![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Crash Drive 2 (Worlds Apart Bundle)
Nominally a racing game, this is more a game of stunting in a wide open area with periodic "events" competing against randomly-assigned other players. I didn’t expect to really be into it and mostly installed it because ARR likes trucks and I thought a monster truck racing game would appeal to him. Boy-oh-boy was I right.
You level up your cars by driving them, which unlocks new cars, which you can then purchase with money you win from the various events. As noted, I had gotten this just to play with ARR, but found myself amused by it independently--you need to figure out how to reach various rings in each area to unlock the next area, which reminded me pleasantly of collecting presents in Katamari games. I was annoyed at how easy it is to get stuck in corners or trapped against things (many of the cars can't reverse particularly well, and there's no "fast-refresh" option--you need to go to the Garage and re-enter the level it is doesn’t realize you’re stuck and auto-reset you.). Also, my controller can provide all input except for "forwards" (unless I remap it), so I mostly had to play with the keyboard.
They've updated the game since I started playing, which meant that big rocks actually spawn properly on the Forest level now--originally, there were just dark shadows that would inexplicably trap you. Also, they added a floating arrow for the Crown, Race and Find the Ring events that points to where you need to be going; which is handy. Unfortunately, the update also seems to have broken race events on several stages (at least sometimes), where I would jump to the race start, but not actually be participating in the race.
I learned some useful tricks for various challenges: Stunt events win or lose on the multiplier, and you can get that very high very quickly by hitting a ring--any ring. (There are big bonuses for hitting rings.) When you see the event starting, gear up near a ring and hit it first, then start stunting like crazy and hit a few other rings if you can.
Tag events, on the other hand, rely on getting to the areas with a lot of objects--often this is each stage's "half pipe", but on Canyons it's the big bridge at the top of the stage, and the car junkyard area in Forest can do in a pinch. Many ramps are actually more than one object, and learning how to hit objects that most people don’t realize count (such as the junkyard cars or the overturned boats in Tropical) can be the key to winning.
For Stunt, Tag, Collect and Race events, you can get plenty of money even if you don't win (or little money even if you do) because the reward seems keyed to your score. So if you've already unlocked each stage, worry less about winning and more about money to unlock all the cars. For Find the Ring events, money earned seems to be keyed to how fast you find the ring; you can win and get a pittance if it took two minutes to find and hit the damn ring. King of the Crown events give you a big reward for winning, but if you ever hold the crown (even if you lose) you get a reward.
Overall: There’s actual challenge to this game if you go looking for it, but you can also just enjoy farting around crashing into things and doing jumps and flips—which is pretty much how ARR plays. And now that I’ve finally unlocked everything, I suspect that’s all we’ll be doing.
This came with a free bonus giftable copy, if anyone would like it.
You level up your cars by driving them, which unlocks new cars, which you can then purchase with money you win from the various events. As noted, I had gotten this just to play with ARR, but found myself amused by it independently--you need to figure out how to reach various rings in each area to unlock the next area, which reminded me pleasantly of collecting presents in Katamari games. I was annoyed at how easy it is to get stuck in corners or trapped against things (many of the cars can't reverse particularly well, and there's no "fast-refresh" option--you need to go to the Garage and re-enter the level it is doesn’t realize you’re stuck and auto-reset you.). Also, my controller can provide all input except for "forwards" (unless I remap it), so I mostly had to play with the keyboard.
They've updated the game since I started playing, which meant that big rocks actually spawn properly on the Forest level now--originally, there were just dark shadows that would inexplicably trap you. Also, they added a floating arrow for the Crown, Race and Find the Ring events that points to where you need to be going; which is handy. Unfortunately, the update also seems to have broken race events on several stages (at least sometimes), where I would jump to the race start, but not actually be participating in the race.
I learned some useful tricks for various challenges: Stunt events win or lose on the multiplier, and you can get that very high very quickly by hitting a ring--any ring. (There are big bonuses for hitting rings.) When you see the event starting, gear up near a ring and hit it first, then start stunting like crazy and hit a few other rings if you can.
Tag events, on the other hand, rely on getting to the areas with a lot of objects--often this is each stage's "half pipe", but on Canyons it's the big bridge at the top of the stage, and the car junkyard area in Forest can do in a pinch. Many ramps are actually more than one object, and learning how to hit objects that most people don’t realize count (such as the junkyard cars or the overturned boats in Tropical) can be the key to winning.
For Stunt, Tag, Collect and Race events, you can get plenty of money even if you don't win (or little money even if you do) because the reward seems keyed to your score. So if you've already unlocked each stage, worry less about winning and more about money to unlock all the cars. For Find the Ring events, money earned seems to be keyed to how fast you find the ring; you can win and get a pittance if it took two minutes to find and hit the damn ring. King of the Crown events give you a big reward for winning, but if you ever hold the crown (even if you lose) you get a reward.
Overall: There’s actual challenge to this game if you go looking for it, but you can also just enjoy farting around crashing into things and doing jumps and flips—which is pretty much how ARR plays. And now that I’ve finally unlocked everything, I suspect that’s all we’ll be doing.
This came with a free bonus giftable copy, if anyone would like it.