Race Condition

A few weeks ago, when I was talking about Atari's latest game in their Recharged series, I openly wondered what a Pole Position reboot would look like. Would the developers keep the original pixel look or go ultra-modern? In my head, I pictured a low-polygon take that basically split the difference between the two. I pictured a game like Race Condition, which just launched on PC. It's a throwback racer that feels like the kind of game you would have seen in the arcades back in the day. It's fast, fun and oh so easy to pick up and play; the perfect combination. But in a genre dominated by Forza and Gran Turismo, will this simplistic take still satisfy race fans? That's what I wanted to find out in my review of Race Condition.

I knew I was going to like Race Condition right from the moment I turned it on. Between the low-polygon look and stripped-down approach, I prepared myself for a nostalgic trip back to a time when arcade racing games dominated the market and nobody cared about open-world games. It was a time when all we really needed was good gameplay and a few different tracks to race. Toss in the ability to play with a friend or run the courses backwards and it felt like you scored a good deal.

That's exactly what Race Condition offers. It's a straight-forward racing game that gives you everything you could possibly want, assuming that what you wanted was a racing game from 1993. Everything from the gameplay to the graphics to the modes are purposely simple, harkening back to an era when just being able to change the camera angle was considered a big deal. If you can remember that feeling you had the first time you saw Sega's Virtua Racing, then Race Condition was made for you.

For the most part, this game revolves around the World Tour mode, which tells the story of an aspiring driver who travels to different countries in hopes of making a name for themselves. There's a story here about how we're constantly fighting for acceptance in a sport dominated by a veteran driver named Dickmann, but what you need to focus on is coming in first and earning a lot of experience points. We start with three tracks open to us, which is followed by three more tracks being unlocked every time we level up. There are ten different courses in all; twenty if you count being able to race the tracks backwards.

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Like I said at the top, the racing here feels like it came straight out of an arcade game. This is not a simulator. The game rewards us for being aggressive and taking shortcuts around tight corners. There are no penalties for running the other drivers off the course or slamming them into walls. And even if you spin-out or crash, it's shockingly easy to catch back up and overtake the competition. This is a game that prioritizes fun over realistic, which is one of the reasons why I had such a great with Race Condition.

It helps that the game is absolutely gorgeous. There's something about this low-polygon look that is comforting. It's clean and easy on the eyes. What's more, there are a lot of different locations, each of which play with colors in their own unique ways. From the scorching heat of the desert to the snowy winter courses, every track has its own unique style and personality. I'm especially impressed by the weather conditions, which include both rain and snow. You can also run the tracks at night, giving us a course drenched in shadows. All this adds up to a great looking game with some real eye-catching stages.

One thing you'll notice is that you're always racing against the same eleven drivers, with Dickmann always way out in front. In that sense, the game is a little too predictable, but the rivalry is baked into the story. The problem is that Dickmann is designed to be a, well, you know. It doesn't matter how far ahead you are, the character's rubber-band A.I. allows him to magically catch up and stay competitive. This doesn't seem to be the case with any of the other drivers, which all but guarantees that you're going to be battling Dickmann in every single race. Some may look at this rivalry as exciting, but it felt like cheating to me.

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For as much as I like the barebones approach, part of me wishes there were more modes or race types. Sure, the World Tour is fun and the Time Trial is a welcome addition, but outside of using Quick Play to race against up to three friends, there isn't much else to talk about. It also would have been nice to have more control over the time of day and weather conditions. I love the way the rain and snow looks, and it's a shame that they are reserved for only a few specific stages.

Another complaint I had involved the steering, which felt a little oversensitive and took some getting used to. However, right before making this review, the game was updated to include three handling options. This greatly improves the handling and gives you more control over how the game plays. It was almost as if the developers were anticipating my criticisms.

Obviously, this is not the only throwback racing game on the market. We've seen a lot of these types of racers come out in the last few years, and Race Condition is definitely one of the better examples. It's one of the few that genuinely looks and feels like something out of the 1990s, all the way down to the types of modes it offers. And while there are a few things I would like to see fixed and added, I had enough fun battling it out with Dickmann to fully recommend Race Condition.