First Racer Review

Developed by Perfect Games, First Racer is a budget racing title; there are no licensed car models here, but we all know the BMG is a BMW or the Regenator is a Lamborghini. It is easy to tell what the vehicles were based on. The game offers you five difficulty settings for the AI vehicles you will be racing against, ranging from Very Easy all the way to Very Hard. So you are sure to find the right difficulty for you, though with the local multiplayer mode, you may have a harder time since you can't control how good your friends and family are.

Before you begin your career, you will need to select your vehicle from four options because your budget is limited. My first ride was the BMG. I then headed to the garage to give the car a custom paint job. You have a large palette of colours to select from and paint finishes like metallic, matte, glossy, and even chameleon, where you pick two hues: a base and the sheen of another. Now just slap on a decal, either a design or words, and you are ready to hit the track.

First, you need to take your Driver’s Test. I was thinking this would be where we have a tutorial to learn to control your vehicle. That actually wasn’t the case; I guess they assume you have played racing titles before? So I used the first lap to figure out all the different controls. Like in real life, you have your gas and brake, but you also have buttons for nitro, handbrake, and to change your camera angle from first-person to outside your vehicle. I find it easiest to race seeing my full car, so I can judge how close I am to hitting my opponents or the walls around the track; colliding with someone can send you into a spin that is tricky to get out of!

The races are quite short, ranging from one to three laps, with the environments surrounding the track looking pretty similar, no matter the course you are racing on. The sky is always a nice light blue, and it would have been nice to see some cloudy weather or even races set at different times of day to add some variety. After a while, they all felt like they blended together, especially if you played for a long period of time.

I thought that the vehicle you are driving looks really nice; I love that there are reflections on the car body and in the windows. The rival cars aren't as detailed, which is good because it makes it easier to differentiate your vehicle from the others on the track. Accompanying the visuals, we have an upbeat soundtrack with lots of bass that fits with the high-speed action of the game.

The other impressive thing was the sound effects when you crash into other vehicles or walls, and the engine sounds of the vehicles themselves were great. It’s crazy how different the BMG sounded from the Charger; the beefy rumble of the muscle car took me by surprise! I was expecting all the cars to sound close to the same.

As you complete races, if you place in the top three spots, you will earn prize money. You will use your race earnings to upgrade your car. From the engine, turbo, nitro, gearbox, clutch, mass, suspension, tyres, brakes, and more, you can really go all out to improve its performance for your future races, whether they be speed or one of the drifting challenges.

The local multiplayer racing mode usually ends up being a demolition derby, at least in my experience. Most of the time, we were smashing into each other, trying to sneak past them, flipping your opponent's car, or doing damage to their vehicle. It won’t affect how the vehicle handles, but it will show visual distress like dents and scrapes.

First Racer is an entertaining racing title that doesn’t really do anything new, but this fast-paced arcade racer with a lot of customisation options for your vehicle and has fun, local multiplayer to challenge your friends with. It is worth taking a look at, especially its lower price point.