Offroaders is another very impressive game by Tim Round, developer of Grand Prix Go, a similar racing game. This time you compete in competitive off-road racing. In Offroaders there is a total of eight competitors and you’re goal of courses to snag first place, but with many tricky levels and smart A.I this is harder than you may think! After each level you can buy new cars that have different stats. There is also a grand total of 40 different achievements to collect, most of which, though, you’ll probably collect on your first play through the game, but the “best lap” ones are a bit challenging. If you’re looking for a great racing game then you’ll want to fire up this game. Offroaders is the best racing game of the year so far!

Offroaders

I thought that the difficulty of the game was just perfect. You could usually last a few levels before having to upgrade your car and the game didn’t force you to unlock every car. In my case I only bought four different cars out of the nine available. The A.I is smart and puts up a tough fight, especially if they’re in first place. Although, this is only true when you have a similarly matched car. It would be nice to have a feature where you could play different tracks on different difficulty modes, just for a fun replay value feature. Nevertheless, the difficulty ramped pretty well and in most levels you didn’t have a distinct advantage over all of the other racers (when using a similarly matched car). My only complaint is level 10. I might have even said that this game was too easy, but level 10 disproved that as it challenged me for a good 20-30 minutes or so until I miraculously snagged first place. The only thing I’d change about the game is level 10, as it makes the difficulty ramp skyrocket. Still, completing that last level felt rewarding, even though there wasn’t even a congratulations on beating the game.

The gameplay felt original and had many improvements are made over Tim Round’s previous game Grand Prix Go. While I loved Grand Prix Go, sadly it doesn’t compare to Offroaders which seems to have a better control scheme and definitely has a better view. The controls felt slick and responded well and drafts allowed you to fly through wide angled turns with ease, while sharper turns allowed for the cars to turn on a dime and make sharp angles. Grand Prix Go had a very limited camera view in my opinion and you often had to rely upon the map to make most turns, or else the speeding cars and limited warning of turns would result in you crashing into a wall. Unlike Grand Prix Go, Offroaders offers a much better view and the cars are scaled down a bit. Unlike Grand Prix Go, you could buy different vehicles which kept the game even more interesting and made you set small goals for yourself. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, buying the best car in the game only took you completing level 9 or 8 a few times in first place to save up enough money.

Offroaders also includes wonderful three dimensional art for the nine different vehicles in the game that creates a realistic view. The dirt has to be one of my favorite parts, as it is textured incredibly well and looks super-realistic. Another thing that I have to point out is that the tracks look really good, from the overpasses to the simple bumps and jumps which are all shown wonderfully. My only complaint about the art is that the three-dimensional models of the tracks (when you pick a track and then your vehicle) end of having a really blurry complexion. Everything else looks perfect and this little imperfection sticks out a bit, but of course it’s not too big of a problem, but I would love to see it in higher quality. Overall, the artwork is incredible and the 3D effect is perfected.

The music and sound effects were spot on for this kind of game. The music was energetic and seemed perfect for a racing game. Although, what took center-stage for sound in this game were the sound effects which seemed perfect in every way. The motor roared when you hit the gas and seemed to cool when you released and a boom was heard when you hit the turbo. Mix this in with seven other cars and it becomes the perfect atmosphere for a racing game. Overall, really good work on making it seem as though you were actually there.

All in all, Offroaders is by far the best racing game of the year! While the year is still young, this game will indefinitely remain on my top game list for 2012 because of it’s wonderful, addictive gameplay and fantastic art. Anyone that enjoyed Grand Prix Go, or likes racing games in general, will love Offroaders! In review, the game had wasn’t too challenging, nor too easy and instead just perfect, although, the last level seemed to be an outlier to this as it seemed insanely difficult compared to the rest of the game. One feature that I’d like to see is an option to up the difficulty on all of the levels instead of just playing the last few levels if you want a bit of a challenge. While the premise of the game was much like the developer’s (Tim Round’s) game Grand Prix Go, small changes were made in the gameplay to drastically improve it, such as a wider of view of everything around you. The art is very beautiful and the 3D effects on the track and the vehicles give an incredible look that is rarely seen in Flash racing games. The music seemed t fit very well with the game and the sound effects worked perfectly with the game providing an incredible atmosphere to race in. If you’re looking for a racing game that’ll keep you hooked, then look no further than Offroaders! Be sure to check it out today on Kongregate!

Play Offroaders on Kongregate!