I’m always a little skeptical when it comes to games that literally come out of nowhere. Myself, and many other outlets and gamers were left scratching their heads when both Telltale and Shortround revealed RGX: Showdown earlier this week, but for the life of me, I cant imagine why. Why would a game, that by all accounts is a pretty solid racer, have such a weak promotional run? Hell if I know, but what I do know is that after several hours with RGX: Showdown, I’ve had an absolute blast. There’s issues, but for the most part, it’s fun.
Before we dive in, I want to address one thing straight off the bat. RGX: Showdown is an online-only racer. I spent the first hour or so getting my ass handed to me on a regular basis, so much so that I began to do what I do in any racer that I suck at; drive angry. I nudged, smashed and pretty much went well out of my way to wreak havoc on other players to ensure victory. What happened next? Nothing. No hate messages, no party invites, nothing. Curious, I dug a little deeper to see why my opponents were not rage-hitting me with mail.
Turns out that the game is padded by AI opponents. This isn’t a bad thing by any means and after a quick chat with the developer, it’s been brought to my attention that this is a launch measure to make sure that there’s enough competition whilst the devs build a player base. Rest assured, there are real world players getting in on the action, but the inclusion of AI players is to prevent long waiting times in lobbies. This is a very necessary design choice for a number of reasons, but we’ll get to that shortly. Now, let’s go back and take it from the top.
Starting out, players can select from one of three vehicles and then from here, are dropped straight into a practice run to get a quick feel for the controls, the game’s mechanics and a general sense of pace. Each race within is strictly one-on-one, and sees you and your opponent tethered to the starting line for that three second countdown before the race commences. Here, you’re able to earn a quick nitrous boost during the countdown timer, which is triggered via smashing the A button in sync with an upper-screen meter.
This meter will rapidly fill and empty, and depending on when you hit A, will depend on how much nitrous you’re afforded to start the race with. It’s a simple, yet effective mechanic. Once this sequence is out of the way, the race will commence. The controls are standard for a racer; RT to accelerate, LT to brake, A to use any additional nitrous and so forth. Now, what’s particularly unique about RGX: Showdown is that each race takes less than a minute to complete. This, however, is because each race is tied to an hourly tournament ladder.
If you win, you’ll climb up the ladder. If you’re skillful enough to make consecutive wins, you’ll enjoy a point modifier that will bump you up the ladder even faster and further. Despite this game being a one-on-one racer, each track is littered with traffic. Players will race at breakneck speeds to make it to the finish line, frantically bobbing and weaving between heaps of other vehicles. Drafting and skimming traffic will grant you extra boost time, which often comes in handy. Hit an obstacle or collide with traffic, and you’re toast.
Mercifully the game doesn’t dish out a heavy penalty when that happens. Instead, you’re instantly thrown back into the race within the space of a second. This is a wise design choice, given the nature and length of each race. If anything, RGX: Showdown is like pod-racing on a motorway. It’s thoroughly engaging and pretty damn entertaining to say the very least. It’s also empowering when you build up a streak and earn a steady income of points and rewards. RGX: Showdown’s tagline boasts that the game will see a new winner every hour.
This is because, as alluded to above, each tournament within will reset after an hour, taking away your position and handing out your earned rewards in the process. Once you’ve completed a race, you’re shown the tournament ladder. Here, you can see what percentage in the ladder you sit in – which will frequently alter depending on your wins, losses and participation. The rewards you can earn will vary; new vehicles, garage credits, and so forth. Most of which is not overly hard to obtain during the first few class-based tournaments.
I quite enjoyed the game’s finely balanced systems. Special mention goes to the functionality of mods. When you’re matched with your opponent in the lobby, both you and your opposition have ten seconds to select from a total of four mods. These each cost one hundred mod points a piece. The kicker, however, is that these mod points will only be replenished when you lose a race. It’s an interesting system that encourages a blanket layer of strategy. More so when you’re nearly spent up and find yourselves on a high streak.
These mods encompass a boost to your nitrous, speed, acceleration and handling, so it pays off to carefully choose what you apply and when you apply it. Each tournament is broken down into classes; D, C, B, A and S. In order to proceed through to each tournament, you’ll need to earn a car that matches that class from your current ladder. So, for example, if you’re in a class D tournament, you’ll need to earn a class C vehicle by winning enough races to match the reward tier that that class C vehicle is handed out for. It’s simpler than it sounds.
On top of this, there’s also a title rank that will increase depending on how you race, with the main goal being that you need to move from Rookie to RGX Champion. There’s also a garage that you can visit to spend designated garage points at. Here, you can buy into a wide range of slick decals for your ride, and then paint them in various colors. Considering the cheap cost of this game ($9.99/£7.99) there’s no denying that you’re getting your money’s worth. I only hope that the online population flourishes in the coming weeks.
Don’t get me wring, the AI are very capable opponents and feel like real-world players thanks to the balance and the several distinct behavioral patterns, but nothing beats playing against a real player. The only downside for me with RGX: Showdown is that there’s not much map variety. I would have liked to have seen more on this front, especially given that each track is over in an instant. Another gripe is that the time it takes to get from the conclusion of one race to the beginning of another, is usually longer than an actual race.
This means you’ll spend more time just as much time in the lobby and loading screens as you would on the track. It would have been great to see a faster response time or the option to immediately seek a new opponent at the end of a race, rather than having to constantly bounce between loading screens and lobby visits. Still, when all is said and done, RGX: Showdown stands out. It’s a decent adrenaline fueled racer that you’ll struggle to put down. It helps, of course, that it looks and sounds great throughout the entirety of play.
Conclusion
RGX: Showdown is a thrilling and wildly fast paced minute-by-minute racer. The game’s generous asking price is easily justified by its healthy content depth, and although some niggling issues hold it back from greatness, I cant think of any other racer on the market that offers this much fun for such little cost. Don’t be alarmed by its lack of promotion. RGX: Showdown is well worth your attention.
This game was tested and reviewed on Xbox One. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version.
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