Race The Sun - Review (PC) | Critical Indie Gamer

Race The Sun has you dodging obstacles. Much like the initial state of the game, in the first region, they’re simple. As you advance regions, obstacles begin to move. Moving obstacles are coloured red and are easy to spot, but the direction or pattern they’ll move in isn’t always so easy to figure out. Moving obstacles aren’t the only trick the game has up its sleeve to ensure you fail. Some regions are based on shadows and will funnel you down difficult paths and fishing out a mistake, or pressuring you into the shadows where you’ll slow to a halt without sunlight. Shadows aren’t the only way to lose sunlight. As you race the sun, it can eventually reach the point where the sun sets, rendering you incapable of moving unless you manage to find a sun pick-up.

[Sly-Lupin]

Race the Sun is great fun... at first. Then you realize the random, "procedurally-generated maps" are just the same 3 or 4 areas copy-pasted in different orders over and over and over again.

[Anon1974]

I'm with Sly-Lupin on this one. Surprised anyone would recommend this title. I tried the demo they had online and literally didn't touch my keyboard and made it almost to level 3 not doing a damn thing. Even when I tried playing I only got slightly further. Seems like a flash game that should have stayed a flash game. Move left! Now right! Now left!

Just an endless bore. I'm sure the full game has bit more to it but I just didn't find the game mechanic the slightest bit interesting.

Seriously...give it a try and don't touch your keyboard. See how far you get. It's a joke.

http://www.kongregate.com/g...

[BeardieMan]

You're basing this comment on the original version? Because in the paid version, you can by no means just "not touch the keyboard".

I tried it out of curiosity while writing the review and the paid version has a lot more to it and is a lot better. Sly-lupin mentions the generation of the maps. Over the review period, I didn't run into the same map twice. I've run into *similar* maps, but nothing identical.

[Sly-Lupin]

Well, I don't agree with you.

I said the game was great fun, and I meant it. It's problem isn't the gameplay or level design, it's the distinct lack of content. It feels more like a really promising alpha than a full game.

EDIT: In terms of being able to get through the game without hardly touching the controls... well, in the game proper, that's not possible. BUT it is possible in the "DLV Fast World" map that's been the select "user-created world" for the past month or so. You can fly straight through the first three areas without doing any more than slightly turning the craft a hair to the right.

@BeardieMan: I didn't say the maps were identical at all. Each map is composed of 2-3 square tiles of terrain. These tiles are placed in random order, and the player starts at a random point (along horizontal axis). All you need to do is have a keen memory of the track layout and the desire to "explore" the track by moving as far as you can left/right. It's the same stuff repeated over and over and over again.

And of those precious few tiles, the "obstacles," too, are repeated over and over.

Basically, there's hardly any variety in the randomly-grouped tiles, and the environments are NOT procedurally-generated. It's fine (okay, not that fine) if you didn't notice this in your review, but many other reviewers have noticed it, too. I think what you're calling "similar" maps is just you starting out at a different point on the same map.

[Anon1974]

So what's different from the free Alpha compared to the full game? Is there more to it or is it still just move slightly left or slightly right? Even Space Invaders had you move left, right and shoot.

[BeardieMan]

There are definitely some set patterns to stop them being unpassable, but by no means was it the same three or four areas copy-pasted in different orders. I'm not sure if you're basing this off of the free version on kongregate or not, but the paid game definitely has more than three or four areas. Especially when you account for apocalypse mode and user-created maps.

[Sly-Lupin]

I replied to you a bit above in my reply to darkride.

I'm basing my opinion on the Steam version. I haven't played it in a little more than a week, so it's possible they've finally gotten around to patching in more tiles for the random generator and opened up user-created worlds.

My basic opinion of the game meshes pretty well with yours, and may in fact be a bit better (not better as in "more valid" but as in I may think more fondly of the game than you): I honestly haven't enjoyed a racing game so much since MegaRace 2 (look it up).

But the developers did release it too soon. Honestly, they released an alpha of the game.

An alpha is a game with the core mechanics in place and working.

A beta is a game that is feature-complete.

Both of those stages should be met before a game goes retail. When Race the Sun launched on Steam, it was NOT feature-complete. At all.

[MWH]

Try Puzzle Dimension and Nightsky.