So I played a few hours of Speedstorm. Honestly, it's a stat-based, grindathon live-service game first, and racing game second.
First, the positives: the music is great, the remixes of classic Disney songs for the racetracks are incredible. The tracks definitely evoke the movies they are based on. The one-liners the characters spout at the beginning of each race can be funny. The sense of speed is exhilarating (if you are winning). Characters having their own special abilities is a neat idea.
Negatives: Of course, there's the obligatory live service and microtransactions stuff. The other thing, having played Gameloft's previous racing title, Asphalt 9, a lot of the concepts and menu design are lifted from that game - including the whole having to upgrade and grind out "characters" thing. Of course, grinding can be a slog if you aren't paying.
What about the racing itself? Well, the gameplay favors being at the front of the pack. If you fall behind - tough luck, you'll be lucky to get back past 4th place. There's barely any catchup mechanics, and what little do exist are mediocre. There's the whole 'slipstream' thing, but you gain boost fuel instead of speed. Plus, if you fall behind, there's a chance you'll get an item that teleports you to the middle of the pack.
Multiplayer is fine, pay-to-win players will obviously excel. But there's also been quite a few bugs. I've been dropped into a multiplayer race way after everyone else started, started a multiplayer race with one less second to get the starting boost, and I was once winning a multiplayer race only to for some reason get teleported to 7th place. This might be occurring just for me, but if you're playing multiplayer, be careful out there. The best thing about multiplayer was seeing all the icons for the different ways people were accessing this game, which is kinda cool.
First, the positives: the music is great, the remixes of classic Disney songs for the racetracks are incredible. The tracks definitely evoke the movies they are based on. The one-liners the characters spout at the beginning of each race can be funny. The sense of speed is exhilarating (if you are winning). Characters having their own special abilities is a neat idea.
Negatives: Of course, there's the obligatory live service and microtransactions stuff. The other thing, having played Gameloft's previous racing title, Asphalt 9, a lot of the concepts and menu design are lifted from that game - including the whole having to upgrade and grind out "characters" thing. Of course, grinding can be a slog if you aren't paying.
What about the racing itself? Well, the gameplay favors being at the front of the pack. If you fall behind - tough luck, you'll be lucky to get back past 4th place. There's barely any catchup mechanics, and what little do exist are mediocre. There's the whole 'slipstream' thing, but you gain boost fuel instead of speed. Plus, if you fall behind, there's a chance you'll get an item that teleports you to the middle of the pack.
Multiplayer is fine, pay-to-win players will obviously excel. But there's also been quite a few bugs. I've been dropped into a multiplayer race way after everyone else started, started a multiplayer race with one less second to get the starting boost, and I was once winning a multiplayer race only to for some reason get teleported to 7th place. This might be occurring just for me, but if you're playing multiplayer, be careful out there. The best thing about multiplayer was seeing all the icons for the different ways people were accessing this game, which is kinda cool.