Wreckfest — ReviewPhysics-driven vehicular collisions and varied vehicle handling drive twenty-four-player multiplayer chaos, though a dated career structure limits replayability beyond the cockpit.

The first time I saw a lawnmower launch a racer ten meters into the air, I laughed out loud. Not because it was absurd—though it certainly was—but because I realized this game knows exactly what it's doing. It doesn't want to be the next Need for Speed; it wants to be the destructive carnival that makes you hit "one more race" after every match. This is a racing game that makes "crashing" its core mechanic. Your goal isn't to elegantly take corners, but to violently ram opponents off the track in the most brutal way possible. The garage features 20 unlicensed car models, from American muscle cars to European and Japanese hot hatches, each with a distinct feel. What matters is they all crash beautifully.

This game has a counter-intuitive design: it's not an arcade game.

In your first three races, you'll feel the car is hard to control, oversteers, and has absurdly long braking distances. But after ten races, you'll discover that's exactly where its charm lies. Every car has distinct physical characteristics—muscle cars are fast in a straight line but turn like boats, hot hatches are nimble but get knocked around easily. You have to learn when to push through and when to dodge. The destruction system is core. Not the cosmetic "bump and lose a bumper" kind of damage, but actual physics simulation that affects handling. If the front wheels get deformed, steering pulls to one side; if the trunk gets smashed open, the rear end becomes lighter. Once I got hit so hard only half my front end remained, and I still crossed the finish line on two wheels.

The 24-player online multiplayer is another highlight. Not because it's crowded and lively, but because of the unpredictability in the chaos. You never know from which angle an out-of-control race car will come flying at you next. Sometimes you're half a lap ahead, then get sandwiched by three cars in the final turn and drop straight to fifteenth place. Frustrating, but addictive.

The only issue is the career mode is too traditional. Win championships to unlock new cars, use new cars to enter higher-tier championships—this formula has been around for twenty years. It's not bad, but nothing innovative either.

The vehicle damage effects are the most worthwhile aspect of this game. The texture of tearing metal, the trajectory of doors flying off, the moment when the hood flips up and blocks your view—every detail tells you "this crash is real." But the overall graphics quality can only be described as adequate. The track environments are rather monotonous, the skybox looks like something from the PS3 era, and the lighting effects are just passable. This game spent its entire budget on collision physics and cut corners everywhere else.

Fortunately, it knows what players are looking at. During races, your attention is on the rear end of the car ahead and the impending collision—no one stops to admire the trees by the roadside. From that perspective, its graphics are sufficient.

The collision sound effects are spot on. The harsh screech of twisting metal, the crisp crack of shattering glass, the piercing shriek of the car body scraping against the ground—every sound sends your adrenaline surging.

The engine sounds are far more mediocre. All 20 cars sound pretty much the same, lacking that blood-pumping roar. The background music has an even lower presence—I played for ten hours and can't recall a single melody.

It's not bad, but it won't make you want to add it to your playlist.

20 cars doesn't sound like much, but considering each car has distinctly different handling, plus various special vehicles (like that lawnmower), the actual playability is higher than the numbers suggest.

The career mode's tournament structure is traditional, but it excels in pacing. Each race takes 3-5 minutes, lose and you restart immediately, win and you move straight to the next one. No lengthy cutscenes, no forced tutorials—you can jump right in and play.

Multiplayer mode is key to extending the game's longevity. Completing all tournaments in single-player takes about 15 hours, but the chaos and unpredictability of multiplayer can keep you playing indefinitely. Provided you can accept the frustration of getting knocked around.