First Look At Road Redemption Alpha

Road Redemption features a brutal arsenal of weapons, versatile character-customization, and an engaging storyline. To survive, you’ll need to master a sophisticated combat system with kicks, counters, throws, disarms, deflects, and much much more.

Pros:

• Good detailed graphics with the bikes in particular looking good.
• 360 Pad support available from the start and also includes keyboard and mouse controls.
• Road Rash influenced game play where you must eliminate the other riders in anyway you seem fit. But avoid the police and traffic!
• Ten levels to play through in the alpha which serve as an appetizer before the main course and allow you to get a feel for the game. Each level increases the difficulty whether it be the AI riders, Police or traffic density.
• Several game types are in the alpah. Normal racing with violence, Elimination where you must knock off a certain amount of riders in a time limit, Survival where every car is after you and you must get to the safe zone and one where just typing it out doesn’t prepare you for how mad it is. The mode is a race but the cars are not on the track oh no, They are falling from the sky! Literally raining from the sky, Cars explode,roll and cause nothing but mayhem.
• Selection of weapons can be collected by either going through the levels or by knocking off fellow riders. The weapons are just as crazy with baseball bats, shovels, hammers,samurai swords and even pipe bombs being used! Pipe bombs have a timer and you drop the bomb when you choose and is really cool. Another cool weapon you get access too is a C4 like weapon where you can stick explosives on cars and bikes, Again it has a timer but the art of “Tagging” in a road rash game is unbelievable.
• The AI is clever for the most part and you can see them fighting amongst themselves and pulling off crazy jumps, But every now and then you will see cars having crashes, AI riders driving into the back of parked cars. Explosions are huge and spectacular that even Micheal Bay couldn’t help but be impressed.
• Controls are easy to learn especially with the pad, Accelerate is on the right trigger and double tapping it will initiate turbo. Left trigger is for braking and the left stick is movement and right stick for camera. D pad is weapon selection and X is attack, A is to deflect shots or hits,B is to kick opponents ala Road Rash.
• You can have scrapes with cars and bang into them without falling off. You can see the car getting damaged like losing doors or windows smashing. Your helmet can come off if you take too many hits or crash out.
• Crashing and then resetting to track is quick.
• In some levels you will have access to a rear view mirror which helps a lot.
• All enemy racers have an arrow above their head in races.
• Crazy ragdoll effects when crashing.
• Earn money from knocking opponents off and beating up the Police.
• Open world so you can go anywhere at any time within reason. By this I mean you cant go jumping of canyons.
• Fast frantic tense racing action.
• Game shows a lot of promise and the future is bright with this one.
• Upto Four players offline play can be had.
• Graphic options are minimal but you get to pick a style from normal to fastest to fantastic.
• Gameplay is solid and the different modes work really well.

Cons:

• Really basic menu to the point where it is just a small collection of grey boxes.
• No options menu available so you cannot do any proper graphic or audio tweaks.
• Only the ten levels can be played and it must be done in order every time.
• Tutorial pops up will always repeat themselves and come up at the worst times like when you are on a corner!
• Camera is too light and means looking behind you can be a pain in the arse.
• Controls are decent for the most part but cornering has a really floaty delayed feel to them. Just makes cornering more of a mission in itself.
• Few hit detection issues especially with bigger weapons.

In Summary, This game is still so so early in development so beating it up is not a true reflection of the overall product, Luckily I don’t need to do that as for how early the game is, Its really good. Its fun its fast and it has so much atmosphere you cannot help but smile. Older gamers will feel more for it due to their ties with the religion known as Road Rash! It is a modern day equivalent with a few modern twists added on top. The only thing they didn’t take form Road Rash was the long sad walk back to your bike after you fall off and avoid other racers hitting you. I love the game for those ties I have and I love all the new things added. The C4 style weapon is an absolute treat and when online comes in will be the Road Rash version of the blues shell! I cannot wait for online to be put in and it will be interesting to see how they take the project forward, I would like to see a proper fleshed out online arena with clans and free roam ala Test Drive Unlimited, Co op scenarios, Worlds wildest police chases camera angles, Hijacking trucks. But that’s just me and for now its a good game but for the high price you don’t get a lot of game for your money just yet. But it is an investment and the first payout of that is a good one. Road Rash lives…Its just changed his name and grown some bigger balls!