Wreckfest

It is the anti-Forza. It luxuriates in the dents on a day-to-day sedan instead of the aerodynamic swoop of something Italian and impossibly expensive. It’s too serious for Electronic Arts, but too wild for Papyrus. It’s not interested in car culture or faux social media or sexy street racing. It hasn’t seen any of the Fast and Furious movies. It loves tough cars, not sleek cars. It knows dents add character. You don’t need to drive these beasts around in the desert to make them look like they’ve been scavenging the wasteland. They come that way.

It's rare when a racing game manages to modernize and reinvigorate an old formula with spectacular confidence, but Wreckfest does just that.

Arcade racers are seeing a resurgence of late and Wreckfest fits nicely into that sub-genre, bringing banger racing into the limelight and turning it up to eleven. It may not be named Destruction Derby, but the spirit of the old Psygnosis classic is alive and well in Bugbear’s latest racer.

A deceptively realistic racing game that doesn't care if you want to ignore the details and just smash every car on the track.

Wreckfest maintains all its promises we expected in all these years of development: destruction, a very accurate physical model and a lot of fun.

A really nice, fun and accurate game that mixes racing and destruction simulator, just like the old FlatOut did years before. Still, there is some improvements to make on the AI and Online side.

Wreckfest offers the eRacer something not available anywhere else: the ability to race on the computer in cars and at tracks that are accessible to the common man. Don't let the 70's era rust buckets fool you, though - the driving and damage physics are quite good, the damage models are entertaining, and the racing is close and brutal. It's astonishingly fun!

In the end, Wreckfest is a game that you will tend to make your own fun in. The career mode can get a little old after a while, but the multiplayer makes it even more fun throwing other players into the already impressively crazy mix. Bugbear knows what their players want out of a game from them, and they offer it up in a really fun, chaotic package that any arcade racer can enjoy.

Wreckfest is a great successor to the Destruction Derby legacy. A game with personality and fun, with the best recreation of damages and accidents, and with excellent physics.

Wreckfest is wild, a cornucopia of damage that shines in demolition, dampening the pain of a DNF with the pleasure of watching your car get destroyed in spectacular fashion.

The driving characteristics of the game, as could be expected, obviously remain the destructibility and the damage system, but within Wreckfest there is, fortunately, even something more: a complete game and more than worthy to be counted with merit.

A fantastic reimagining of arcade racing. [Issue#203, p.83]

Chaos, destruction and physics. Wreckfest is a carefree racer, but also a challenging one. Inspired by the Destruction Derby and FlatOut formula, but adding its own essence and a good progression system.

Wreckfest will surprise you with its perfect driving model, top demolition, entertaining artificial intelligence, and a career full of funny challenges. There is some space for improvement, for example the user interface and old school multiplayer which will probably discourage the spoilt players.

Wreckfest is undeniably brilliant and refreshing. It features addictive, quick-burst gameplay, particularly gorgeous visuals and sound, not to mention surprisingly detailed car physics and handling models, especially when using a wheel. Moreover, its damage model is truly something to behold. Wreckfest establishes an intriguing niche, combing sim-based physics with arcade-spirited destruction and chaos. It's a real gem.

Wreckfest is out of its early access, but there is still work to do, especially to give it a real "soul" in solo mode. It is far above all the competition in rendering physical damage on cars. It offers hours of discoveries and online racing.

Wreckfest is a very solid game that is been published after five years of early access. The impressive physics, the wonderful damage system and a plenty of competitions make Wreckfest a must have for this summer.

Wreckfest is a demolition derby-style racer with stunning physics and a hint of absurdity. Whether your vehicle of choice is a Pontiac Firebird or a lawn mower, the title is less about racing and more about the spectacular collisions.

Ultimately what makes Wreckfest such an enjoyable racer is the destruction and the physics. The cars feel great to drive, the way they take corners, the handbreak turns, the way they handle jumps, it feels fluid and that’s a huge plus. When put together with everything else in the game Wreckfest is a neat destructive racing package.

Wreckfest is a solid arcade racer based on powerslides, muscle cars and spectacular battles, that delivers an immediate, enjoyable and content-rich experience.

If you liked FlatOut, you'll love Wreckfest. Drily presented, but wonderfully brutal full-contact racing with impressive physics.

The foundation with its convincing driving- and collision-physics, fairly smart opponents and the reality-based tracks is more than rock solid. But it is held back by a lot of small inconveniences.

Wreckfest is a magnificent driving chaos. A fun game regardless of the outcome of each race with excellent physics and a progressive destruction system that should be patented.

Wreckfest is a great racing game that knows how to find the balance between Destruction Derby-like matches and more traditional races. It lacks some more modes and better performance, but it’s an enjoyable game overall.

The scope is ultimately limited, but what a roaring spectacle of broken car bits Wreckfest manages.