Hoo boy, we’re in the middle of September again, and just like last year, the amount of cool games – big or small – launching each week is daunting. DeathSprint 66 is offering something that no one else is doing at the moment, but is that enough to break even?
As just a reviewer and media wordsmith with no development or publishing experience (only a bit of marketing), I can’t say for sure, but as someone who plays a lot of online titles each month, I can tell you it’s been rough out there this past weekend. The latest game from Sumo Digital has the dystopian juice and smooth moves for the most part, but it feels like barely anyone is aware of its existence, and some decisions external to the game itself make it harder to enjoy/recommend.
Many voices will instantly describe DeathSprint 66 as a gory mix of Mario Kart and The Running Man. Honestly? It’s not too far off, but I’d rather go with “just imagine online Temple Run, but you can be a supreme asshole to other players,” which might entice more people to give it a go. The year is 2066, the world has gone to hell, and people want to see other (I guess either dumb or condemned) people die live as they race for glory as fast as Sonic in trap-ridden circuits. It’s a killer pitch, but what does Sumo Digital (as well as publisher Secret Mode) get right and wrong?
I’m happy to say the game feels great to play, which is the thing the studio needed to nail first and foremost. Sure, you might struggle with drifting and timing some jumps early on, but it’s a mostly painless process (not for your jockey) with a much smoother learning curve than most kart racers and perhaps even the aforementioned Temple Run mobile titles. You run, grab power-ups and boosts, drift, and try to avoid scenery traps (as well as the ones placed by other racers) with simple controls. Easy to get into, hard to master, like the finest casual multiplayer games around.
Once you clear the short tutorial in DeathSprint 66, there are three main ways to play the game: Rehearsals (offline races against bots), demanding PvE challenges based around specific objectives and/or racing against the clock, and online PvP. It’s a complete-enough package given the basic premise, and the fact that PvP races automatically fill with bots if the matchmaking can’t find eight players makes sure the game never feels empty or dull. The thing is that I’ve already struggled a lot during its opening weekend to find crowded (and thankfully persistent) lobbies… Ouch.
NPC racers are competitive enough, but with a limited set of hand-made races available at the moment and PvE challenges being brutal solo twists on the formula meant to be cleared once or twice, most of the entertainment should come from racing humans and developing old-school rivalries over the course of several races. The lack of a proper ranked mode or a tournament-like option is baffling, and I reckon leaning harder on ruthless competition (coupled with precise marketing efforts) would’ve attracted a bigger crowd.
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The “points” system (on top of coming in first, second, or whatever) isn’t entirely clear, either. You supposedly gain “hype” by performing cool stunts and getting kills on other players with buzzsaws, mines, and whatnot, but exact maths are never explained. Push yourself harder to farm more points and hit milestones faster, I guess. An upside to this model, which also registers your deaths and other data, is that there’s a constant stream of new cosmetics coming in, but you shouldn’t expect anything that radically alters how your jockey looks.
If you’ve gotten this far into the review, you might be thinking DeathSprint 66 doesn’t sound super great, and the explanation is that I simply have more to say about what it gets wrong than what it gets right… which is a lot and most of the video game-y stuff. The races are breakneck and exciting even as you start to master each track. Landing a mine in the perfect spot to piss someone off is thrilling. The sound design and visuals feel as sharp as the actions you’re performing. The gameplay loop just works, which is why almost everything else either frustrates or downright annoys me.
A case could also be made for the game not needing realistic UE5-powered visuals (which oftentimes, coupled with the safe art direction, make it look a bit too asset-flippy), as that raised the entry bar for a lot of potential players. In fact, a far more stylized, cartoony look would’ve gone a long way towards making it eye-catching. Performance is alright if your PC handles other UE5 games fine, but you’ll want to squeeze every frame you can out of your GPU, given the game’s hyper-fast-paced action.
All these little frustrations and head-scratching decisions pile up the more you play. By all accounts, DeathSprint 66 is the sort of uncomplicated but distinct game release that should be more common in the face of bloated AAA projects, yet it feels like both the developers and the publisher shot their own tires at every turn to make it a harder sell. Maybe it needed more time in the oven to better figure out its infrastructure, core PvP offerings, and even straightforward Xbox and PlayStation ports. As it stands, it’s great (albeit flawed) stuff trapped inside a package that will fly under most people’s radars or get thrown into Steam wishlists until a sale comes along.
It’s an odd turnout for an online game that looks cutting-edge, isn’t bloated live service (it’s a no-BS premium release), and even debuted via Edge’s April cover story earlier this year. So, what happened here? For a game that’s only launched on Steam and hasn’t shared its console release plans yet (if there are any), the marketing efforts close to its special date have been lacking, to say the least. No major streamers running sponsored streams either to help boost awareness. It’s like dropping the ball in the final stretch when you’ve got a potential winner in your hands. Was Secret Mode counting on it going viral randomly?
At $24.99 (with an extra 10% launch discount), DeathSprint 66 isn’t expensive, but if we consider its sort of niche (as accessible as it is), maybe the F2P model that more and more developers are trying to move away from was the way to go here. I continue to come across notable games that are doomed from the start because of market-related miscalculations or release plans that are only halfway there. In this specific case, I’m praying Sumo Digital’s on-foot racer finds its audience and soon expands to consoles, as it’s a breezy and easy-to-digest experience that believes in its unique thrills over all else.
Verdict: Recommended
DeathSprint 66 is now available on Steam. A review code for the game was provided by the publisher.
Published: Sep 17, 2024 07:54 am