If you want to talk about giants of the UK games industry,
Rockstar North and Rare are probably two of the biggest and oldest, but one
name above those fills my mind with flashbacks to my very earliest days of
gaming, playing the Dizzy titles on my ZX Spectrum, Micro Machines 2 on SNES,
and Colin McRae Rally on the original Playstation, that of the Warwickshire-based
developer, Codemasters, famous for the MTV Music Generator, Operation
Flashpoint, and official F1 games and many more besides.
Codemasters’ heritage dates way back to the mid-80’s and
you’d be hard-pressed to find a console that hasn’t had some sort of game of
theirs in some form or another, these days they’re mostly known for their
racing titles, and in 2016 when Sony closed Evolution Studios, known for the
World Rally Championship and Motorstorm series, Codemasters took on their
developers and Runcorn headquarters, pooled all their knowledge, and left them
to work on their new IP, announced eighteen months later as ONRUSH.
From the outset you’d be under the impression that ONRUSH is
a racing game, well technically it is and
it isn’t, yes you’re all going as fast as you can in the same direction, but
the goal is not to be the first to reach the finish line, there is no finish
line, it’s vehicular combat more akin to Twisted Metal and Burnout, it features
four game modes, Overdrive, Switch, Countdown, and Lockdown, each of which
places you among eleven AI characters and numerous “Fodder” vehicles, five of the
AI will be on your side and it’s down to your team to do what it takes to
achieve victory, by any means necessary.
Each of the four modes force you to utilise your skills and
team-mates in differing ways, Overdrive is points based, boosting gets you
points, the team with the most points at the end of each round wins, Switch starts
you with three lives and your aim is to survive for as long as possible, when
you get taken down by a member of the opposing team respawning grants you a
stronger vehicle and vice-versa, and the winner is the last team standing,
Countdown gives each team a decreasing timer and checkpoints to speed through
to keep your counter from reaching zero before the other team’s, finally is
Lockdown, a frantic and constantly moving game of King of the Hill.
These all take part across twelve varied courses, each
featuring multiple routes, unique scenery, and many obstacles that can be used
or avoided depending on whether it’s yourself or an AI vehicle hurtling towards
it, the level of detail on each location is nothing short of stunning, Stargaze
Peak has you trading paint amidst a windfarm and giant satellite installation around
a mountain, Big Dune Beach is a seaside based face-off, narrowly avoiding the
pine trees and long-abandoned buildings of a former town, and Volcano Lake, uneven
terrain littered with rocky outcrops, large wooden walkways and iridescent
pools of water, all providing a swift wreckage to those who don’t stay wary of
their surroundings.
Luckily finding yourself wrecked isn’t the
controller-destroying annoyance you’d usually find in games of this nature,
ONRUSH has a feature called “Stampede”, should you find yourself on the
receiving end of a takedown, instead of re-joining the action at the back of
the pack, the Stampede System spawns your vehicle right into the middle of the
crowd, meaning any points deficit can be clawed back without having to catch up
to everyone else first, just respawn and get wrecking.
Whilst the Fodder racers can be knocked out with little
effort, it takes a bit more cunning and effort to see off the other team, who
are able to withstand the same punishment as yourself, it mostly comes down to
who can make the most of the skills that each of the eight classes of vehicle
you’re able to choose from, earning RUSH by performing stunts and tricks,
dropping Tombstones that temporarily obstruct when collected by opponents, or
skills that activate when RUSH is activated, leaving a trail of fire, dropping
blockades behind you, or topping up the boost of any teammates who might be
close by.
The eight classes range from two bikes and six four-wheeled
vehicles, and whilst each has different traits and RUSH abilities, everything
else is mostly cosmetic, as you take part in the different events you’ll gain
XP and level-up, and each time you reach a new rank you’ll be granted a Gear
Crate, contained within these are random vehicle skins, character outfits,
tricks and tombstone icons, It’s more Overwatch than Battlefront 2, you want to
look better than everyone, you can pay, you want to BE better than everyone,
git gud.
Fortunately the only thing between yourself and victory is
practice, between Codemasters and Evolution Studios is a huge amount of
experience and it shows here, the controls are ultra-tight, boiled down to a
simplicity that makes this title incredibly easy to pick up and play, even the
slightest of nudges to the analogue stick gives precision movement, the cars
respond to the terrain nicely with the right weight and physics you’d expect, the
bikes are nimble and able to dodge most oncoming scenery or attacks, whilst the
larger 4WD trucks slice through the other racers like butter, but might
struggle at some of the more sharper turns.
Playing through the Superstars career mode takes you through
use of each of the vehicles, growing in difficulty as you progress through nearly
100 different events and challenges, often limiting your choice in a particular
mode, requiring you to think differently as to how you approach each race, or
try to even the odds and get some friends online and give it a go as your own
team, ONRUSH is to racing games as Overwatch is to first-person shooters,
giving us a teamwork mechanic that in theory shouldn’t work, but does, and very
well for that matter.
For everything that ONRUSH has going for it, sometimes it
does feel like it’s maybe trying a little bit too hard, a couple of small tweaks
here and there wouldn’t be unwelcome, skippable replays when you get wrecked
and slightly shorter respawn times would be nice, and I can’t help but feel
that an actual racing mode, be it laps, or a sprint or such, would complete an
otherwise generally faultless game.
Each time I play ONRUSH, I get a real SSX feel, a game that
screams arcade, pick up, play, enjoy, the visual presentation and customisation
of characters and cars, the superb variety of music and in your face sound
effects that inhabit the audio, and the courses themselves, beautifully
realised and easy to find yourself distracted by some of the neat touches you’ll
notice as you hurtle past, whilst it never quite reaches the thrills achieved
by the Motorstorm titles, there is still plenty of fun to be had here and it’s
a very refreshing change from the realistic simulation titles and open-world
boy-racer action dramas we’ve been fed lately.