[h1]The ‘Check Engine’ light is on.[/h1]
[b][i]Late Night 1320[/i][/b] is a street drag-racing game still in Early Access as of this review’s publishing. With the last updates and social media posts by the developers in 2019, has this title jumped the light and been disqualified?
Well, it certainly doesn’t look too hot. Even on the highest graphical preset from the barebones options menu, this game is visually unimpressive for the most part. Environments are devoid of interesting items such as spectators or traffic, grass is plainly two-dimensional, and lighting is basic with no dynamic shadows. The car models themselves look alright, but they have no damage modelling outside of ugly bump mapping to make the panels look wrinkled or dented. For unknown reasons, motion blur is really only visible in one race location; it’s absent or very subdued otherwise… not like ghost-like afterimages resemble anything approaching quality blur. Nor does the excessive screen shake meaningfully improve the sense of speed, just the sense of nausea.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2598350246
On the performance and stability fronts, my [i]Ryzen 9 3900X, 64GB RAM, 1070Ti, Windows 10[/i] system encountered no problems playing the game at 1440p and a constant 60 frames per second. Mind that the already-unattractive menu interface is entirely mouse driven with no option to use a gamepad or keyboard to navigate. As for bugs, they range from occasionally corrupted text to sound bugs; mildly annoying, but nothing game breaking.
And rounding out the presentation, the audio also leaves to be desired. There are only two distinct musical tracks in the game. Winning a race provides you with a rather neat rock solo that is unfortunately cut off by the replays loading a few seconds later. The other track, a somewhat tense synth/techno piece present in most menus, is incredibly repetitive and has obnoxious engine rev noises on top. Car sounds are decent but still lack in variety; two flavours of V8 noise aren't enough. Forced induction has no variation between the two types available, so superchargers whistle instead of whine (boooo...), but at least nitrous jetting is appropriately punchy.
Before one engages in the dangerous activity that is racing, there is an introductory story resembling a choose-your-own-adventure. While initially intriguing, none of the choices will impact the outcome: your character’s down to their last assets and must increase their reputation and car performance to get back at the rival gang.
Next, you scour the junkyard for any old car to race in. Word of advice: don’t take something that’s missing an engine or wheels. Your starting funds simply cannot cover those expenses, even if the bare chassis is cheaper. Any leftover money should be spent on upgrades, the catalogue for which is awkwardly sorted. There’s no way to “bookmark” or otherwise tell if you already have parts installed without juggling between the garage and shop screens.
And now, finally, it is time to get to the meat and potatoes of the game. You earn money and respect by winning races. The only races you ever do are quarter-mile drag, and there’s no meaningful variation in how you approach the races nor how you strategize. You’re just put on the starting line, launch when the lights go green on the display (since the physical lights don't work), and hopefully you have the traction, power and shifting points to cross the line before the other racer. Rinse and repeat… [i]for-freaking-ever.[/i]
Progression in racing games is often tied to gathering enough cash to upgrade, but the grind is absolutely obnoxious in [b][i]Late Night 1320.[/i][/b] The juicy upgrades that you really care about cost over a grand each. Your early rewards barely crack $100 and some reputation for the underbaked respect system. Repeated races provide even fewer rewards. Opponents spike in difficulty regularly and their “estimated times” flat out lie to you. Add all of this up and you’re in for quite the boring experience, beating the same prat over and over for mere scraps.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2598201972
This turns even more obnoxious when factoring the limited maintenance elements for your cars. Engine oil lasts forever and is fairly cheap to replace, but any amount adds up in the long run. Meanwhile, nitrous systems have limited repairs (making for an expensive investment eventually) and the top-of-the-line upgrade costs more to refill than half of the races ever give out when replayed.
The actual repair system, proudly touted on the main menu screen, is basically non-existent as you never have to worry about your car wearing down, even if you go into the run-off area or crash into an invisible wall. Your supercharged thousand-plus horsepower monster won’t mind the crusty stock radiators.
This title’s premise is such a wonderful opportunity to capitalize on car culture and it makes some uneasy steps towards that goal with some customization and upgrade options, such as two-step systems which keep the car’s revs at the optimum point before launching. But there is nothing more beyond this tiny glimpse of what could have been. There are no spectators, no wheelies, no pre-race staging or burnout phases, no pink slips or betting, not even any cruising through the world.
Even limiting oneself to just the drag racing, the available content is highly limited. Whatever is there to unlock is most likely not worth playing to unlock or buy. The only place you buy cars from is the junkyard, so they’re always in a state of disrepair. You have the choice of five different models, except a few are so similar in design that they may as well be duplicates – the number of unique designs is closer to three.
Body customization involves sticking on bits of trim or a “special roof” that one needs to squint to see even a small difference on most cars. Paint resprays are entirely overwritten by the eight choices of preset decal kits. Sigh. What if I want a lime green car with flame decals? To top it off, most of the “chassis” parts make no meaningful difference to the car’s characteristics.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2598210446
And lastly, the menus are as ugly as they are functionally destitute. Aside from such quality typos as “I’m not taking this serious”, racer portraits shuffle around every time you access the race location. Want to grind some punk for cash? Whoops, muscle memory made you race against someone out of your league. You can’t quit out of races, nor can you quickly restart them. You can only either finish them or be disqualified for a pitiful respect loss.
The rival gang you’re introduced to at the start, “The Chains”, has only one racer programmed in. You encounter him even in locations where his car is woefully ill-equipped to compete against the other generic opponents. This means that every time you race this guy again, your car will effortlessly finish with a good five seconds to spare.
The closest one can get to finishing the game is beating every racer in the existing locations. That amounts to three-to-four hours of gameplay, which is on the low side even for a racing game. There’s minimal functional variation in gameplay, and most of the time spent reaching that point is just dull grinding in order to progress to the next racer. “Quick race” just pits your existing ride against an opponent that cannot match you. Any fun to be had competing is just shattered by the tedium.
[h3]Such a shame.[/h3]
[i]Abandoned and left to rot like a forgotten project car, [b]Late Night 1320[/b] is an unfulfilling and repetitive racer, lacking even the most basic quality of life and progression features.[/i]
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