It seems as though Microsoft are always keen to experiment with various mechanics and concepts to bring us new and excellently dynamic games. This, of course, brings wide spread attention to their consoles. The Xbox One’s found it difficult so far to entice people with their exclusive titles. Ryse and Dead Rising failed to impress and have since gone to the PC, while the fantastic Sunset Overdrive pleased many and held high acclaim; though it sadly did not garner much interest from the masses. Many more titles are soon to come out – including Halo 5 – but for the mean time, Microsoft studios have released a new twist on the action/adventure genre. Welcome to Screamride, a roller-coaster action game. You heard me right.
Screamride offers an interesting take on action games, and blends in dynamic and engaging gameplay features that integrate the nature of building, riding and destroying roller coasters. It’s what Roller Coaster Tycoon would be if you could take the helm and actually ride the attraction in order to score points, or blow up massive structures, and of course–build them. It’s a fresh idea that works extremely well to offer gameplay opportunities that are different from your Call of Duties or Forza Motorsports.
Screamride is set within a colourful and pretty looking satirical world where a massive corporation, known as Screamworks, offer thousands of young people the chance to ride their amusements in order to benefit humanity and science. Along the way, you are accompanied by a gentle robotic female overseer who comments on your progression, and explains the terms and conditions of each attraction that could cause massive damage to your spleen. I will admit though; the the humour in Screamride is a little dry and repetitive–and the robotic commentator does seem as though she is trying to outwit GLaDOS from Portal. It ain’t working.
But setting that hiccup aside, the main focus of Screamride is the brain exploding gameplay which is broken down into three distinct events: Ride, Build, and Destroy. Overall, the game is puzzle based, but each mode offers something else in combination with either racing, destroying, or building that perfectly creates something for everyone to enjoy. Riding allows players to take control of a roller-coaster, and ride it along various and complex tracks in order to gain points. Building means that players will have to finish constructing roller coasters in their own unique way in order to earn points, or to destroy massive structures. Finally, Destruction arms players with either a launching platform, or an “amusement canon” which is just a spinning arm to launch various projectiles that explode, fly, and bounce to destroy a collection of structures and gain points. So indeed, it does offer a great deal of diverse gameplay choices for everyone to engage with.
The game’s progression is thankfully open, and doesn’t tie you down to complete all the tasks in a section of the game in order to progress. Screamride divides itself up into six locations with the three main events, and allows players to play what series of events they want to, and avoid any challenges they don’t like. So, if you’re not a fan of building, you can progress through the game without taking part in the engineering levels–allowing you to just enjoy riding or destroy without ever building a single roller coaster.
The game does have a great way of clearly explaining many mechanics that either help or harm you progression in an event, but at times, I found myself finding an item in the game world that I had no idea how to use. For example: In destruction mode, I noticed these satellite dishes scattered across the level and had no idea what they did, thinking they were part of the scenery. Only when I launched my projectile at it by accident did I find out that it could grab the launched projectile, and shoot it in any direction I wanted. Thanks for telling me that, game.
Even though the game does look pretty, it’s sad to see that Frontier don’t offer much in terms of exciting and diverse worlds to immerse yourself in. The first game world: “The Populous Labs” is quite exhilarating to observe, but after this location we’re offered mostly bland and empty wastelands that change in color depending on which side of the equator they’re on. I hoped the satirical nature of the game would blend in more vibrant locations, actual amusement parks or anything other than than a wasteland. I understand the logic to test out dangerous experiments would be better in the middle of nowhere, but the game’s tone and nature don’t really seem to lend much to logic.
Something else that can harm the flow and enjoyment of the game are the slight difficulty spikes and the unfair nature of the game, which seems to effectively work against you in order to make you fail. This happens when the physics are tipped in the game’s favor, and the organic nature makes no sense. Just like making a turn on a track and the cart tipping to one side, often you have to break in order to slow down, as trying to tip the other way just won’t work, even though the game says this can be done and often enough it does work. Another slight annoyance is the ridiculous camera controls that just make launching projectiles difficult and hard to follow.
The bonuses and additional features are welcoming, including a level editor that offers a great deal of expansion after playing the main campaign. This means you can create your own levels, ridiculous rides, or destructive set pieces, which you can also share online for others to play and rate.
Screamride offers a great experience of original and variant gameplay opportunities–From puzzle based destruction, racing, and building. While the world is colourful and wondrous to observe with its fantastic detail to destruction, there is no variety of locations, diverse surroundings, and poor humour that doesn’t even bring a chuckle in most instances. A game that had great potential, but feels as though it’s stuck between a download title, and a full blown AAA exclusive. It’s worthwhile to rent, or pick up at a much lower price, yet still a great amount of fun can be had here.