Posted February 17, 2009
Screamer is a fine exemplar of the early age of 3D racing games. Like most games of that era it lacks the massive amount of content games nowadays have, but manages to make up for it, offering high quality content that will entertain you for a long time. A completely arcade experience, it features simple but immensely fun game mechanics. Great music and effective cool looking menus complete the package, you won’t find yourself lost at any time here and a good race is always just a few clicks away from you.
There are 10 cars in the game. While each two cars are actually the same with different transmission type and paint job, they all handle differently. Defined by three basic characteristics, some are more prone to power slide easily while bearing a high acceleration and low top speed, others act quite the opposite. Of course, there’s the jack of all trades car that balances all the aspects. You can change the view from your car at any time, including one view that allows you to see the dashboard. A secret eleventh car completes the pack, but it will be a long time before you can put your hands on it.
You start with only 3 tracks available with 3 others to unlock. Each track is unique in its setting and feel, even though two of them actually share the same theme, Palm Town. While they vary greatly in course complexity, the visuals are amazing with lots of details to observe and appreciate. Sometimes you get that feeling that modern games with all their realism and over abused HDR lightning just lost the magic of creativity somewhere along the way.
Since the game is so old, predating the 3D Graphic Cards era, its graphics are fairly outdated. The car models are low poly, the draw distance is pretty short, many details on the scenarios are actually simple sprites and the highest resolution you can get is very low. But as I said, the artistic direction is so powerful, that it won’t feel too ugly or unpleasant at any time.
Sound-wise, the game is a bag of mixed feelings. The musical score is great, if just a bit repetitive. The sound effects on the other side are just enough to get the job done, some being downright annoying like the skidding sound. And there’s the commentator. He is cheesy and can occasionally get on your nerves, but at the same time, he just feels very right to this game.
There are a handful of game modes. The Normal game, a simple quick race with any of the cars and tracks you already unlocked. The Championship mode puts you through a series of leagues, racing around all tracks with growing difficulty and unlocking new tracks, inverse tracks and the Bullet car as you progress. There are a few special modes, basically time attacks with different conditions to each one. But they add little to the already great longevity of the game. And of course, you can duel with your friends over a network race at any time.
The racing model may feel a bit outdated, but it’s a classic easy to learn, hard to master scheme. Spins and overturns are pre-programmed animations that always repeat when you do something foolish enough; enjoyable if a bit unfair at times: any collision caused loss of speed (specially overturns) will generally get you a lot of positions behind, but you’ll usually get them back within a few miles of good driving. The only really bad parts here are the collisions between cars. If you’re behind, you’ll be tossed instantly into one of the track sides; if you’re side to side with them, generally nothing will happen and sometimes the AI cars even slide through the side of you car in a strange effect.
Overall, Screamer is a fantastic timeless game. While fairly old and with flaws that stand out a bit more nowadays, it managed to age better than some of its contemporaries both visually and gameplay wise. A must have if you’re a fan of racing classics.
There are 10 cars in the game. While each two cars are actually the same with different transmission type and paint job, they all handle differently. Defined by three basic characteristics, some are more prone to power slide easily while bearing a high acceleration and low top speed, others act quite the opposite. Of course, there’s the jack of all trades car that balances all the aspects. You can change the view from your car at any time, including one view that allows you to see the dashboard. A secret eleventh car completes the pack, but it will be a long time before you can put your hands on it.
You start with only 3 tracks available with 3 others to unlock. Each track is unique in its setting and feel, even though two of them actually share the same theme, Palm Town. While they vary greatly in course complexity, the visuals are amazing with lots of details to observe and appreciate. Sometimes you get that feeling that modern games with all their realism and over abused HDR lightning just lost the magic of creativity somewhere along the way.
Since the game is so old, predating the 3D Graphic Cards era, its graphics are fairly outdated. The car models are low poly, the draw distance is pretty short, many details on the scenarios are actually simple sprites and the highest resolution you can get is very low. But as I said, the artistic direction is so powerful, that it won’t feel too ugly or unpleasant at any time.
Sound-wise, the game is a bag of mixed feelings. The musical score is great, if just a bit repetitive. The sound effects on the other side are just enough to get the job done, some being downright annoying like the skidding sound. And there’s the commentator. He is cheesy and can occasionally get on your nerves, but at the same time, he just feels very right to this game.
There are a handful of game modes. The Normal game, a simple quick race with any of the cars and tracks you already unlocked. The Championship mode puts you through a series of leagues, racing around all tracks with growing difficulty and unlocking new tracks, inverse tracks and the Bullet car as you progress. There are a few special modes, basically time attacks with different conditions to each one. But they add little to the already great longevity of the game. And of course, you can duel with your friends over a network race at any time.
The racing model may feel a bit outdated, but it’s a classic easy to learn, hard to master scheme. Spins and overturns are pre-programmed animations that always repeat when you do something foolish enough; enjoyable if a bit unfair at times: any collision caused loss of speed (specially overturns) will generally get you a lot of positions behind, but you’ll usually get them back within a few miles of good driving. The only really bad parts here are the collisions between cars. If you’re behind, you’ll be tossed instantly into one of the track sides; if you’re side to side with them, generally nothing will happen and sometimes the AI cars even slide through the side of you car in a strange effect.
Overall, Screamer is a fantastic timeless game. While fairly old and with flaws that stand out a bit more nowadays, it managed to age better than some of its contemporaries both visually and gameplay wise. A must have if you’re a fan of racing classics.