I have to be honest because after looking at the not so enthusiastic headline reviews and the dreaded 'unknown' for Steam Deck compatibility I genuinely thought I'd be hitting the refund button after giving it a try.....yet here I am 3 hours later still playing the game!!
So what's it like on Steam Deck?
Well, it runs a flawless 60fps (hand held) and 1080p/60fps after minor tweaks of the default video settings when docked. Lossless scaling improves it to 1440p/60fps but introduces some slight distortion around the edge of your vehicle....not enough to make it an irritation but nonetheless, it's there to be seen. The onscreen keyboard is required once to input your name at the beginning of the game and from there onwards everything is accessed via your controller.
Right, here's what I like:
The handling. Sure, some have pointed out that it's quite tricky to control the powersliding but a little practice, a steady hand and subtle use of the handbrake will reap rewards over time. Good because you can't just powerslide your way to victory....you've got to earn the right to nail those corners and sail off into the sunset.
Challenges. There's plenty of them and they should keep you busy for a while. What I like though is that challenges are completed by fulfilling a list of requirements, but you don't have to achieve every requirement in a single run. Completed ones are 'banked', leaving you free to concentrate on the others in future attempts. For example: You may be asked to complete a race in 3 minutes but without using your boost...so what you can do is complete a race without using the boost (to bank that requirement) and then boost the life out of the vehicle in the next race to achieve the 3 minute goal. The system works really well and removes the stress of having to get everything right in one hit. Oh, and vehicles can only be unlocked by completing challenge chapters so this game mode is probably the best place to start
Other minor positives:
There's a good set of difficulty settings to suit all skills but I found the default 'pro' to be just right (tricky but doable). Restarts but no rewinds (hurrah!). AI drivers also make mistakes and there's NO rubber-banding. All championships contain anything upto 9 events with F1 style points scoring so there's plenty of opportunity to mount a comeback if you have a wonky race. Controller buttons can be remapped to suit personal preferences and you can manually adjust (up/down + in/out) all five cameras.
What I didn't like:
Visuals are generally pretty decent but some of the track textures look pretty low-res and I wasn't convinced that the different surfaces (and weather conditions) actually made a difference to overall handling. Then there's the collision mechanics. Sure, you can do to them what they do to you, but I don't think vehicles should spin-out as easily as they do. It can get tiresome knowing that any collision will effectively give you very little chance of winning a race.
Other minor dislikes: No controller FFB. A time trial mode with no leaderboards whatsoever is a proper waste. Multiple occasions where the same AI driver will win every race you don't in championship mode. I'm also not a huge fan of the water/hovercar sections of track.
All in all though I've really enjoyed my time with Race The Future and although it doesn't tick every single box in my list of what I'd expect to see in a racing game, it still plays extremely well....and the 'quirky' stuff eventually became part and parcel of the overall experience.
The best summary I can give for Race The Future is that - in true old skool fashion - if you're not prepared (or lack the ability) to put in the effort then the game won't give you anything in return....and with that in mind I'm going to recommend it because I have no issue with being a bad driver until I've earned the right to be a good driver😁
