ROAD REDEMPTION Review for PlayStation 4

Do your part in making the highways and byways a little safer—put your road rage to good use in ROAD REDEMPTION for PS4.  Publisher Tripwire Interactive and indie developers, EQ-Games and Pixel Dash Studio, present a modern day, nitro souped-up version of Road Rage. This combat racing game very much exceeded my expectations, but my bar was set rather low. 

ROAD REDEMPTION does anything but neglect the ‘combat’ in combat racing. The actual racing is secondary to pretty much murdering everybody; from medics to cops, no one is safe. Despite this twisted theme, the developers keep the visual display of bloody carnage to a minimum—but what they do show you can tell they had fun with it. Knocking the enemy off the road simply will not do, but rather, why not knock their helmet off instead and bring it on home with a swift blade to the neck? For pizzazz purposes. No, I am not just being creepy, the game awards decapitation points. But don’t stop there—earn and upgrade a variety of implements to dish out destruction; shovels, swords, dynamite…etc. Choose your own slaughter style.

This is not an easy game. As per the nature of any title within the racing genre, the steepness of the learning curve is different for everyone. ROAD REDEMPTION’s controls are pretty basic, potentially giving an edge to the less experienced gamer, who doesn’t have to unlearn any habits from similar games. But novice or not, you will be careening off the road into the wastelands far more than once.

The most frustrating aspect of gameplay is the oddly disproportionate distribution of points. Earn cash rewards for just about everything on the track—but once you die, all the money and subsequent upgrades purchased with said money go bye-bye. Good news does exist in the form of experience points, with which you can purchase permanent upgrades to keep always  for your murderous mayhem. Problem being—the acquisition of XP is on the stingy side. The permanent upgrades are insurmountably helpful, particularly the ones that allow you to skip certain levels, but it takes way too long to earn 250 XP for an increase in nitro supply.

Another source of agony is how slow this game loads—outdated graphics and formulaic tracks aren’t that complex, at least not enough to justify how much time is spent staring that the loading screens. I am not being dramatic when I say you can get a start on last night’s dishes while you wait for the next level. Even Destiny loads faster.

For what ROAD REDEMPTION is — an updated homage to Road Rage, it is pretty fun. Once you get to playing, it’s quick to reveal the unique goodies that this game has to offer. There is a somewhat addictive quality to the frustrations of staying on the road and schooling your rivals, but it’s only addicting enough to keep your attention while you play. If you have something better, I wouldn’t go out of my way to play it.

Rating 7/10

Check Out the Road Redemption Console Launch Trailer: (MATURE)