We’ve been playing Wreckreation, an open world arcade racer from some of the minds behind the Burnout series. While we’ve put in a good few hours or so, we’re not quite ready to give our full verdict just yet.
That’s mostly because the game has a major online component with some neat multiplayer features that we’ve not really been able to sample prior to the game’s launch.
So, as of right now anyway, we can only speak to the single player experience, which doesn’t quite cover the full spectrum of what Wreckreation is trying to achieve.
The game is made by Three Fields Entertainment, a small studio led by Criterion Games alumni Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry. With their combined experience on the Burnout series, fans have been hopeful for a spiritual successor that can live up to one of the kings of arcade racing.
Sadly, from our time with Wreckreation’s single player experience, it feels like Three Fields still hasn’t quite hit the mark.
Well, in some ways it kinda has. The game has extreme Burnout vibes, Paradise in particular.
An open world map, events dotted around it, leveling up your driver’s licence to progress, seamless online integration — it’s very reminiscent of the classic racer in terms of structure and presentation.
Certain cars can only be unlocked by finding and taking them down in the open world, there are hundreds of billboards to smash through, and a ticker at the bottom of the screen keeps you informed of player records and other things of note.
If you’ve been waiting for Burnout, or something like it, Wreckreation is about as close as we’ve come since the release of Burnout Paradise Remastered in 2018.
However, there are sadly some caveats, at least as far as the single player is concerned.
The open world is enormous, and for good reason. Part of Wreckreation’s whole deal is the ability to customise the map — anywhere — with props, ramps, and full-blown tracks. It makes total sense to provide players with a huge sandbox and let them go nuts, creating whatever wild events and courses they like.
However, in a single player setting, this feature — Live Mix — is less of a pull, because there’s nobody around to enjoy your madcap creations with you.
If you don’t engage with this aspect of the game, what you’re left with is a vast open world racer that can feel quite lifeless.
There’s a network of roads and dirt tracks to explore, of course, and there are some neat points of interest dotted around, but much of the map comprises nondescript expanses of trees and grassy hills. They’re clearly there to be built upon, so it’d be unfair to complain too much about these patches of nothing.
What this huge map does mean, though, is that the roads cutting through the landscape are often very long, with massive straights and gentle curves much of the time. Despite the high speeds and dangerous driving you’ll be doing, it can all feel somewhat tame.
And when you do find a turn you need to drift around, you may discover that drifting is quite inconsistent. At times, it can feel really well done, but just as often the drift will feel on-rails, or unwieldy, or it might not even trigger.
The rest of the handling is mostly fine, but an arcade racer with iffy drifting is always disappointing.
What isn’t helping are some seriously dodgy collisions, with vehicles or otherwise.
Sometimes you might skirt a tree and the game simply sends you around the side; other times you might clip a railing and you’ll go flying.
Checkpoints are represented by the word “Checkpoint” rendered as a physical object you smash through; satisfying, but not when pieces of that word get caught under your car and send you off-course.
There are many examples of this unpredictable nature of the game that can make it frustrating at times.
To the game’s credit, there are at least lots of events to partake in, like races, road rage, time trials and so on, and you unlock a steady stream of new vehicles and build parts for the Live Mix feature, which is always fun.
We also appreciate how much flexibility the game offers. Its DJ menu can be a little awkward to use, but it contains a multitude of options, like online features, photo mode, and the ability to fully customise your current car as well as the world itself.
You can adjust the weather, time of day, level of traffic, and even rename roads, all on the fly. It’s quite impressive.
Still, we can’t help but feel quite underwhelmed by Wreckreation, at least from what we’ve seen so far.
We expect things will click a little more when the online side of the game is populated with players and building tracks and stunts becomes more of a social thing.
Conclusion
We feel as though we’ve only scratched the surface of what Wreckreation has to offer, with its online play clearly a big part of the overall experience. We’re going to hold off on a score for now, then — but from what we have sampled, this Burnout-inspired racer doesn’t quite hit the mark, with some inconsistencies present as you careen around its flavourless open world. Again, multiplayer may well be the key to bringing everything together, and we sincerely hope that’s the case.
