As a sub-niche of the arcade racing genre, anti-gravity racers haven’t really seen much action from AAA developers in recent times. The closest we’ve seen to a major release has been the WipEout Omega Collection on the PS4, which ultimately was just a remastered repackaging of older WipEout games. Nintendo’s F-Zero franchise might as well be dead at this point considering how little the company’s doing with it. Indie studios have been trying to pick up the slack since then, thankfully, and now we have 34BigThings releasing a sequel to Redout.

"Redout 2 likes to focus on speed. A lot. Even the game’s official descriptions like to call it the fastest racing game in the universe. While that may sound like it’s just marketing, after having played quite a bit of it, I can safely say that there’s definitely a kernel of truth in that bold statement."

Aptly titled Redout 2, the game doesn’t really have much that could be considered revolutionary by any stretch. It achieves its goals of being a fast, fun, and robust anti-gravity arcade racer. Redout 2 likes to focus on speed. A lot. Even the game’s official descriptions like to call it the fastest racing game in the universe. While that may sound like it’s just marketing, after having played quite a bit of it, I can safely say that there’s definitely a kernel of truth in that bold statement.

Before we get to speed, let’s talk about difficulty.

Racing games tend to have strange difficulty curves. A lot of racing games are plagued with ways for AI racers to cheat, like rubber banding. Of course, this means that racing against AI gets quickly boring, and why we see games like Forza Horizon 5 focusing so much more on its multiplayer. But when we have arcade-styled games, realism gets thrown out the window. Cars—or whatever vehicles the game features—aren’t exactly bound by the laws of physics, and difficulty can instead be introduced in more interesting ways.

And that’s precisely what Redout 2 does. While it still features traditional difficulty options when it comes to AI racers, Redout 2’s focus on adding depth and difficulty to its gameplay comes in the form of the impressive level of control you have over your racing car… erm… ship. Sure, steering is simple, and so’s strafing, but Redout 2 also allows you to control the pitch of your vehicle. For example, if you’re coming up on a slope, you might want to pull the nose of your vehicle slightly higher to gain a minor speedboost going up. If you’re going down a slope, pushing your nose lower helps maintain speed and traction. And that’s not even mentioning all of the jumps; Redout 2’s racetracks have more in common with our childhood memories of playing around with Hot Wheels tracks than do with any traditional race tracks.

"While it still features traditional difficulty options when it comes to AI racers, Redout 2’s focus on adding depth and difficulty to its gameplay comes in the form of the impressive level of control you have over your racing car ship."

Now, take all of these control options and insane track design, and throw it into an absurdly fast-paced racing game, and you have what might just end up being one of the more interesting arcade racers out there. All of the vehicles also end up feeling quite weighty, which is great because it actually gives you great visual feedback for when you’ve successfully pulled off a strafing turn.

Speaking of which, actually racing in Redout 2 feels like a balancing act between using as much boost as possible without blowing your vehicle up. Using boosts in Redout 2 is basically limited by how much your vehicle’s overheating. Use enough to overflow the overheat bar and your ship will start taking damage. Take enough damage and you’re permanently out of the race. On the other hand, you have to use boost as much as possible just to make the best times or keep up with the other racers. It ultimately comes down to the fact that, in Redout 2, even your health is a resource that can be used up.

Coming back to AI racers, Redout 2 has a range of difficulty options for single player modes, but I personally found the AI racers to be a bit on the aggressive side even on lower difficulties. While I do hope this gets patched and the lower difficulty AI gets tuned, I don’t really see it as much of a problem since the real fun in Redout 2 is bound to be its time trial mode, and maybe even its online modes.

"All of the vehicles also end up feeling quite weighty, which is great because it actually gives you great visual feedback for when you’ve successfully pulled off a strafing turn."

Alright, game modes. You can’t just be going around race tracks in a circle; you need some variety. Thankfully Redout 2 has a range of game modes that bring some variety in. I personally found the time trial mode to be my favourite purely because it became a test of my own skills. Every single time I went through a time trial, I could feel myself getting better at the game. For those among us who aren’t quite as satisfied with purely intrinsic rewards, however, there’s also a career mode. It features a good mix of race tracks paired with different game modes, and also acts as a great tutorial in its early stages. Unfortunately, there isn’t really much of a story there; you just pick your choice of event and go race. I would have really liked an insane story to go along with the rest of Redout 2’s general insanity.

I will mention that one of the more interesting game modes is Boss mode, which is essentially an endurance-styled massive race where a number of various tracks are linked together to form one massive track. While entertaining, I don’t think those interested in single player racing will find a lot of fun there; it can get rather exhausting. Instead, I think Boss mode will end up being incredibly fun in multiplayer.

Now, all of this emphasis on speed and the insane tracks wouldn’t really make for a very good game if the visuals weren’t up to par, and Redout 2’s visuals are definitely up to par. While it’s not going to set the world on fire with its graphics, Redout 2’s visual direction is strong, mixing its post-cyberpunk aesthetics with the real-world in fun ways. While things are barely visible while your speed throughout the track tends to have 4 digits, what you can see looks gorgeous. Oh, and it certainly helps that the game managed a silky-smooth 60 frames per second on the PS5.

"While it’s not going to set the world on fire with its graphics, Redout 2’s visual direction is strong, mixing its post-cyberpunk aesthetics with the real-world in fun ways."

Redout 2 is in a curious position. It’s a game that’s in a niche sub-genre within a (these days at least) niche genre. Sony and Nintendo clearly don’t seem to care for their zero gravity racers these days, so there has been a rather obvious void. Thankfully, Redout 2 definitely feels ready to fill that void. Its sense of speed is basically unmatched in any other game out right now, and the level of expression of player skill afforded by the in-depth physics and controls in the game are great. Redout 2 almost feels like it’s in the same ballpark as Rocket League when it comes to pulling off advanced techniques. Whether it’ll achieve the critical mass it needs to actually be comparable to Rocket League, however, is another matter entirely. But hey, at least you can rest assured that Redout 2 is a damn fine game.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

After a couple of delays, finally, Redout 2 is out now- make sure to check out its announcement trailer below. The racer offers a healthy amount of content right out the bat, coming with an extensive customization system, deeper progression mechanics, six game modes, 10 unique locations with 36 different tracks (and each track having reverse variations), a full-fledged career mode, multiplayer offerings, and more.

Redout 2 is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. To learn more about the game, head on over here.

PREMISE

There’s a good chance you haven’t heard of Redout before, so you might be wondering- what exactly is it? Well, if you’re a fan of fast-paced sci-fi antigravity racers like WipEout and F-Zero, there’s good news for you- that’s what Redout 2 is. Like most genres that have been left to die by the companies that once dominated them, the antigrav racer is now being stewarded by passionate indies, and in that group, Redout is very much a fan favourite. Redout 2, which is being billed as “the fastest game in the universe”, is set in the year 2589, where a post-apocalyptic Earth has been almost entirely abandoned and serves as the home for high-speed antigravity races.

CONTROLS

Of course, given how starved antigravity racing fans have been in recent years, it goes without saying that Redout 2 doesn’t have to contend with an awful lot of competition from similar games (though there are a few of those, at least). Even so, developer 34BigThings isn’t content with just playing things completely straight. Redout 2, like its predecessor, is promising to set itself apart from the (admittedly sparse) crowd with its unique control scheme, which, in addition to extremely high speeds, also allows players to tilt, strafe, and boos their ships at any time. The result is a greater level of control over your ship’s movements, and, in turn, a much higher skill ceiling. Of course, for those who’re looking for a more simple and straightforward experience, Redout 2 will have plenty of assists on offer to automate the stuff you want automated.

MODES

Redout 2 will also have six unique game modes that will let players participate in different kinds of events. There’s Race, of course, which is a regular race against opponents, where you can set how many opponents you want to race against, and how many laps the race will have. Then there’s Time Attack, which is a regular time trial mode where you race against the clock. Arena Race is a mode that removes respawns and increases damage with every lap, with either the player to cross the finish line first or the player who’s the last one left standing being declared the winner. Last Man Standing is a regular knockout race, where the racer in the bottom position is eliminated each lap (with speed increasing with each lap), and the last player left standing wins. Then there’s Speed, which tasks players with staying above the target speed threshold to score points. Finally, there’s Boss, which sees you racing across all three track layouts in sequence.

TRACKS

Redout 2 is promising a decent amount of content in terms of tracks and locations as well. The game will have 10 unique racing locations, which is twice as much as what the original Redout offered. In total, these locations will have a collective 36 race tracks for players to zip through, while each race track will also have a reverse variant, which effectively means the game will have 72 tracks. Regardless of whether or not the game gets any post-launch content (though judging by how the original Redout handled things, it probably will), even right out the gate, it looks like Redout 2 will have quite a bit of content on offer.

CAREER MODE

Redout 2 is also promising a meaty single player career mode. According to developer 34BigThings, the career mode will have hundreds of events for players to play through, which will span all of the game’s tracks across all 10 locations, and all of the six game modes that we spoke of earlier. The game will also feature a Photo Mode, so all the shutterbugs out there can enjoy the aesthetics of Redout 2’s environments and vehicles that way as well.

CUSTOMIZATION

Customization is an element that Redout 2 seems to be emphasizing a great deal, and it looks like there’s going to be plenty of options on offer in order to finetune the performance of your ship in a number of ways, including its durability, top speed, stability, steering, thrust, and strafing ability. For starters, there will be a dozen different chassis to choose from, each with its own base attributes. From there, players can customize a number of different parts and components in a variety of ways, including propulsors, wings, stabilizers, magnets, flaps, rocket engines, spoilers, rudders, intercoolers, and of course, paint jobs.

MULTIPLAYER

Redout 2 will also have a multiplayer component on offer for those who want to test their skills against other players. According to the developer, the game will feature 12-player races on “most platforms”- what exactly that means remains unclear for now, but in all likelihood, the Nintendo Switch version of the game will end up having a lower player count. Hopefully, we’ll get some more clarity on that front sooner rather than later.

SEASONAL EVENTS

As you’d expect from any game with multiplayer offerings in today’s day and age, Redout 2 will try and keep its players coming back with the promise of new content being delivered at a regular clip. According to the developers, that will entail regularly added custom content, seasonal events, cosmetic rewards, and more. What the exact roadmap will look like, what the cadence of that post-launch support will be, and how it will handle monetization remains to be seen, though hopefully we’ll know more on that front in the not-too-distant future.

SOUNDTRACK

Music is incredibly important in pretty much every game, but that stands doubly true for high speed antigravity racers, and it looks like Redout 2 is going all out on that front. The game features an electronic soundtrack featuring artists like Giorgio Moroder, Zardonic, and Dance with the Dead. On top of that, Redout 2 also uses an algorithm that mixes and matches the game’s tracks and blends them together in real time, based not only on what’s going on in the race and how you’re performing, but also based on how you’ve customized your ship.

PC REQUIREMENTS

Redout 2 will be available on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC when it launches on June 16, but if you’re planning on playing it on PC, you might be interested in knowing its minimum and recommended system requirements. Thankfully, neither setting seems too demanding, all things considered. On minimum settings, you’ll require either an Intel Core i5-3470 or an AMD Ryzen 3 1200, along with either a GeForce GTX 970 4 GB or an AMD Radeon RX 570 4 GB, and 4 GB of RAM. Meanwhile, on recommended settings, you’ll need either an Intel Core i7-3770 or an AMD Ryzen 5 1600, along with either a GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB or an AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, and 8 GB of RAM. On either setting, you’ll need about 25 GB of free storage space.

As a follow-up to the 2016 original, Redout 2 includes 36 tracks with each having reverse variants. It offers a range of race types from Arena Races and Last Man Standing to Boss Races and Time Attack. The single-player Career Mode promises to be extensive and there are 12 different chassis to choose from with customizable propulsors, rudders, magnets, wings and so on to choose from.

There’s also online multiplayer where up to 12 players can compete on PlayStation, Xbox and PC (six players on Nintendo Switch). Custom content and seasons with additional rewards will be added over time so stay tuned. For more details, check out the game’s overview trailer here.

Hello Redout fans,

We know you have been eagerly awaiting the release of Redout 2 later this month, but unfortunately, the fastest racer in the universe needs just a little more development time before it’s ready to go and will now launch on June 16 on PC, PS5|4, XSX|X1 & Switch pic.twitter.com/ttlu68cTEZ

— Redout 2 (@redout2game) May 20, 2022

After the disastrous Space Assault DLC for Redout, the development team is going back to basics with the sequel. It offers 36 unique tracks (complete with some reverse variants) and modes like Arena Race, Time Attack, Last Man Standing and even Boss Races. There are 12 chassis to choose from, each with different propulsors, rocket engines, intercoolers, magnets, rudders and of course, paint jobs to choose from.

Online multiplayer supports up to 12 players on PC, Xbox and PlayStation platforms (six on Nintendo Switch) and will receive additional content via seasons. A Photo Mode is also available at launch, allowing players to capture still images and customize them to their heart’s content. For more details, check out the overview trailer here.

Redout 2 offers a single-player campaign with modes like Arena Races, Time Attacks, Last Man Standing and Boss Races with 12 chassis to choose from. Each is fully customizable with stabilizers, flaps, wings and whatnot. There’s also a variety of assists for players to tune the difficulty to their liking. Multiplayer offers competitive racing with up to 12 racers on PlayStation, Xbox and PC (six players on Switch).

Additional content will be added via seasons after the game’s launch, offering even more rewards for players to earn. Redout 2 releases for Xbox One, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC later this year. Stay tuned for more details in the future.

THQ Nordic parent company have been expanding rapidly and aggressively for a while now, and that expansion seems to be showing no signs of slowing down. The company recently announced that it has acquired a slate of new studios- 13 in total, of which 11 are game development studios, one is a PR firm, and one is a QA-focused software outsourcing company.

Polish developer Flying Wild Hog – who are currently working on Shadow Warrior 3 and have also partnered with Focus Home Interactive for an upcoming project – is one of the studios that have been acquired. Phoenix Point developer Snapshot Games, Operencia: The Stolen Sun developer Zen Studios, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated developer Purple Lamp Studios, and Quantum League developer Nimble Giant Entertainment have also joined the fold.

The other studios that Embracer have acquired are 34BigThings, Coffee Stain North, A Thinking Ape Entertainment, Mad Head Games, IUGO Mobile Entertainment, and Silent Games. Meanwhile, Embracer have also brought PR firm Sandbox Strategies and quality assurance-focused software outsourcing company Quantic Lab into the fold.

Where earlier this year Embracer Group collectively had 118 games in development, 69 of which were unannounced at the time, that number has now gone up to a whopping 135 games.

You may not remember it, but REDOUT, a futuristic racing game inspired heavily by Nintendo’s F-Zero franchise, was announced as coming to the Switch all the way back in January 2017. It released in that year for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. It’s since gotten periodic updates, largely to support 4K, as well as DLC that included new tracks and vehicles. The Switch version was delayed indefinitely, with many thinking it was probably scrapped, but it seems it will release after all in May, as publisher Nicalis announced today.

The Switch version will come with all the previous DLC released for the game, which includes 6 packs featuring a variety of new tracks and cars. It will obviously lack the 4K abilities of the other versions, but you can check out the reveal trailer below to see that the game looks pretty good and smooth on the system.

REDOUT Lightspeed Edition is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, and it will release on Switch May 14^th and retail for $39.99.

Redout: Lightspeed Edition, the new futuristic racer, is out now on PS4 and Xbox One- and it will also support the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X, the superpowered upgrades to their respective consoles by Sony and Microsoft.

While both consoles are a fair bit more powerful than the original versions, the PS4 Pro is a more conservative upgrade, and generally incapable of running most games in native 4K; the Xbox One X is a far more radical overhaul, and can run more titles in 4K. This will also be reflected with Redout, which will run in Checkerboarded 4K at 60fps on the PS4 Pro, but native 4K and 60fps on Xbox One X, with higher visual settings, to boot.

This information was confirmed by CEO Valerio Di Donato of Italian studio 34BigThings in an exclusive interview with WCCFTech. Redout is available now on PS4 and Xbox One, as well as PC.

Microsoft’s Xbox One X may be out in November but the console’s capabilities, especially as a native 4K gaming machine, are yet to be proven. While some games take advantage of the console to offer “enhanced” visuals, others actually implement HDR and native 4K. It’s all a matter of optimization as Redout developer 34BigThings informed us.

You’ve probably heard of Redout. It released last year for Steam and offered futuristic, high-speed racing akin to F-Zero and WipEout. 34BigThings is working on Redout: Lightspeed Edition for the Xbox One and PS4 this year while also bringing it to upgraded consoles like the Xbox One X.

With regards to the Xbox One X and how it compares to your modern gaming PCs in terms of power (and whether it’s superior or not), the developer said, “I don’t think there can be a console that out-powers PCs in general, for obvious reasons. But I can agree the Xbox One X is the most powerful console ever released and probably the one with the smallest gap with the average gaming PC. That being said, it’s an amazing piece of hardware and I’m really looking forward to see Redout running on it.”

Though the console is meant to support native 4K, whether it can run Redout in 4K/60 FPS and at the Ultra equivalent of PC settings is up to optimization. The development team believes that with “optimization”, it’s a possibility. “The capability is definitely there, but the devkits aren’t really easy to get and that could have an impact on the timing of the optimization patch for Xbox One X,” said the developer.

As for differences between the Xbox One X and its nearest competitor, the PS4 Pro, the developer noted that, “Both consoles come really strong on the internal hardware and side features (Dolby Atmos, HDR, etc.) and they both are really comfortable to develop games with. We can tell both platform holders put a lot of effort refining the development process, trying to speed up it entirely and solve classical bottlenecks.”

Redout: Lightspeed Edition will release on August 29th for Xbox One and PS4 with a Nintendo Switch version out later.