A very interesting proposal, with wonderful control and audiovisual design. The whole is worsened by the scarcity of content in general, with little variety of ships and circuits, and a very short main campaign. Will improve with future updates.
Overall, Formula Fusion isn't a bad game. The actual racing may not be the fastest, but some moments could get out of control if players aren't paying attention. The combat system is interesting enough, and the ship upgrades are intriguing. The roster of vehicles and tracks feels paltry, and the modes feel incomplete, which is especially noticeable since no one is playing online. Formula Fusion is still worth a look, but it wouldn't necessarily be the first choice for fans of futuristic racing.
That's it. A worthy successor to Wipeout. Great graphics, good audio, great handling, perfect difficulty (not easy once you choose anything after the first speed class).
Finally, after 2 years in Early Access (or more?) the game was released in June 2017. Most bugs were addressed and fixed (some remaining will be fixed soon too I guess). It has the polished menus the Early Access lacked and the main options the player has are now obvious.
There are two modes, campaign and just "race". As you progress the campaign mode you unlock new tracks and new track versions (in addition to "day", there are also "day reverse", "night" and "night reverse", the "night" versions being the coolest imo). You can also unlock tracks by just playing and earning credits which you'll later use to unlock content (that being tracks, weapons, weapon specializations, ship specialization, skins etc). There's LOTS of content to unlock.
The tracks, apart from the great graphics, are also very very well designed. There are "industrial" tracks and more "hi-tech" ones, all very well designed and thought (not just random turns). In the tracks you'll find two different types of pick-ups, weapons (red) and shields (purple). Before the race you'll choose two types of weapons which you will use in the race. There are also the boost pads and a KERS system you can use. An extra plus is key-mapping.
The simple race includes, race, clear race (no weapons), elimination (last ship destroyed after each lap), endurance (the ship with more km covered wins), speed lap (fastest lap wins but counted during normal race), hot-lapping (race alone and hit the leaderboards!).
There are five different speed classes for all of the above, from F4000 to Elite.
Yes there might be some minor bugs or corrections but I believe that soon all will be fixed (and we're talking about really minor stuff here)
At this time, the game is priced at 20€ (starting price) which I believe is a low price for such a quality game (compared to other games).
If you used to like Wipeout, I'd advise you to purchase it as long as its price remains low...
For my taste, Formula Fusion is FAR AHEAD the competition (RedOut is good but not THAT good)...
Although I really like the team and the source of on which the game is based, it feels a bit unnecessary heavy on my machine and the courses are relatively flat. But it's still a lot of fun to play.
Instead of a promised revolution in the futuristic racers genre we got a merely decent title that lacks something that would cement solid components into something more than just solid. [09/2017, p.56]
From the missing content to the weak weaponry, lacklustre race modes and poor track layouts, it’s baffling that Formula Fusion still feels like a beta (at best) despite being in Early Access for many, many months.
With a market seemingly saturated with anti-gravity racers presently, it’s hard to carve a niche.
R8 Games Ltd’s Formula Fusion has the usual bells and whistles one would come to expect with the genre. High speed, air-brakes, weapons, multiple vehicles, various tracks, a handful of modes and on-line multiplayer.
Set in the year 2075 after a global nuclear war, mankind is back on their feet and obviously have a thirst for racing.
On launch week, I too had a thirst for racing, however the game was plagued with so many problems I decided that it’d be worth playing other games. Problems included a very noticeable framerate drop whenever there were several vehicles on screen at any given time. This, coupled with numerous little **** here and there have seen development team R8 hard at work releasing multiple patches, ironing out problems and not only listening to their customers but keeping them up to date with regular status updates – a rare feat a lot of devs seem to shy away from.
Graphically the game is rather nice to look at. Futuristic vistas whiz by at break-neck speed and vehicles look gorgeous as the sun bounces off their shell. It is quick, but struggles in places – even when delving into the options and dialing the graphics down a notch or two.
The 6 race modes on offer are fun enough but seem to lack a little something. There’s Race, usual rules apply. Time Trial, for you to lay down your best lap time. Speed Lap, a race with other opponents, where your lap time rather than position counts. Elimination, a mode which takes way, way too long and sees each craft racing around until only one remains & then there is Endurance. Again, way too long last man standing situation.
The Championship campaign here mixes up the game types, however, there seems to be a distinct unbalance away from pure racing, you’re actually more likely to find an endurance event than a standard race.
Crafts can be tinkered with in your garage, in that you can change your engine, brakes, anti-grav modules. You can also change your defensive and offensive weapons, including shot-type / pattern. This is a nice touch but doesn’t bring too much to the table. Unfortunately whilst racing you only ever get one type of offensive weapon (the type you picked previously in your garage / vehicle setup) and one defensive type. Some in-race variation in this department would have gone a long, long way.
You’ll find speed-booster pads on the tracks along with primary weapon and shield pick-ups, and you have the ability to charge a turbo boost and release at your leisure.
The UI has recently changed, a mere two and a half weeks into launch, and various tweaks are being constantly added, which begs the question… was the game ready for release? Perhaps not. But with WipEout Omega Collection being thrust into the public domain, it looks as though R8 fancied getting some much needed attention by striking whilst the iron was hot.
It looks like a lot of work has gone in to Formula Fusion and continues to do so, so we won’t write this off yet and who knows, in time this may well be a great racer, but presently you might want to look elsewhere, for example Redout or WipEout Omega Collection.
Due to the speed at which R8 are releasing updates, we will follow suit and update this review accordingly.
This game has awesome graphics and very well designed maps and cars, but the tracks are unplayable for these cars xD
It is really a shame that the developers did not realized **** addicted to games like this and i couldnt made the 3rd tournament becaseu of the tracks so i can imagine the ones who are not used to play games like this! Totally unplayable, shield and life bars are too low and there is no tools to fix it in the game, total disaster! but i enjoyed the first 2 hours of the game.
A pity, really sad what they've done to the game, could be a masterpiece :(
SummaryFormula Fusion is an anti-gravity combat racing game set in the year 2075. Work your way through the SinglePlayer Campaign, unlocking craft, tracks and your inner rage. Develop your racing and combat skills to climb the Leaderboards. Race against the world on-line in the 10 player Multiplayer W.A.R (World Anti-gravity Racing) Formula Fus...