are pretty well put together–seeing as we have more buttons on the controller than when we did for its predecessor. You press R2 to get the bike rolling. Double tap it for a nitro boost if you start falling behind. For quick turns, press L2 to prevent from flying off a cliff to your demise. You can switch weapons with the D-pad and brandish them with some of the face buttons. The attack’s direction is assigned to these face buttons. Hitting Triangle attacks to the right. Square attacks to the left. Circle kicks and finally, X, deflects attacks. Once you get use to it, knocking off other bikers is an easy feat.
Your main task involves getting to the assassin first, but you have smaller tasks to accomplish that will help you on your way. Some missions just require you to come in first. Other missions task you with killing all the guys with targets above their heads and so on. Completing these missions nets you money which allows you to buy items to help you even more. You can buy more health, better weapons, more Nitro and so on.
Hitting someone with a bat with nails in it is much more satisfying than a plain old bat. The only problem is if your health bar runs out, you lose all of the items you have purchased. I will tell you, though. Dying is actually pretty difficult in this game. I took a lot of major spills getting use d to the controls and my health bar wasn’t as empty as I figured it would be.
The graphics and overall feel of this game are pretty good. Most of the time you are moving too fast and chasing down too many enemies to see your surroundings. However, when I did have the chance to glance away, I wasn’t disappointed. The developers even made the desert look somewhat interesting. I know how boring the desert is since I live in it. The towns zooming by are unique and interesting. The bikers do look alive, but I don’t really blame the developers for that seeing as you can only change a helmet and biker gear so much. I mean, after three Mad Max movies, all the bikers looked alike.
While it is a bummer beating the hell out of the same design over and over again, it is fun switching up your weapons. You can personalize and get better bikes as you level up your rider throughout the game. Leveling up points unlocks bikes and such while money buys you the useful items on the road. Try to gain as much level up points as you can so that you can be the most badass biker on the road.
I did enjoy my time with Road Redemption. Unfortunately, once I beat it, I felt no need to really play it again. It is sad that so many games are just one-hit wonders, but them’s the breaks I guess. Perhaps I would go back if some of my friends decided to drop twenty dollars on the game and join me in some matches. If you’d like to relive some of your childhood days with upgraded graphics and controls, I suggest Road Redemption. I know a lot of people are playing a different Redemption game right now, but if you’re tired of riding a horse and want to try something faster, give Road Redemption a good hard look.
The Review
Road Redemption
PROS
- Combat is super fun
- The controls handle pretty well
- The scenery you zip by can be pretty amazing, if you have to take a glance
CONS
- Not a lot of replayability
- Bland Enemies
