[b]My Playtime:[/b] 3.4h (100% achievement, finished both Single Player and Tournament)
[h1]Intro[/h1]
[b]Slipstream 5000[/b] is a retro racing game where you control an airship in an airborne track. Weapons and turbo are also available to change the race outcome. The game has 2 modes: single-player and tournament. The first one has 10 tracks while the latter one is held in the first 6 tracks.
[b]Pros:[/b]
- 10 tracks with varying difficulty
- Shortcuts
- Adjustable difficulty
[b]Cons:[/b]
- Lanes with turbos are usually longer than the other, discouraging you from taking it
- Difficulty to speed up and recover your airship the longer you are in the race
- Unclear indication on a lot of things: starting the race, your position in the race, winning the tournament
[b]Specs[/b]
Intel Core i5-9300H 2.40GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
[h1]Should you buy this game?[/h1]
[b]No.[/b]
[i]It might be a good game in the past, but it has aged.[/i]
[hr][/hr]
[h1]In-Depth Review[/h1]
[h3]Visuals[/h3]
As a retro game, it's expected that the game will be blurry. It won't look any good with its pixelated visuals, even though the graphics look like 3D. The characters are drawn realistically, though, which I find to be impressive considering the animations in some of the tournament's stage introductions.
[h3]The Game[/h3]
[b]Modes[/b]
As I said before, the game has two modes: single-player and tournament. In the single-player mode, you'll race on a track of your choosing. There are 10 tracks total, and even though only 1 track is available in the beginning, you can unlock the rest by finishing the previously unlocked track in the first, second, or third place. In this mode, the shop is useless since you'll most likely not have enough money to spend.
In the tournament mode, you are going to race in the first 6 tracks available in the single-player mode. The money you earned in the previous race will add up to your total balance, meaning that you can spend the money to buy some upgrades. Your points will be tallied up depending on what place you were in the previous race. However, the game doesn't differentiate the screen between finishing a track and the whole tournament, making it easy to miss when you don't pay attention. I even thought the game bugged me at the beginning and kicked me out of the tournament.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1171001994
[b]Gameplay[/b]
You control an airship. This means that you have to control your altitude (up and down) in addition to your left and right. This will take some time to get used to, especially since the race looks slow and the vehicle is heavy to steer. You might crash into the wall a lot, although luckily, the game will respawn you in the right spot before you crash, facing the direction that you have to go. This makes it easier to finish the race.
However, the game hardly gives any indication of everything. I didn't know how to control the game with a controller, despite the game claiming to support it. There isn't a clear indication when you start the race since there is no extra sound to distinguish. Lastly, it's hard to see your position in a race unless you pay attention to it, which is almost impossible since you have to focus on the race.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2969226600
What I liked about the game is how there are multiple lanes that you can take. They can be either shorter or longer than the other lane, forcing you to choose the most effective one. However, I found the lane with turbo to be slower than the other most of the time. It discourages people from going there and using the turbo.
[b]Enemies[/b]
Enemies can shoot you. They can either damage your speed or your control, which affects your position in the race. However, I found it hard to find powerups that can recover the damage the longer you are in the race. In a crowded track, you'll have no hope of being in first place once you get hit, and it's almost unavoidable since enemies can just auto-target you from the back with no way for you to avoid. This also applies to the enemies, but you'll also notice that their speed will return to normal after you ignore them for a while, meaning that they can outspeed you anytime.
Luckily, there is an option to disable damage taken in the race. Turning it on helps to prevent you from getting slowed down, although I found that I could still be thrown away by a random enemy attack from time to time. This might also come from the debuff that comes out when you shoot a random plane that is inside the track, which will either give you a turbo, debuff, or repair powerup.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2969226573
[b]Shop[/b]
It's hard to figure out what most items in the shop do. The only thing that I could assume is the turbo, which I found that the better one could give you a longer boost. There are different weapons that you can buy, but when I tried buying one, it could only be used ~3 times in the whole race. It's almost as if I'm wasting money. As for the other powerups, I don't know how they helped me in the race even after I bought them.
[b]Length and Replayability[/b]
The game has 3 difficulties in total. I finished both modes at 3.4h in the easiest difficulty. I had to turn the damage off in the single-player mode to finish the last few tracks, although I didn't find the need to do so in the tournament mode. There is some replayability value if you want to keep playing, although there won't be new content to enjoy.
As for the difficulty, the game can still give you some challenges in the easiest difficulty, but you still have room to catch up in some tracks even if you messed up. The normal difficulty didn't suit me since I found it hard to finish the game in the first place unless you are familiar enough with the track, and some track requires you to be proficient in controlling your airship to keep your speed constant. Most tracks are narrow, meaning that you can bump into the wall and crash if you don't control your airship well, and bumping will lower your maximum speed.
[h1]Conclusion[/h1]
[b]Slipstream 5000[/b] might be a good game in the past, but it sure has aged. The visuals aren't that good, and the game looks stiff at times. I liked how they did a demo run to show the race before each track in the tournament mode, though. That being said, although I enjoyed it a bit, some issues just don't sit tight with me, so I'm afraid I can't recommend the game.
