Anarchy Road

[h3]RANKING:[/h3] [table] [tr] [td] [h3][strike]AVOID | FLAWED[/strike] | [b]MAYBE[/b] | [strike]WORTHWHILE | COMPELLING | UNMISSABLE [/strike] [/h3] [/td] [/tr] [/table] [h3]SYNOPSIS:[/h3] [table] [tr] [th][b]ASSESSMENT:[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] Anarchy Road is a pretty ordinary combat racing game with some highlights. A marriage between Borderlands & Mad Max that generates a suitably desolate dystopian atmosphere. Combat is tricky, sometimes feels flimsy which detracts in satisfaction. Racing is enjoyable due to responsive acceleration & handling from solid controls. Bar the tendency to overcompensate slight adjustments that mean missed pick-ups. Stages have unbalanced time limits which makes some trickier than others. Audiovisuals make for a fresh if familiar setting, but the story lacks any depth. Car customisation is non-existent, new cars & upgrades become available with progression. A mix of interesting levels are filled with features that help or hinder their completion. Later ones feel half-finished & the last few are reused from earlier in the linear campaign. Some boss battles feel out of place. Overall the experience it offers only suggests that it [b]MAYBE[/b] worth a go. [/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr] [td][b]STATUS:[/b][/td] [td]Seems hastily released with no support so far. A DLC of free content is planned in the near future [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]APPEAL:[/b][/td] [td]Driving games with combat action & levels that must be unlocked by resource collection [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]VALUE:[/b][/td] [td]A little too expensive for the content & experience [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]PLAY AGAIN:[/b][/td] [td]Perhaps. Most likely in coop mode. [/td] [/tr] [/table] [quote=]Key provided by developer through [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/][b]INDIEGEMS[/b][/url] curator | Check out their vids on [url=https://www.youtube.com/@IndieGems2][b]YOUTUBE[/b][/url][/quote] [i]More info below....[/i] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3708774852 [h3]HIGHLIGHTS:[/h3] 🟡 ENEMIES come in form of static hazards & mobile vehicles. Along with the usual snipers, helos, cars & motorbikes are all manner of drones. Complimented by tons of mines, bollards, spike strips, laser fences, mines, turrets & crushers that need to be avoided. Huge statuesque robots that act like weapon emplacements & end of chapter bosses are impressive looking adversaries. 🟡 LEVELS are handmade & scripted. Made to offer degrees of rallying mixed with combat. Quite short, but varied. A mix of narrow twisting tracks, open expanses & arenas. With hazards, bottlenecks & ramps to slow a run & alternate routes or shortcuts that offer racing options. Some levels have some genuinely unique elements that make them stand out. Some of the later ones feel emptier as if less effort was put into them. The last five or so are essentially the first tracks in reverse. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3704676112 [h3]OFF TARGET:[/h3] ⚪ CONTENT spans a single linear campaign of x25 diverse levels. Replay value comes from retrying failed levels &/or to gain the necessary resources to unlock levels. x2 difficulty levels & a coop mode provide some longevity since there are no achievements. Neither of which provides a balanced challenge. Easy is to easy. While difficult is set to play on default, seemingly proving frustrating to players not wanting to try the easy mode. ⚪ AUDIOVISUALS generate a genuine Borderlands atmosphere meets Mad Max gameworld. With the familiar cell-shaded art style helping to generate a convincing environment. Deferring the forgettable soundtrack to key moments ensures the battlefield audio effects stand-out enough to immerse the player in the unfolding action. ⚪ COMBAT has its moments. Can be satisfying in target rich environments. Less so in levels built around tight tracks. Fixed weapons & the inability to make micro corrections affect aiming in a small, but negative way. Multitasking at speed is tested by having to cope with the duality of aiming, prioritising targeting, keeping the car on a racing line, avoiding pitfalls, picking up collectibles, conserving ammo & making tight stage times. Auto-aim removes the fun of manual targeting. While wall-mounted & airborne targets require the car to face & be positioned within range, with little margin of error. Satisfying when done right. Annoying otherwise. Some boss levels the combat feels flat because the racing element isn't as pronounced & requires cheesing victory. ⚪ RACING is enjoyable, but the usual pitfalls that cause annoying instant wipes. Acceleration doesn't always generate a sense of speed in open expanses, apart from cars with turbo boost. Turning on tracks is comfortable, yet tight turns & intricate manoeuvres that require timing easily lead to mistakes. The use of a shield & jump to avoid obstacles are nice fall-back tactical options. Its all to easy to go out-of-bounds or mistime jumps & wipe, but since levels are quite short retrying isn't much of a chore. Stage times are generous on Easy, but completing them is not always straightforward. Clipping objects is annoying. Oversteering can cause collectibles to be easily missed at speed. Finding alternate paths or shortcuts comes with level familiarity through retries. ⚪ BOSS FIGHTS do not all seem a good fit for car combat offering a contrived challenge where there is little need for strategy. Going for needing luck or pre-knowledge to overcome what could have been some interesting opponents. Instead its often a click-fest with the distraction of having to pick-up ammo, while gaining extra time by racing through checkpoints. Annoyingly the level exit must then be found in time which isn't always apparent. ⚪ CONTROLS for acceleration & braking work well. For a 2-wheel drive turning feels a tad splashy rather than smooth. While the turning circle is too prone to annoyingly overcompensation for tiny movements. Great for split second dodges, but not so when grinding the car against the environment or bypassing vital pick-ups. Best played with a controller. Settings are limited to Steam. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3713389144 [h3]SHORTCOMINGS:[/h3] 🟤 CAR CUSTOMISATION is non-existent. Vehicles are automatically assigned to certain tracks. There are no real notable differences other than weapon armaments. Weapon upgrades occur only when scripted. Was hoping for a lot more RPG like customisation, with the ability to choose chassis & adapt the character with purchasable upgrades. 🟤 PRODUCTION feels okay, but raw in places. Release feels rushed & lacks some polish. Bugs include a few undefined out of bounds. Sometimes enemies spawn out of nowhere. Car auto-flip does not always trigger. Stability demonstrated no issues. Optimisation suffers from suboptimal fps, lagging on a few levels & the GPU fan runs a little loud on menu. 🟤 ANNOYANCES are a shield that requires manual activation, which is fiddly to do with driving & shooting to worry about. Sometimes damage to the player's car on easy difficulty doesn't register. Since bosses have no health bars its difficult to gauge when to take risks during these fights & when not to. 🟤 MISSING FEATURES include no leaderboards of any description despite best times being recorded. No markers to show the player how far they got during their last attempt at a track. [table][tr] [td]Click for:[/td] [td][h1][url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/TheIrregularGamer/discussions/0/805723552519079585/]Full Review[/url][/h1][/td] [/tr][/table] [table] [tr] [td][b]REVIEWED WITH:[/b][/td] [td]Build v date of review 1920x1080 fullscreen, EVO850 SSD, Speedlink XEOX Pro Analog Gamepad [/td] [/tr] [/table] [quote=]Thank you for reading | Click to follow my curator[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40556040-The-Irregular-Gamer/] THE IRREGULAR GAMER[/url][/quote]

This game plays like something on the N64. It's not fun, the cutscenes and voice actors used are amateur at best. I wanted to like it, because the stuff shown on the store page looked fun and interesting, but the game itself is crap.

This is a very balanced racing/combat game made by vets of Forza and Shadow of Mordor. What could be a better combo of experience? Having been part of the early builds, I have been impressed with how myuch this has evolved into an Indie gem!

Twisted Metal meets Burnout when played in VR with UEVR! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axyxbeeOonI

Quality arcade racing fun, reminds me of Carmageddon in all the best ways

No sounds settings and steering wheel support in 2026, crazy

Anarchy Road is a pretty good time wrapped in an unpleasant wrapper. The driving mechanics are okay, the guns are kinda wonky to use which kinda adds to the fun in its own way, and it's just difficult enough at times to keep me engaged for a while. I played the demo quite a bit, but I guess the play time doesn't carry over. Overall, the game needs polish. Wonky collision can get in the way of your fun and stop your momentum, which is frustrating. Generally, accelerating so slowly makes slowing down to use the guns or navigate obstacles annoying. There's no true rubberbanding so it's difficult to find the timing pocket to make it through the next obstacle if you flub along the way or move too fast. All of this aside, I still find myself hitting the go button on the next run. There's something fun here that's worth playing, and they're continuing to make more content and updates for it. I will say I'm sorely disappointed in the story given they have one of the greatest game storytellers of all time on staff, but this is not a game you play for the story. This is guilty pleasure fun when you don't have the brain power available for a more complex game.

WASD.