In the current video game market, there’s an abundance of realistic racing simulation games that try to make the driving experience as authentic as possible. While these types of racing games can certainly be fun to play, there’s no denying that most of them play the same. Luckily, there are still developers that make arcade-style racing games that focus more on gameplay than realism. Gravel is the newest arcade racer made by Milestone that is fun to play but suffers from bland game design.
Generic campaign
The game starts off with a rather embarrassing intro video featuring several real-life racers acting tough in front of the camera while generic rock music is played in the background. These racers are called ‘Off-Road Masters’, whom you’ll battle against at various points throughout Gravel’s campaign. The campaign is nothing more than a collection of races you have to complete in order to earn stars and increase your level, which unlocks new vehicles and liveries. Earning stars and higher levels is not a difficult task in the campaign, as you automatically earn a star for completing a race, even if you finish last. The maximum amount of stars per race is three, which are earned when you finish first. You probably won’t have to replay many races to earn more stars, as you have earned the maximum in most of them on your first try. Finish the campaign and you’ll be the new ‘Off-Road Master’.
Solid racing
The racing itself is where Gravel shines the most. Instead of dropping you in an open-world environment with lazily designed tracks like most modern racing games do, you are given a wide range of both real and fictional courses. These courses cover all kinds of environments, like deserts, jungles, tundras and even stadiums. The layout of most tracks are well-designed and filled with sharp turns, long stretches of road to maximize your speed, jumping points, wide open spaces to easily overtake opponents and narrow corners to prevent others from doing so. Combine this with the arcade-like physics, which allow you to smash your opponents or perform dangerous jumps without wrecking your car, and you get a racing game that is fun to play and doesn’t become boring after the first few races.
Flawed and bland
But Gravel is not without its flaws. While the driving itself is well-designed and simply fun, the game doesn’t offer anything that differentiates itself from other racing games. It doesn’t have customization options for your car, an engaging campaign, multiplayer events or unique types of races with the exception of the Smash-Up race. This race is basically a checkpoint race, but with modifiers at each gate that either slow down your car or let you keep driving at maximum speed. The concept sounds interesting, but it’s executed sloppily in the game. The gates don’t tell which modifier you’ll get until you’re just right in front of them, making it difficult to hit the modifier you want. It also doesn’t help that your AI opponents are performing way better than you, even though you never hit the slow-down modifier.
The game also doesn’t look that good on consoles, especially on the Xbox One. Several visual effects, like shadow quality or lighting, are significantly worse in the console versions than on PC. They are also displayed at a low resolution, making them look like there’s grease smeared across your screen. However, I’ve only played the base Xbox One version since a have an original Xbox One. The Xbox One X version comes with enhancements so I can’t say if it looks the same or not. If you are interested in playing this game, I suggest you pick the PC version.
Conclusion
Gravel is a fun, arcade-like racing game that doesn’t offer anything unique when compared to other games like Forza or Need for Speed. The driving itself is solid, but everything else is lacking. Wait for a price drop if you’re interested or at least buy the PC version since it’s cheaper and has better graphical quality.
