Inertial Drift Review (Steam)

Inertial Drift Review

Forget everything you know about drifting. Inertial Drift tears up the racing rule book with innovative twin-stick controls, completely re-imagined driving mechanics, and a roster of fiercely individual cars.

Pros:

  • Gorgeous cel-shaded graphics.
  • Anime style cutscenes.
  • 2913mb Download size.
  • Steam achievements.
  • Controller support.
  • Graphics-fullscreen, frame rate (30/60/unlimited), v-sync, resolution, anti-aliasing, shadows, motion blur, chromatic aberration, and ambient occlusion.
  • Drifting/Racing gameplay.
  • Initial tutorial race.
  • Can skip cutscenes.
  • Banging soundtrack using a somewhat lofi style.
  • A lot of neon.
  • Six game modes- Story mode, challenges, arcade, grand Prix, split-screen, and online.
  • Invert axis and sensitivity sliders.
  • Rearview mirror-on/off.
  • Units-mph or kph.
  • New controls mechanic-all the same as normal except the right stick is used for drifting and despite sounding odd, it works really really well.
  • Online leaderboards.
  • Story mode-pick a character with a unique car that carries a difficulty rank. You work your way through a series of events and have access to a practice session.
  • Remote play together support.
  • A lot of fun to play.
  • Drift control is an absolute game-changer.
  • Challenges-set events and cars that need to be unlocked.
  • Arcade-pick a track, event, and car.
  • Seven race types-practice, ghost battle, time attack, race, Duel, style, and endurance.
  • Grand Prix-pick a car and do the set event list.
  • Online mode-pick a vehicle class (1/2/3).

Inertial Drift Review

Cons:

  • The initial learning curve with the controls.
  • Online just pick a class and go.
  • Long matchmaking times.
  • Difficulty spikes.
  • Wall grinding feels unnecessarily harsh.
  • A lot of modes or cars need unlocking for particular events.
  • The game hangs and crashes upon exit every other time.

Inertial Drift Review

  • 9/10
    Graphics - 9/10
  • 9/10
    Sound - 9/10
  • 8/10
    Accessibility - 8/10
  • 8/10
    Length - 8/10
  • 9/10
    Fun Factor - 9/10
8.6/10

Summary

Inertial Drift is a seriously stylish game, seconds after booting the game you get blasted with some Anime-style cutscenes and then you see the game running in what can only be described as cel-shaded dreams, you think it’s another cutscene but then you realize you are in control! Talking of control the Drift controls take it in a new direction and go with an almost twin-stick approach which sounds weird it sounds complicated but it works! It flows and for me is now the benchmark for how to do drifting in the future. The gameplay is a mix of street racing with a bit of drifting to drifting with a bit of racing. I found online to be the most basic of all the modes on offer and the story gave the most enjoyment. Inertial Drift real y did surprise me in all the best ways, I liked the story, the characters, and the cars on offer. You could accuse the game of playing it safe in terms of the events as they stick to the tried and tested modes like time attack, ghost battles, and racing. It could have more modes to complement the Drift and controls but they only add one maybe two and it works in those just fine. Overall Inertial Drift is a game that innovates on one hand but plays it safe on the other but makes no bones about, Inertial Drift is stylish as shit!

Jim Smale

Gaming since the Atari 2600, I enjoy the weirdness in games counting Densha De Go and RC De Go as my favourite titles of all time. I prefer gaming of old where buying games from a shop was a thing, Being social in person was a thing. Join me as I attempt to adapt to this new digital age!