Wreckfest review

Bugbear’s capable Switch port of Wreckfest allows for intense action on the go. There are a few compulsory compromises, but the game’s maniac destruction is fully intact.

I relish a good racing that drenches me with details. Habitually, I’ll get sucked into an auto simulation that might initially feel untamable. But perseverance inevitably pays dividends and eventually that wild beast can be conquered. Going from shaving minutes to milliseconds from lap times is an arduous journey. However, it can also be a deeply satisfying one.

But I also love those deliciously low-brow titles where I can floor the accelerator without worrying about a single miscalculation wiping a half-hour of intense effort. There’s gratification in bumping and smashing into opponents and occasionally, completely ravaging a bothersome rival. While seeing digitized creations of exotic care is cool, licensing agreements habitually prohibit games from showing GT-Rs, NSXs, and even Honda Civics getting banged up. That’s why I was a big fan of the console and PC version of Wreckfest. You were actively encouraged to slam into challengers. Your reward was pure destruction porn, where car parts and occasionally drivers were flung through the air.

A Proficient Switch Port

Now, Helsinki-based Bugbear Entertainment has managed to get their eighth and ninth generation game on Switch. If you’re played the previously released versions, expect a few sacrifices. Visually, cars and tracks look a bit softer, with the port seemingly pushing fewer polygons and relinquishing the high-definition textures. Sure, you won’t see the lightning-fast load times of the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series S/X iteration, but a twenty second lull before a competition isn’t a total deal breaker.

Smartly, Bugbear prioritized performance over visual quality. As such, you get a surprisingly steady thirty frame-per-second output. Yes, you’ll see the sporadic waver when the Switch can’t keep up with the real-time, position-based, damage calculation of an eight-car crash. But it’s astonishingly solid 98% of the time. Crucially, the game’s physics system has been preserved. As such, when you collide with a wall of tires, each individual tire reacts realistically, careening across the road in a convincing way. Obstacles, as well as the hull of derelict cars, even remain on the track. The latter even allow for some defensive shielding in the game’s heated demolition derbies. Hell, you can even shunt a wreck, potentially creating a decoy.

Only the Rigs Races Will Annoy

Venture through the game’s campaign and you’ll claw your way up five different racing classes. Instead of a linear progression, you’ll earn points based on your performance of each track. This score feeds into the opening of the next tier of events. And if you’ve ever hit a figurative roadblock in a racing game, you’ll appreciate the approach, as well as the availability of six different challenge adjustments. These let you tweak everything from driving difficulty, shifting, braking, traction, stability, as well as how smart AI drivers are. Wreckfest can scale from being accessible to non-gamers to be being a taut, sim-lite, where you’ll tune your car to eek out a negligible edge.

What makes it especially enjoyable is the sense of unpredictability. Wreckfest’s laps tend to de-emphasize vehicular mastery. Instead, success hinges on seizing the moment. So, when you’re having a shoving match with a rival and you’re both approaching a safety barricade, shunting them into the obstacle is a better strategy then attempting to pull ahead. Expectedly, the game’s generous selection of 45 tracks consistently capitalizes on the game’s physics system. Courses range from rally sprints, circuits, and figure 8s, all designed with carnage in mind with plenty of intersections, forks, and inclines to get messed up on. Although you can finish most competitions in a few minutes, the tracks are long enough so you’ll likely have to deal with car handling that’s impaired by each crash.

250cc Sofas

There’s a lot of wonderfully goofy events too. You’ll be racing motorizing couches, lawnmowers, and taking to the track in a tiny trike against of field of school busses. Bugbear’s partiality for absurdity is definitely one of the game’s strengths and separates Wreckfest from almost every other modern racer. Expectedly, the highlight are the game’s destruction derbies. These send you crashing into opponents in open areas with the goal is being the last working running. Although there’s a bit of rubber-banding in some of the more race-driven events, the CPU reacts surprisingly human-like in the derbies.

For those who appreciate getting under the hood, you’ll earn a steady succession of unlockable items and customizations. Some components like a new engine affect speed and acceleration. Other parts might change the durability, with the shift from a roll cage to a driver cage reducing the weight of your ride, but also effecting the sturdiness of your vehicle. Since Wreckfest’s cars and constructions often turn into flaming husk of misshapen metal, there’s no licensed vehicles.

Instead, you’ll find recognizable interpretations of noteworthy car, just without the branding. And while the base game offers a bountiful collection of tracks and vehicles, know that there’s at least two bundles (or twelve packs) of additional cars and cosmetics. Even, without the DLC, Wreckfest Complete Edition sporadically sells for cheaper that the basic Switch version.

Conclusion

Beyond the robust simple-player component, there’s also online competitions for up to sixteen participants. Here, you can opt to tackle quick matches, racing, derby, or mixed events as well as heats designed for special vehicles. Fortunately, matchmaking is fairly quick and the servers are thoroughly populated at launch. But when things inevitably die down, Wreckfest is smart enough to pad the matches with AI drones instead of forcing participants to wait. With features like private servers and the ability to vote for venue or kick out jerks, all the essential online features are included. Best of all, full matches were relatively lag free.

Wreckfest make for a surprising showing on Switch. Sure, the framerate might be reduced, but there’s still a solid sense of responsiveness from the controls. As such, if the Switch is your central system or you just want to smash and crash on the go, the Nintendo version is a dexterous port. But if you own a newer console, PC, or just want to save a bit of coin, the previous releases come recommended.

Wreckfest was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.