It’s hard to whine too much about the fall of the futuristic racer when there’s ample evidence pointing towards the genre’s rude health right now. Godfathers of the form, WipEout creator Studio Liverpool, may be no more, but plenty of imitators have emerged in its wake, from neat twists on the formula such as Distance’s horror-tinged racing or Fast Racing Neo’s hard edges. Redout, which has recently launched on Steam, stands out as being the most fastidious student of the style, so it’s no wonder people are falling so readily in love. There have been games inspired by WipEout in recent years, but none of them have been quite so much like that iconic PlayStation series as this.
That’s largely a good thing, of course. Italian developer 34BigThings has done a masterly job of capturing the pizzazz and excitement of the genre in its pomp, and it’s done well to fold in other relevant influences too. From WipEout itself there’s an impossible sense of speed and a future-cool Euro style. From fantastic curio Star Wars Pod Racer – let’s not forget the one indisputably cool thing that The Phantom Menace gave us – there’s even a twin-engined chariot, all pumped-up muscle and heft that’s a delight to hurl around the 20 tracks on offer here.
And in those circuits there’s the sweet shadow of F-Zero being cast. This is Redout’s strong suit, I think, its developers showing a real flair for laying down some awe-inspiring tracks. Sometime before his unlikely Kabukicho makeover while he was still working on F-Zero GX, Sega’s Toshihiro Nagoshi compared creating a new course for the GameCube title to writing a song, where it’s about nailing the rhythm and working towards those virtuoso moments in each lap. 34BigThings are accomplished musicians in this regard, and Redout’s tracks are a pretty anthemic bunch.