Death Rally Review

By Kevin Mitchell  |  Posted: September 1, 2012

Travel back in time to 1996 and you would find me sitting in front of a PC late at night in the dark, racing and annihilating other racers in the original Death Rally. Already released on iOS devices, this marks the first time Death Rally makes a return to the PC through Steam.

Opening up to an impossible getaway chase, it is only a matter of time before a character who looks suspiciously like George Lucas makes you his racing pawn and forces you to join the Death Rally circuit to lure out the Adversary after gaining enough fame. Okay, so it isn't actually George Lucas, but it surely looks like him, and I would love to get some payback after the Star Wars Prequels.

As you begin your illustrious murder and racing career, you are only able to hop in a single vehicle with no extra frills. The only available weapon is the auto-firing machine gun that will fire if another car crosses your path. If you are reading this and saying, "Auto-fire? What the hell?", you aren't alone. While taking away control of the standard weapon, you do still have control over all your special weapons and equipment such as mines, rockets, a flamethrower, and more. By collecting parts that are scattered across the tracks or by destroying your opponents in the races, new cars and weapons will become unlocked. It is faster to focus on killing the other racers than beating them in the race to unlock things, but this is where you will begin to realize the grind that is at the heart of Death Rally.

Racing along zoomed-in tracks that lack inspiration and are littered with boxes that hold various power-up type items, if you fall behind after the first lap, it is almost impossible to catch up. How short are the races? Figure each race will take 30 seconds to 2 minutes tops to complete, and this is for the entire race, not just each lap. At any given moment, there are plenty of different races to choose from. Each one, with a random difficulty attached, could also be a special event. Based on your performance from placing in the races and destruction during the race, you will earn XP as well as cold hard cash. After each race, you are forced to spend all of the cash earned in the previous race on repairing your vehicle as well as upgrading the stats of the car or your special weapon.

If you look hard enough, there is a story mode. The narrative is enough to get you through it, but the matches tend to be harder than the skirmish-style matches. At times, it isn't clear on how to proceed in the story mode, as completing the race doesn't unlock the next mission. Even destroying every single car kept us on the same mission.

Things become more confusing as it isn't entirely clear on how to proceed through the career races. It may have to deal with your fame level, as completing one race by coming in first place or destroying all of the other cars still did not move me on to the next event. Enabling multiplayer mode will replace the CPU racers with online players, if you are able to find five other people to play online. Yes, it is one of those games; fill the race completely or the match won't ever start.

Controlling your vehicle of death with the keyboard may feel clumsy – the game does include built-in Xbox 360 controller support. One word of advice: avoid crashing into a wall, as backing up is slow and confusing. Racing on the same tracks over and over, the lack of speed is palpable. In the same fashion as equipment, new tracks are unlocked by collecting a set amount of parts. Breaking up the monotony of racing, you will randomly receive a phone call that will offer you an advantage before the race starts, for a portion of your winnings. Be careful who you say no to, however, as you may end up at a severe disadvantage during the next race.

If you get tired of racing on the same tracks over and over, you can try your hand in the deathmatch mode. While on paper it sounds like a perfect fit for the game, the actual execution is a mess. The entire round often ends up with everyone doing doughnuts, missing with every single shot.

Simply Put

For days after launch, it was still tough to find a multiplayer match, not to mention the disappointing grind that is the single-player campaign. I understand that there must be some mechanic to unlock new cars and new weapons, but having to race over 30 races to get just one new thing asks a little too much of the player. That being said, Death Rally is still fun, in bursts. The low price and easy learning curve are great drawing points to the once cult-classic title.