Every so often, a game comes along that pushes the boundaries of the genre it releases into, earning fame, fortune, and the love of the people it enthralls. Of course, being such an inspiration can often mean that a game stands alone for a long time, the road to its success being one that others are unable to navigate for a variety of reasons.
Burnout was a very specific kind of arcade racer, and the franchise is one that hasn’t really been imitated all that often in modern racers, and that’s a shame. The ridiculous speed, unbridled aggression, and the collisions, takedowns, and sheer spectacle that ensued from such a heady combination haven’t really been recaptured in other racers, which often have their own priorities to tackle.
It’s left a Burnout-shaped void in our racing library, and it’s something we’d been lamenting for a while. But now, we have hope as Star Wars: Galactic Racer inches ever closer to its global release. What could the unique new addition to the existing lineup of games based on the popular film franchise have to offer that can help it match Burnout’s unique vibe? Can it avoid becoming just another clone of its popular inspiration in the process? We’re here to look into all of it, so let’s hop in.
A Real Connection
Let’s remember that Fuse Games has many former Criterion developers amongst its ranks, many of whom served key roles in Burnout titles. Heck, game director Bill Lane already has Burnout: Paradise in his portfolio, along with Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and the always iconic Most Wanted. All of those games had a restless energy underpinning their worlds, a sort of urge to keep driving around, being either very stylish or extremely chaotic.
It’s also important to think back to the game’s promotional materials, where Lucasfilm has been quick to highlight the pedigree that comes with Fuse Games’ lineup of creators. It’s almost as if it’s all aimed at making you expect a similar vibe from Galactic Racer, and with a few demos of the game already showcased, it’s definitely looking like a viable strategy and a solid one.
Racing in the Syndicate’s underground circuit seems to have captured exactly what has made Burnout games as successful as they are: winning isn’t just about clean racing lines. In fact, Galactic Racer looks for the opposite, giving you vehicles that are powerful enough to make you feel like piloting them is a very involved process, and many ways to take your opponents out of the picture. Aggression should be a part of your approach, and we’d recommend treating every rival as if they’re Sebulba coming at you with everything he’s got.
Cementing the connection is the fact that aggression isn’t punished, but rewarded right then and there. Given how tight races are looking when you’re playing this one right, taking a fellow racer out of the equation isn’t just a problem dealt with, but an opportunity to turn your attention to a potentially more troublesome one. That all of this is done on the fly, as you’re weaving between obstacles on tracks designed to be dangerous, showcases an energy that can feel like Burnout even as it fuels a wholly different experience.
You see, we think Galactic Racer isn’t just Burnout with a Star Wars skin, but a racer that’s bringing enough of its own ideas for it to be something special.
Evolving On The Fly
Galactic Racer carries the burden of needing to feel fast just as much as it is technically so. Its vehicles need to be responsive enough to handle tracks that are looking quite tricky, while any impacts feel crunchy enough to sell the intensity of a pod race, something that many of its players are likely going to remember like the back of their hands from the film that first introduced the sport.
The sentiment that you’re in control of something that’s quite eager to spin out if you treat it wrong seems like it’s been woven well into the physics and “game feel” that Fuse is putting together. That was always a strong undercurrent in Burnout as well, but when you consider that Galactic Racer’s podracers, landspeeders, skim speeders, and speeder bikes are going to be running on terrain that doesn’t need wheels, but can be just as punishing to careless racers gives it a new touch.
That you’re likely to be racing through different environments is a facet of the experience that’s likely to help make a familiar kind of racer feel entirely fresh, while also freeing it up from the constraints of actual roads, or perhaps even a working planet, to race on.
The level design on offer is another area that feels like a natural evolution of Burnout’s formula without taking away its penchant for absolute chaos. With branching routes through tracks that make it very easy to speed past them, split-second risk/reward choices come into play, while shortcuts, alternate routes through tracks, and of course, the umpteen ways you can crash out of a race and be forced to start over are all facets of the experience that can give you a constant sense of danger to feed your adrenaline, laying the foundation for an exhilarating and addictive experience.
Every mistake is a reason to come back and try again, and that’s a kind of racer that can be a lot of fun no matter where you fall on the skill spectrum of racing sims. That the goal is to have fun makes getting better at it all easier, and that’s something Burnout had in droves. Galactic Racer looks like it has that sentiment firmly in its grasp, but we must expand on why we think it’s more than a mere clone and could chart its own path to the Force.
Formidable On Its Own
The campaign and its run-based gameplay loop immediately come to mind when we think about how Galactic Racer aims to blaze its own path to glory and renown. Having events to choose from, using your earnings to upgrade your racer, and a narrative framework that’s rooted in a part of the Star Wars universe’s lore that hasn’t been visited too often, the departure from Burnout’s approach is immediately evident.
But it goes deeper: the risk of wrecking your carefully curated assembly of the best racing parts down to scraps and being forced to start anew adds personal stakes to every race. You’re not just moving from event to event in the way that many racing campaigns unfold, but choosing them based on what you think your vehicle is capable of and, more importantly, what you’re capable of. The fear of repetition can be a great motivator for a tactical approach to which races you’re taking on, and we suspect it’s going to be a factor that helps Galactic Racer become a racer like no other.
Combine all of that with different progression systems for various vehicle types, and of course, a storyline that could turn out pretty interesting, and you begin to see how it could become something unique and iconic in equal measures. But its very ambitions could be shaping expectations around it that might be proven unrealistic if it doesn’t get certain things right. But it could look to Burnout to solve those problems, and we suspect that the franchise has indeed ensured they never arise in the first place.
Nevertheless, it’s always clever to consider such risks, and first impressions are something we believe matter a lot with this one. It’s got to handle well right from the get go as many of us have already imagined a game about pod racing in our heads, and already want vehicles that move like the ones we’ve been seeing so often across many Star Wars IPs.
Those takedowns and crashes need to hit fast and hard, irrespective of whether you’re the perpetrator or the victim of the crash. That’s part of the spectacle of a pod race, and a reason the Syndicate is paying big bucks and taking a lot of risk to keep the underground racing scene alive. The tracks themselves should have enough in them to reward mastering them, while the progression system needs to balance being punishing against being too frustrating to keep players coming back to them.
At the same time, its multiplayer races need to account for chaos without becoming too chaotic on their own, which would then discourage aggression and take away a factor that’s important to the thrills this one aims to invoke.
There’s a lot that could go wrong for Galactic Racer but there’s an important reason we’re not worried. You see, the gap that Burnout left behind hasn’t been one that other studios, and even EA, have been especially eager to try filling. Stepping up to that legacy isn’t something to be taken lightly, and a Star Wars racer is the last thing anyone expected to try taking it on.
But the early peeks we’ve had of it show a sort of physicality that blends very well with the tracks and takedowns that the game facilitates, and it all looks quite memorable even when you’re merely watching it unfold. We can only imagine actually participating in it all, and we’re excited despite being cautious enough to temper our expectations.
As for our enthusiasm, the Star Wars and Burnout fans in us are jumping for joy at a title that seems to pay respectful homage to the franchise that has inspired it while boldly bringing its own identity and vision to tracks that seem built to support them. Galactic Racer knows it doesn’t need to be Burnout, but it has certainly used the franchise as a great starting point for what it’s trying to build.
For our part, we can’t wait to climb into our pod and get to racing.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
