Review for Distance. Game for PC, Steam, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Linux, the video game was released on 18/09/2018 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 31/12/2018
After over six years of development (started through a campaign Kickstarter), and nearly three years in early access on Steam, has finally seen the light Distance, title of Refract Studios who, in the intentions of the development team, wants to be a spiritual successor to their previous work, Nitronic Rush.
The experiment is interesting and proposes to the player something different from a simple racing game: the authors themselves define it as a survival racing game which presents the player with an experience worthy of a psychological thriller. The care for the tracks and the atmosphere that reigns within the work were certainly the points on which Refract Studios has focused the most, bringing a truly unique racing game to the screen. The tracks are the background futuristic scenarios that present immense buildings that rise towards the void e breathtaking spatial views, Complete with teleports along the route that we will find ourselves on.
It is easy to find yourself confused by going to try the campaign mode - the first that the player is in front of in the game menu - which allows us to run on tracks alone, without opponents of any kind, and whose only goal is to get to the end of the path to advance to the next level. The tracks themselves are the only impediment to the otherwise easy pace of the player: the paths are in fact littered with obstacles which, in the event of an impact at high speeds by our car, destroy it, resulting in respawn at the last checkpoint.
As you proceed through the various Segments (as the various levels are called), the road is getting harder and harder for the player and, to help him and make the game more interesting at the same time, the guys at Refract Studios have seen fit to add various upgrades, unlockable by advancing in the mode (in addition to the jump it's a boost in acceleration, already present by default), which translate into possibility to control the movements at 360 ° of your car in the air, even reaching a literally make it fly. You need to keep an eye on the indicator engine temperature, which will overheat with the use of the boost and can cause the car to explode, unless you slow down or cross in the meantime a checkpoint which, in addition to the already very useful save function, helps to cool the engine.
On our journey we will be accompanied by a mysterious timer which will go down (even if it get to zero causing the game over) and from real hallucinations of which we will be victims in different moments of the game. The extent and significance of these events is unclear and much is left to the player's interpretation.
The campaign mode can be completed in a short time, and that's when the rescue comes to the rescue arcade mode. Here you go to vary the formula with different types of races: short and difficult, in the Sprint category, or longer but without reset and check points in the Challenge, or even more varied in Stunt, where you have to perform stunts to earn points. You go to compete, both in timed and point-based races, with rankings that include the scores and times of other Distance players.
Worthy of a separate mention is the very original Trackmogrify, which allows the player to enter any word or phrase, on the basis of which a completely new layout is then generated. Writing, for example, Blue Twisted, we will find on the screen a track that will have blue as the predominant color and in which there will be numerous curves. This more reasoned approach can be combined with a more random one at the same time, typing random words and seeing what we will find in front of us.
The limit, in this case, is given only by the player's imagination and the time we spent trying different combinations was truly amazing.
Trackmogrify it can also be replaced by a construction of multiple paths meticulous and reasoned, exploiting the level editor, which offers the player a wide range of possibilities to create their own circuit down to the smallest detail, perhaps taking a cue from the (downloadable) levels already created by the community that fully exploit the potential of Distance. Such customization in the layouts, however, it is not accompanied by an equally complete customization of our vehicle, whose only modifications are those relating to the colors of the vehicle.
We conclude with the multiplayer, a mode that will allow you to compete in the categories already seen in arcade mode, but with opponents in real time, making our Sprint races even more memorable or our experiments in Trackmogrify even more chaotic. In these modes the opponents are intangible, preventing any chance (or not) clash that, at the crazy speeds at which we will move, it would certainly be fatal.
The work and commitment lavished on the Distance project is palpable, as is the desire to present the player with something that goes beyond a simple racing game, but the main story, which wants to tell the mysterious past of the city in which we moves, gives very few clear answers on what is going on. The search for novelty in the title, accompanied by basic mechanics, however simple and valid, should be equally rewarded, and the Trackmogrify mode is the clear example of how even a very particular idea can then turn into something really fun and original, if developed correctly.
► Distance is an Arcade-Adventure-running-indie game developed and published by Refract Studios for PC, Steam, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Linux, the video game was released on 18/09/2018 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 31/12/2018
