30 March 2018
The latest game from veteran racing game developer Codemasters is ONRUSH. A brand new IP for the studio, first announced at Paris Games Week last November. Back then I said it gave off serious Motorstorm vibes, and it certainly looked like it involved takedowns of some format. Both very promising signs for a new arcade racer.
But now that early access previews are popping up on YouTube, ONRUSH has more features that you’d find in a typical shooter than a racing game. It’s a brand new direction for any driving game.
First and foremost, racing is virtually non-existent. There are no finish lines in the game and overtaking is effectively irrelevant. All of which means this shouldn’t be called a racing game. It’s much more of a car combat game, closer to Twisted Metal than Motorstorm. So how is this so when trailers for the game seem to show frantic off-road racing?
ONRUSH should be thought of as a series of fun game modes. Drivers are spilt into 2 teams (orange and blue), usually 6v6. The aim of each game is to score points in a given time limit. The team that reaches the score total first is the winner. It’s really much more comparable to a first person shooter Team Deathmatch mode, than any driving game.
The core game mode is called Overdrive, where the aim is earn and use boost as much as possible to score points. Boost is earned by getting air off jumps and performing takedowns. So yes, takedowns are an official thing (putting a big Burnout 3 smile on my face). Whichever team reaches the score threshold first wins the round. Tracks do have a circuit, but the action continues until that score total is met. It’s a neat concept for defining who wins at a racing game, involving no racing at all.
The other new feature, to my knowledge not seen in a driving game before, is there are other AI controlled cars in addition to your teammates and the opposing team. Known as “Fodder” these AI bots clutter the track, purely acting as takedown targets to quickly fill your boost meter (and ultimately score points to win). These neutral cars and bikes are everywhere, constantly respawning, and are sent flying through the air when you smash into them. This is what makes ONRUSH look so frantic and fun to play.
The vehicle classes in the game mainly consist of bikes, buggys and trophy trucks. So not a huge range of diverse vehicles like Motorstorm unfortunately. But each of these have a different speed and weight to suit your play style. However this is not all, and this is where the big comparisons to Overwatch begin...
Each vehicle has two unique abilities and a “Rush Ultimate”. This is a special ability earned by boosting which fills a “Rush meter”. When this reaches 100% the Ultimate is ready to use. Sound familiar? It’s even displayed as circular icon in the bottom middle part of the screen, with triangle as the activate button on PS4! Rush Ultimates include providing boost for teammates, making it easier to perform takedowns, blinding opponents, draining opponents’ boost etc.
The other abilities are more passive i.e. they don’t need to be activated, they are always on. These include providing shields for nearby teammates, dropping boost pick-ups for teammates, and my personal favourite so far - “improved magnetism” for aerial/vertical takedowns. It all sounds pretty awesome in fairness, giving hero-like abilities to vehicle classes.
But this is far from the end of the Overwatch comparisons. On respawning, usually after being taken down by an opponent, you have the ability to switch to a different vehicles class. Again I’ve not seen this feature in a racing game ever before. But the concept totally works. Each vehicle will have pros and cons. Depending on your opposing team’s composition, which you typically only see after starting an event, you can switch to a vehicle that counters them in some way.
There are 4 game modes in ONRUSH, some of which also take inspiration from multiplayer shooters rather than racing games. Overdrive is the mash boost mode already explained. Lockdown is like King of the Hill, or a Control mode from Destiny or Overwatch, where a big highlighted circle moves around the course. The team with the most drivers in the circle at any time scores points.
The other shooter-like mode is Switch, and perhaps the coolest in the game. Everyone starts with bikes (the weakest vehicles) and as you perform takedowns your vehicle is immediately switched for the next class up in terms of weight. If you get wrecked by an opponent you drop down a vehicle rank. It sounds similar to Call of Duty’s Gun Game mode which has always been one of my favourites.
Lastly, a few more Overwatch similarities to throw into the mix, which is customisation and loot boxes. After completing challenges and levelling up, you earn “Gear Crates” which only contain cosmetic items. These include driver skins, vehicle liveries, and “Celebrations” aka victory poses from Overwatch. The other tiny detail I’ve spotted from Eurogamer’s video below, is how each cosmetic item is colour-coded according to its rarity (11:15) - so Overwatch again! I do like all of these concepts, it’s just amusing to see a racing game borrow all of these ideas.
Currently the driver models do look a bit shoddy, and the Fodder takedowns are ludicrously easy, but ONRUSH is still in early beta form. It doesn’t feel anything like a polished triple-A arcade racer at this point, but the features this game has on offer are rather groundbreaking for a driving game. So I can only applaud that. I will be more than tempted to buy this game when it launches on 5th June.