Death Rally Review

 

Yet another good old game has made its return in the form of a remake. This time the developer responsible for this is Finland’s own Remedy Entertainment. The same company responsible for Max Payne and Alan Wake has decided to rerelease one of their old kick ass games from 1996, Death Rally. How will this nostalgia filled release fare against the original?

The original Death Rally from 1996.

The original Death Rally was a very simple, fast, arcadey, easy to learn, fun and addicting game. You drove to win, to get money, to get a better car, improve that car, and so on and so forth until you got to face off against the Adversary who apparently was the craziest motherfucker behind the wheel that you could ever meet. What made the game different from the rest of the racing games of its time was the awesome addition of a machine gun, spiked bumper and mines. You could win a race simply by blowing everyone else up.

This was all to be expected from the remake of the game. Not knowing a thing about the remake, I decided to get it while extremely high on a nostalgia trip. Starting the game, you aren’t given much choice on what to do, as you are immediately asked to name your new career. Once you’ve named your career the game begins with the first insert to the story. I’m still not sure why they decided to add a story to the game this time around.

The remake does look slightly different than the original.

You play a guy who enjoys reckless driving and therefore has attracted the attention of the authorities. As the game begins, you are hunted down by a mean cigar-smoking hard-ass of the law enforcement, who decides to not lock you up for all your crimes against humanity because he happens to have another use for you: that’s right, hunt down the Adversary. You need to drive around enough to attract his attention then beat him.

There are two game modes: race and story. Races are just races, as you might imagine. The difficulty level of the races advances as you get further in the game but you can still race in the previous difficulties. These races will be you main source for pimpin’ your car. The story mode has seven events in total, some of which add a little more to the plot with a Max Payne-style cartoony slide show. You can switch between these modes on the fly.

The story being told.

The game itself consists of… racing! Each regular race takes about one to two minutes.  In addition to the regular races, you have different challenges to choose from like single lap races, head to head races and a marathon race. There’s also a Death Match challenge, where you face off against the cigar-smoking hard-ass and four other drivers for three minutes in a demolition derby sort of event. Each race/challenge has up to six drivers, one of which is always a “boss” driver. The boss is just another driver who has a portrait hovering above his/her car. Should you go against them using the same car as they are, they will always go faster than you. Guess that’s their way of adding more challenge to the game.

The main screen..Here you see all the cars, weapons and races available

After each race, you are rewarded with money that you can use to upgrade your car and weapons. The amount of money you make is naturally decided by how well you’ve done in the race. Destroying the opponents’ and boss’ car adds to the cash flow. There are a total of 6 weapons and 8 cars in the game. Unlocking each of these is done by picking up parts for them from the cars you’ve destroyed in the races. Each car has a different amount of base stats (speed, handling and armor) that you can upgrade. Spiked bumpers, mines and laser sights are unlockable as well. You are also required to repair your car after each race.

Race statistics screen. You will see this after every race.

None of the money you win from the races gets stored after you complete a race. Any excess money you might have left after you’re done upgrading your car will vanish. You can only use the money to upgrade the car/equipment you were using on that current race. This way, you are forced to drive a shittier car than you already have available so you can eventually pimp the new shitty car enough to make it better than that one car that is better that you already have. Reading that explanation of the system should make as little sense as the system itself.

Pimp my ride.

Even though there is still stuff to do after you beat the game, (the game never actually ends) it’s really hard to find any enjoyment out of it after all the time you’ve already put into it. There remains a fame system in the game that gives you achievements for every new level you achieve. You get fame from each race and that pretty much becomes the only thing to strive for once you’ve accomplished the main content. Honestly, the game just gets way too boring at that point. I was hoping for a closure on the game once you beat the “story.”

And that´s all there is to the game. The controls work well and the cars act just as you want them to, which makes the driving a lot of fun. The pimping aspect and slow progression towards the better cars keeps you going for that one more race continuously.

That said, it took me about 7 hours to unlock and upgrade everything in the game as well as take out the Adversary. Even before that, the game started getting really repetitive and somewhat boring to me. Unlocking new stuff seemed to happen all the time which ate away from the thought of gaining something of value. The whole progression of the game just seemed way too fast.

The Death Match.

Overall, the remake fails to do the original justice. The original Death Rally had a much better progression system and sense of true success, not just a forced storyline for the sake of having one. The remake has better graphics and slightly better controls. Still, the races were way too short and the entire game felt rushed. If you can, get the original over the remake.