Gravity Chase [Xbox]
Repixel8’s Gravity Chase is a futuristic anti-gravity racer that has you piloting ships along 360-degree tunnel tracks in fast-paced battles of speed. Strangely, booting up the game presents you with only a single option on the main menu: Race. Once you select a track, this is then broken down into three race types: Arcade Race, a classic mode that earns you points as well as in-game currency depending on your finishing position; Combat Race, which has you trying to destroy your opponents whilst racing to the finish; and Eliminator Race, which knocks out the player in last place every 30 seconds till only the winner remains.
Sadly there’s no online option, which feels like a huge missed opportunity, as games like this really thrive when playing against actual players. You can play local multiplayer with up to four players in split screen, however this greatly reduces your view depending on the number of players, making it harder to anticipate what’s coming up ahead - particularly on levels that have you on the outside of the tunnel, since it’s already more difficult to see what’s round the bend on those.
There are ten racers available for you to pilot, with a choice of colours - and with three upgrades available for each, to improve handling, acceleration and top speed. These upgrades will set you back a fair amount, however, so you’ll need to save up money from completing races if you’re hoping to fully upgrade everything. There are three speed classes, and each of the racers available have different stats, across Acceleration, Max Speed, Handling, Weight and Strength, with the latter two being the only ones that can’t be upgraded individually.
Controls have the usual trigger accelerator/brake combo and analog steering, with the added ability to toggle music on and off with the bumpers. The face buttons consisting of your weapon controlled by Y, shield by B, and boost by A, although these can only be used once you’ve picked up floating blocks or driven over speed pads. Crossing a red pad will null your boost, so these need to be avoided where possible, and your ship is easily damaged by crashing into opponents, as well as enemy fire (on the relevant game modes). Likewise, some levels use a half-pipe track with edges that will greatly damage your racer if you grind along them, and this can be hard to avoid at times.
With futuristic - albeit basic - visuals accompanied by a very 80s-future soundtrack, with an intro beat sounding somewhere between A-ha’s Take on Me and The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights, it’s a very energetic title. Zooming round the tracks, lap after lap, is quick - and can become ever so slightly nauseating as you spin wildly out of control round the tubes. Admittedly, there’s not a lot of variation to things, so once you’ve played a few quick rounds you’re likely to grow tired of it - which again, is further reason that an online mode or just something to change things up would have been appreciated.
Levels are given one star out of three for each of the game modes played - giving you a reason to go back and play all three on every level, with new tracks being unlocked once you reach certain points thresholds. Money can be earned easily just by replaying over and over, but it can become quite tedious due to the fairly low number of levels and gameplay styles. Gravity Chase works best in short bursts with friends, so if you like the sound of that, then you can pick it up digitally for £9.99 on the Xbox Store.
In the end, we decided to give Gravity Chase the Collecting Asylum rating of 6/10.
What are your thoughts on Gravity Chase?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Repixel8 for the Gravity Chase Xbox review code!
