I’ve never played anything from Pixel Dash Studios or EQ Games before, despite their large libraries. That’s because they’ve put out some pretty obscure stuff. Phone game shovelware, VR titles, derivative puzzlers, these guys have cranked it all out. That’s not to say they’re bad companies, far from it, but it means they don’t have a strong focus on console and PC development in terms of putting out high grade content. Unfortunately, that’s what’s needed in a game like Road Redemption, the rogue-lite outlaw biker game which is an obvious homage to that EA classic, Road Rash.
Road Redemption puts you in the driver’s seat of a generic crotch rocket, speeding down the highway in the midst of a gang war between rival motorcycle gangs for the right to take out an assassin and make a boatload of cash. It’s a thin plot, but that’s okay since you’re riding around beating people in the head with lead pipes and such.
I’m going to start off strong here. I love this concept. Love it! A procedurally generated motorcycle combat game with rogue-like elements that build your strength as you play? Sold! But if it sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is. Don’t get me wrong. Road Redemption is a solid game. But it’s not quite what it could or should be.
The gold standard for this genre is Road Rash. I’ll go one step further and say that the pinnacle of this genre is Road Rash for the Panasonic 3D0. Not only does it still hold up today, but it’s a fantastic game with tight controls, awesome FMV sequences, and excellent music. Ultimately, just getting near that quality is enough to make any modern racing combat game worthwhile. In Road Redemption, that’s exactly what the developers tried, only with adding a few elements. Let’s take a look.
First off, Road Redemption is a rogue-lite. That means that each time you play, you gain experience that you can put towards permanent upgrades which make the game easier to get further. Classic examples of this are games like Dead Cells, Rogue Legacy, and Everspace. The problem with Road Redemption is that you gain very little XP per playthrough and the upgrades are painfully slow and ineffectual. On top of that, add on challenging gameplay that often leaves you with so little XP when you die that you can’t earn upgrades. Definitely frustrating. In the hours I spent with the game, I only managed to get to the second portion of the game once and only bought a handful of upgrades. XP gain is simply too slow.
In addition, the difficulty is high. The game isn’t hard per se, but it’s a bit of a grind, especially playing what essentially are the same six levels over and over constantly. When I finally did beat the first boss, I died not long after, forcing me to start over. I enjoy this in other rogue-likes, but in Road Redemption, it becomes tedious faster. The physics are a bit floaty for my taste and you end up bouncing all over the roadway, trusting luck to keep you safe. There were definitely some spectacular crashes in some of my races, but overall, just keeping your bike in check to fight enemies is a constant grind on the abilities, and wearing overall.
The tracks are generally well designed, but it’s obvious that the procedural algorithm is fairly limited, as after only a few races, everything looked significantly familiar, to the point that I wasn’t even concerned about that next bend or jump anymore. Combat on the other hand, is weirdly unbalanced, with some weapons being wholly ineffectual, especially without upgrades (which aren’t permanent). The machete is noticeably weaker than I’d expect, and the C4 is ridiculously powerful. That being said, fighting enemies is mostly fairly fun, and once I learned you gained nitro for every kill, I blew through most of the early races and my main concern was combat and crashing.
Again, it’s hard not to compare to Road Rash, which has less complex combat, but in many ways that’s a blessing compared to Road Redemption. Combat is challenging, especially with multiple opponents. You can kick, hit with weapons, and fire guns, but to change weapons on the fly requires the d-pad, and it’s easy to hit the wrong weapon or lose control of your bike at high speed. The physics don’t help here, that’s for sure. The same goes for using the jump jets once you get them…very finicky and challenging to use properly and easy to use accidentally and simply crash.
Don’t even try to play this game with a keyboard unless you’re an absolute god. You’ll simply fail. It’s too fast, too complex, and honestly just designed for a controller in my opinion. I used an Xbox One controller on my PC to play Road Redemption and most of the controls felt natural, except for using R1 and L1, which is hard to do at high speeds while holding the R2 button to constantly accelerate.
Then there’s the technical aspects of the game. It looks good. Not spectacular, but the level of detail on the characters, including the blood and wear on vehicles and weapons is excellent. I had all settings maxed on the PC and had no slowdown, lag, or any issues with glitches other than a handful of collision detection bugs. Definitely nothing out of the ordinary for any freeform racing/combat game like this one. The sound on the other hand, was less than impressive.
One of the greatest things about Road Rash was its hard rock soundtrack. EA licensed a bunch of sweet music for the game that simply made the atmosphere. Road Redemption utterly fails in the music department, using generic electric guitars and weak guitar riffs to fill the background and it simply doesn’t have the same edge that actual hard rock would. Yeah, there’s all the licensing fees and all that, but man, what a letdown. There should at least be a built-in custom soundtrack option so you could add your own metal. It would really help the atmosphere of the game.
There are multiple modes in Road Redemption as well. Online versus, Quick combat, and multiplayer are all available. The online component is pretty similar to the main game, only you’re racing to three wins and get XP and unlockables that don’t carry over to the main game. Not bad if you’re into that sort of thing, but nothing special. The other modes are pretty self explanatory too, nothing revolutionary there.
Oh yeah, and there’s that one other thing that soured me on the game a bit. The dialogue. Basically, every character swears and postures like a teenager trying to impress a girl. I’ve never seen a game call anyone a bottom bitch before, nor say things like “You’d better thank the god of little bitches” or “You’re a fucking artist, kid” or any number of other profanity laced comments, both in written and spoken dialogue. I think it was all put in to be edgy, but it ends up feeling a bit weak and sophomoric when woven into the tapestry of the game. It’s more like what a 13 year old would think is cool than the mature, aggressive dialogue I would have expected. Hell, in the game over screen, they even appear to have put one of the dev’s actual phone numbers in, and ask you to call him if you’re having fun. It’s all a bit much, even if it’s obviously written in good fun.
Overall, Road Redemption is a solid racer with a moderate learning curve and a fairly significant challenge level. If you’re patient, love racing, decapitations, and swearing, this one will fit you like a glove. If you are expecting an enduring classic rather than a above-average homage to Road Rash, you might be somewhat disappointed. It’s probably worth the money, especially since Steam has it on sale for 55% off until the 17th of January, making it only $9 instead of it’s usually $20 price point. Not bad! Now go kick some ass for your gang, wear leather, and feel good about yourself by beheading some anonymous bikers!
This review was based on a retail version of Road Redemption supplied by the publisher, running on an an I7-8700K with 16 GB of DDR4-3000 RAM, and an Asus GeForce GTX 1080 ROG Strix graphics card. No outlaw gang members were harmed during the writing of this review. Several images used in this review are press images from the official Road Redemption website; Most are actual screen captures.