Developer: 3DClouds
Publisher: Soedesco
Platform: PS4, Switch, Xbox one, PC
Tested on: PS4
Xenon Racer – Review
Xenon Racer is racing game, developed by Italian developer 3DClouds and published by Soedesco. For this futuristic racing game, the developers took inspiration from 90s arcade racing games. Xenon Racer is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One.
Story
In the year 2030, the most famous manufacturers, coming from every corner of the planet, organized an unofficial championship to evolve the technologies of the future races. Their purpose is to test the new energy system ERS and the artificial intelligence for vehicles’ dynamic set-up change. The Xenon Racing Championship begins. Choose a team, start running and win to discover the Motorsport of tomorrow.
Of course, a game like this is not driven by its interesting plot and focuses much more on gameplay. There are many races to win, and the game offers a ton of content in their packed championship mode.
Graphics
The graphics in Xenon Racer are fine, but feel a bit outdated. The lighting and environment looks great in some parts of the game, but overall, al lot of the textures are very bland. The crowd stands look atrocious and frankly, it looks like they remained unchanged from the arcade era this game took inspiration from. Some maps look very similar, although, in the many tracks you will race, there is just enough variety. There are a lot cool car designs you can unlock as you progress the game. If this futuristic type of design suits you, you will be amazed at some of the customizations in the game.
Sound
Xenon Racer offers a great list of exhilarating tracks, compiled by Monstercat. All tracks sound like popular dance or drum and bass tracks, that fit the game perfectly. Even if this style of music isn’t what you would normally would listen to, it does the job of pumping you up during the races. The man who announces the races is just bad, unfortunately, and the voice-actor’s performance feels very stale.
Gameplay
Xenon Races follows an old-school formula of racing. The basic racing game elements are the same; punch gas, brake, and use the handbrake to drift. An added feature here, reminiscent of older turbo racing games, is the use of ERS, a boosting ability that uses up battery to give you a great advantage. The game also focuses a lot on drifting, since drifting recharges your batteries and let you take turns smoothly. You can also use ground recharge platforms to recover your batteries.
There are different game modes to choose from. The Xenon Racing Championship follows the main story and offers the largest portion of Xenon Racer’s content. You could also opt to play a Fast Race, for a quick single race. The game can also be played co-operatively or online. The Edge Mode offers a race against the clock or a free mode for endless practice. Furthermore, you can customize your car in the Garage. Here you can unlock a lot of new cars, paint jobs, spoilers, wings and much more.
Unfortunately, there is no physical indication of damage, however, your car will have health and when that is depleted, your ability to control your car will diminish and you will respawn, losing a lot of momentum in the process. It would’ve been more realistic with the use of visual damage, or realistically driving handicaps when certain parts of the car get damaged, but being inspired by arcade racing, realism is not why you should try out this game.
You can change difficulty however you please, but there is something strange concerning the difficulty of the races. One race you are struggling to get into the top 3, often settling with fourth or fifth place, and then a few races later, you win the race easily. These difficulty spikes are very frustrating and thus the challenge often feels very unfair.
The game runs smoothly and almost never has performance issues such as frame drops or lag. However, the controls can sometimes feel a bit clunky. As previously mentioned, a lot of this game revolves around drifting, and that is also where the game can get very frustrating, when that mechanic just doesn’t run smoothly at times.
Conclusion
Xenon Racer is decent racing game. It is not perfect by any means and isn’t revolutionary either, but it performs well enough and can offer a fun time. The game is packed to the brim with content and has excellent customization options. The graphics are fine. The environments, lighting and car designs are often very cool, but the crowd stands look bad and the bland textures at times can make the game feel very outdated. The music is fitting and exhilarating, but the announcer is just plain bad. The biggest gripe would be the difficulty spikes and the unfair challenges in the main championship. This game balances between the fun and the frustrating. This mixed bag shows that the game has a lot of potential and fun to be had, but misses a few marks here and there. For racing fans, and fans of old-school arcade racing, this is one to try out.
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