What happens when you take gameplay elements from Motorstorm, Carmageddon, Rocket League, and Riders Republic and mush them together into one free-to-play game? An Early Access version of something that could end up a classic somewhere down the line. The key word here is "could" because currently, on Steam, players are divided between a positive review and a negative one.
This Frankenstein's monster of a game is called Jected - Rivals. A newcomer to the land of gaming, studio Pow Wow Entertainment is handling the development, but an industry veteran, THQ Nordic, is publishing it.
In some ways, Jected - Rivals reminds me of Motorstorm, one of my favorite games from the PS3 era. The game seems unhinged, with a drop of extreme sports put into the mix, and your purpose is to (literally) eliminate the competition.
You don't do that like in the Twisted Metal of old, where you had machine guns and rockets strapped to your ice cream truck. It's more like Carmageddon with hints of Flatout and wingsuit flying.
The online tournaments you'll be participating in are for 18 players, which should be enough for the mayhem you will cause while trying to angrily ram your competitors off the road and into some walls. Don't worry about finding 17 more players; AI-controlled cars are still there for you.
While it may sound good in theory, the practical part is the real issue. From what players are saying on Steam, Jected is a mixed bag. It's ambitious and strides to be fun and engaging, but not everyone enjoys their time during races because of some bugs and technical gameplay issues.
One of the main problems people are experiencing is tied to one of its core mechanics, the ejection button/seat. While you should be able to push that Top Gun-like button and jump out of your moving car only to glide in the air like a wingsuit enthusiast, people are reportedly having problems timing this mechanic correctly.
To run the game in the lowest settings, you'll need an AMD Ryzen 5 2600/Intel Core i5-7600K CPU paired with an Nvidia GTX 1060/Radeon RX 5600 XT GPU.
You need at least an AMD Ryzen 5 3600/Intel Core i5-9400 CPU with a GeForce RTX 3060/Radeon RX 5700 XT GPU for the recommended specs. Also, 10GB of storage space and Windows 11 are required.
For now, it's a free glorified preview, so there's enough room for improvement until it launches as a full version. That doesn't excuse all the bugs and mishaps during gameplay, but if we give the fellows down at Pow Wow Entertainment the benefit of the doubt, we might have a chance to see this underdog become something special.
The opposite is always possible, but my philosophy is to stay positive because wouldn't you rather have a good game 4-8 months from now when it's supposed to launch, rather than it being another failed attempt?
Codrin just loves American classics, from the 1940s and ‘50s, all the way to the muscle cars of the '60s and '70s. In his perfect world, we'll still see Hudsons and Road Runners roaming the streets for years to come (even in EV form, if that's what it takes to keep the aesthetic alive). Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News