Redout 2 is a futuristic racer that demands perfection. It's basically WipEout if WipEout was even more difficult, and had a control scheme that, at times, made you want to punt your DualSense off the nearest wall. This is just about as hardcore as anti-gravity racing games get, and while we can appreciate the challenge — and the joy of overcoming said challenge — Redout 2 almost feels like it's designed to push you over the edge.
It all starts with the tutorial, which kicks off a lengthy campaign mode stuffed with time trials, races, and more specific events. Simply put, this tutorial does not prepare you for what comes next. Its incredibly brief teaching methods barely register, to the point where your first real race is all but guaranteed to kick your arse. Redout 2's difficulty curve is steep, and it remains steep until you've committed every track and every hairpin turn to memory.
As mentioned, a lot of the potential frustration is tied to Redout 2's controls. You use a combination of the left and right analog sticks to steer your ship, aiming the nose at just the right angle before sliding into a bend. It's undoubtedly awkward at first, but it does start to click as you get to grips with the game's blistering speed. However, issues arise when you start tweaking your ship with unlockable parts. Just a single change can throw off your stick sensitivity significantly, and you'll be forced to completely readjust.
The twin-stick system feels finicky — the difference between a slight change in trajectory and a full-on drift can feel miniscule — but finally mastering a track almost makes the pain worthwhile. And when you're confident in your abilities, you can hop online against up to 11 other players who have also been through neon-lit hell — although it should be noted that we did struggle to find full races just a week or so after launch, which perhaps doesn't bode well.
What we're trying to say is that Redout 2 won't be worth the effort for a lot of people. It is rewarding, sure, but to be brutally honest, part of us thinks that you should just boot up WipEout Omega Collection instead and save yourself the trouble.
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Comments 7
Been playing this on Xbox and once I got over the hump with the tutorial, it has been fantastic. Amazing sense of speed. May end up being one of my favorite racing games. Controls are fine once you get used to them (never were a complaint for me) and the track layouts are phenomenal. Easy 8 from me and leaning towards 9 once a few bugs (mostly audio) are fixed. It can be very hard but never unbeatable. I honestly love it!
Do you mean like Wipeout the PS4 game or like Wipeout the PS1 game. They are two very different things.
I really, really, really wanted to love the first one, but the controls were straight up bad and I never could manage to get used to them. I'll chalk that up to 25 years of playing Wipeout and having their specific control scheme so ingrained that any AG racer just feels wrong in comparison. I've been able to get used to stuff like Antigraviator, Fast RMX, and even Pacer (which has spectacularly awful controls), but I just can't with Redout. And it seems like they didn't learn any lessons from the original and made all the same mistakes in the sequel, which is a huge bummer.
You’d think a team of vets who all contributed to previous Wipeout games would remember that it is a game best played with the tap-tap-tap adjustment of a d-pad. What sort of masochist plays it with analog controls?!?
The only Wipeout with decent analog controls was Wipeout 64, in part due to the N64 controller.
It seems to be a game made for enthusiasts by enthusiasts and completely leaves out people who just want to have some rad futuristic fun. Still hoping for a sequel to Fast RMX.
I think I'll wait for a sale, which is what I did withe first one. It kinda felt something was missing, there was a lack of cohesion with the structure of the campaign, it didn't feel like I'd accomplished much by finishing a race as dozens stretched ahead in front of me.
Once I got a hang of the controls it was fun, there was a nice sense of speed and polish. It was so close to being a really good game, but ultimately felt like a bit of a missed opportunity.
Seems like this one is the same.
" part of us thinks that you should just boot up WipEout Omega Collection instead and save yourself the trouble."
The games in that collection are 14 and 10 years old. The futuristic racing genre is bigger than some game that came out over a decade ago. Not a very open minded review.
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