Redout2 10/10

Redout 2 is genuinely one of the best racing games I’ve played, if not the best racing game I’ve played. In a world where the Mario kart series, the Sonic Team Racing series, the F1 series, the Forza series, the Crew, Need For Speed, F Zero, Wipeout, Blur, the Burnout series, and even the Crash Team Racing series exist, all of which feel damn near prehistoric side by side with this game right here. In my many years of gaming, I haven’t played anything as thrilling, exhilarating, fast, and as engaging as Redout 2. This is truly a pod racing game that is not only worth the 20 dollar price tag on Steam, but puts a lot of these 70 dollar games (and even 80 dollar games) to great shame. So Redout 2 is a Pod racing game that came out in 2022 made by 34BigThings and published by Sabre Interactive. This game literally came out in 2022 and then 4 years later my YouTube algorithm was randomly like “hey you wanna see peak”? And i was like “yeah YouTube why the fuck not”. I watched a time trial mission in the game and I was locked in. A fucking TIME TRIAL MISSON. The one where it’s just a dude driving on an empty track. That’s all it took for me to actually get my hands on it. What i didn’t expect is to become genuinely obsessed with the game. Even as i write this review I’m playing this shit, like goddamn it’s so good. There’s 7 game modes:

Time attack
Race (a regular race)
Arena Race (where if you die on the track you can’t respawn)
Last Man Standing (which is an elimination mode)
Speed (stay above the target speed to get points and whoever gets the most points wins)
Boss (we’ll get into that later)
Training (which is just the sandbox version of the games tracks)

There are 12 Ships at your leisure and 12 Locations to race in each with 3 different variants, plus a secret 4th variant in the Boss mode where you race in all 3 variants back to back to back. Making it 48 tracks to choose from (and 40 excluding the DLC). I mean you’re probably thinking that number isn’t really that impressive because Mario Kart World has like 100 tracks with variations and 26 karts, but given how bat shit insane this game can get, you’d be surprised why I’m so blown away by this. So while some racing games have their own focus and others have their own gimmicks, like how in crash team racing, sonic racing cross-worlds, and Blur’s gimmick is you can throw items at other players to slow them down, the Forza series has its focus on realism and exploration, burnout revenge’s main focus is turning every other player into the biggest mushroom cloud on the map, and ATV Quad Racing 2 encourages you to do tricks and kick your opponents so you can build your boost meter, Redout 2’s main focus and main gimmick is uninterrupted, unrestricted, and unchallenged speed.

This is probably the fastest racing game I’ve ever played in my life. Each ship potentially reaching up to 2100km/h (which is equal to 1,300 mph). And they don’t just throw that number at the bottom of your screen as a dick measuring statement, you feel that speed with both the visual stretching of the tracks and the explosive hyper boost sound you hear the second you unleash it.So the entire name of the game is timing, knowing when to boost, when to pull back, and when to unleash your power to completely teleport past your opponents. And yes I literally mean teleport. This part of the game makes it the most interesting to me, because you could be leading a race the whole time, and then in the blink of a eye second place can instantly pass you without you even knowing or even having time to react. Watching gameplay of Redout 2 is magnetic. It’s a nutty, exciting, and an absolutely unpredictable experience because one small decision can either steal a lead or completely destroy you, and seeing how other players react to situations is such an electrifying experience. I don’t feel this locked in and intrigued unless I’m watching fighting game tournaments, let alone a racing match. There have been moments in this game where I was seconds behind first place and then with a well timed boost and a steady hand I took first place with a 1.5 km lead. That all happened faster than a rabbits heartbeat. Literally anything can happen in a game like this. Anything is possible given the circumstances of what you’re working with. But all that truly matters on the track is your patience, your timing, your focus, and your understanding of the track, which brings me to the career mode.

So this games career mode is insanely difficult. It starts off really easy. You start to feel like you’re the shit because you’re beating the gold times by 10 or more seconds. You are at a low power level so you’re not shattering your neck upon hyper boosting, but you’re also much faster than the competition. Then you realize the game is on easy lmfao, then you switch the difficulty to the Redout, or normal difficulty. Still you kick the games ass, not as bad as easy but still a sizeable gap between you and the enemy Ai. Then you get to B league and the game damn near becomes impossible halfway through because you forgot to get 2 really good components in the training section of career mode.There were times where I was like “this game is so lucky it’s good” because it is asking a lot out of you to go back to damn near hundreds of events just to get cosmetics and components. But the best part is the game is highkey training you to be able to do all of these tracks faster and faster as time goes on. Pretty soon you’ll be reacting as fast as you’re moving and not even think twice about it. I love when a game doesn’t hand hold you, but walks you through how it’s supposed to be played. The career experience is frustrating at first, but like most things in this game, once you understand it and get it down it becomes sooooo satisfying and as a player you feel accomplished. You don’t feel empty after playing through this games career like you do when you finish the 2 hour sonic riders story (which is very good btw), you feel accomplished and somehow motivated to do it all over again just to see if you can do a better job than last time. Now If the tracks were boring I’d have a different feeling about the game all together, but the best part is every track is special and fun in its own way despite being difficult.

The tracks are sprawling, insanely creative, full of twists, turns, and shortcuts, and plenty of pathways to let the player express themselves while playing, which is something i never really thought of before playing this game. Like typically there’s a correct pathway in a lot of racing games to get the best time, but in this game each pathway is designed to have all players spawn in the main track at the same time depending on how they got there. It also gives these tracks the much needed replayability so you can decide the path that works for you as a player. Also did I tell you that you can fly in this game? Yeah you can fly and it’s fucking sick.Some tracks have ramps that act as runways, and the faster you take off the further you’ll fly. I love this part of the game because the music is bumping, your opponents ships are humming and sliding behind you ready to exploit your fuck up, your energy is ready to be used, and then as you approach a ramp a rising sound appears, anticipating your take off. Then as soon as you leap from the ground, the music stops, and a low hum vibrates in your ears while you’re suspended in the air. It’s almost like everyone in the unseen crowd is waiting to see if you’ll stick the landing. All you hear is the sound of your ship boosting, mechanics whirling, the health warning alarm telling you to pull back or face certain demise. Then a clicking sound. You land perfectly and zoom across the track as you hear a high pitched noise that resembles a cheering crowd. Genuinely a fucking beautiful experience everytime. It never gets old.

Now before I wrap up this review I’m going to talk about the more underrated parts of the game. Mainly the music and sound design. So as you can tell Redout 2 is a sequel to Redout, and when you compare both games side by side you can tell which one is the sequel. Now this isnt to say Redout is a bad game by any means, but I say this to say that Redout 2 makes the changes necessary to even be in the same conversation as the aforementioned games i brought up earlier. The soundtracks dynamic, encouraging, aggressive, fast, bass heavy Drum and Bass, Dubstep, Dub Metal tracks had me damn near breaking my spine with how much I was bobbin my head. The music is good enough to notice while you’re going 1000mph, but not distracting enough to make you crash the damn ship and blow up. I think my favorite track is the one in the trailer that plays when you race on Mars. It’s such a wild experience. Something about that track just makes me lock the fuck in on this game. Like I’m in a crazy pocket when I’m listening to that shit.

Moving on from the music, the sound design is incredible. Something about the way the ships click clack and hum in union really keeps me engaged into the scenery. I mean the graphics alone are just beautiful, the stunning visuals really do set the tone for the sound design, but when everything around you is blurry because you’re moving faster than sound its hard to admire the scenery Lmao. But the sound design takes from its predecessor and amps it up to a whole different stratosphere. The boost clicks differently the longer you hold it. The flames make this Burrrrrr sound that sounds like a supercharged blowtorch. The speed pads make this thumping laser sound that just sounds really good to run into. Even when you hit the brake in the game it’s not like a deathly screeching sound that sounds like danger, it’s a nice smooth, digital hissing sound that rises and falls. Then there’s the hyper boost that sounds like an explosion going off, then followed by a rising mechanical whir that both shows you how much power you’re using but also encouraging to push further, encouraging you to use more of the boost, regardless of what happens. There’s just so many wonderful sounds that sound so weird, so satisfying, and so engaging. I didn’t realize that’s what kept me in a lot of games. I just love feeling of doing something in a racing game, and feeling like there’s a dedicated sound for it.

So with High speeds, amazing gameplay, stunning graphics, exciting mechanics, engaging tracks, a challenging but satisfying Career mode, a phenomenal soundtrack and phenomenal sound design, Redout 2 gets a legit 10/10 from me. I haven’t felt this engaged playing a racing game in a while, and I’m so glad that I discovered it