Wreckreation Review – Burnout Lite

Arcade racers are always fun to play, and Wreckreation gets a lot of things right on that front. There’s a significantly large map of more than 400 square kilometers to explore and a lot to discover as you tear across its streets and highways. The activities are varied enough to keep you exploring, while some of the races you take on do push you and your car to the limit. There’s also the option to get creative and design your own tracks and place them right into the world for you and other players to enjoy.

But there are also downsides to this entertainer from Three Fields Entertainment as it attempts to recreate the magic of Burnout Paradise. There’s no semblance of a story on offer here, which means that all of the mayhem you’re causing is left without context. The game’s controls and systems can feel obscure until you get the hang of what you’re doing in its expansive open world. And there are occasional performance issues that might have been forgivable if they didn’t interfere with the results of some very intense racing.

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“The lack of assists like ABS or traction controls could put you off if you’re a casual racer.”

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, and begin with why this one had me sinking hours into discovering new types of races and hunting down new cars to gain that extra edge when taking said races on. Wreckreation is just fun, plain and simple. Its no-frills approach to getting you started right off the bat might even justify the lack of a narrative to frame it all.

I found myself quite immersed in its gameplay loop within an hour after I booted it up, and spent the better part of a rainy weekend mowing down any opponents who happened to get between me and the License Points I needed for my next rank and a potentially new car for me to wreak havoc with. Those vehicles came in different types, with each one having its pros and cons based on the situation it was supposed to tackle.

Race cars, for instance, are good for tearing through tracks and staying ahead of your rivals with the occasional slam or side swipe in order to get them off the road. Bruiser-class vehicles take on a more aggressive role, which gets quite handy in body slam races that require you to eliminate opponents as quickly as you can before the timer runs out. There are off-roaders and hypercars thrown into the mix as well, and special races that require a specific class of vehicle before you can take them on.

“Wreckreation is just fun, plain and simple.”

You unlock cars either by levelling up through winning races, each of which nets you a few Licence Points that count toward your next rank, or by finding them out in the open world and taking them down and adding them to your growing fleet. Each car handles well, and keeping them on the road feels challenging enough to keep you engaged without putting off the more casual arcade racing game fan.

The lack of assists like ABS or traction controls could put you off if you’re a casual racer, but for the most part, the game does a reasonably good job of keeping you on the road, provided you handle your car well. While collisions are generally encouraged between racers, hitting a civilian can result in you losing valuable seconds during a race. Crashes during the open world, however, are easily rectified by visiting the nearest gas station for a full repair of your vehicle.

There’s also the option to tweak your car’s looks and make each one stand out via the MixWorld system, along with the aforementioned menu that lets you create custom tracks and events. However, this is where things could get a little dicey for some players. Designing your own track, or rather attempting to, could feel unintuitive and messy for some players. Moreover, the lack of optional body kits, spoilers, and other such customization options made the menu feel a tad limited, although that’s not much of a downer. However, I can see inventive players with a little more determination come up with excellent designs once the game gets some traction.

“Designing your own track, or rather attempting to, could feel unintuitive and messy for some players.”

What was a lot more annoying was the limited amount of Licence Points you get, even when you finish first in a race. It made the experience feel too grindy for a title that’s focused on getting you behind the wheel of new and more powerful cars as soon as possible. This was especially irksome since the races themselves felt like they were designed to put you on the back foot very early and then have you scrambling to catch up and take your place at the top of the pack.

Allow me to explain. You begin a race only to find that you need to generate Wreckage Points in order to use your nitrous. You get those quite easily via collisions with your fellow racers or by disobeying the rules of the road, but not fast enough to prevent the majority of your rivals from leaving you behind in a cloud of dust. Once you have enough boost, speeding through a track requires you to be nearly perfect if you want to catch up, as even a single crash loses you valuable seconds that could cost you the race. You could always repeat races and attempt to rank better on them for the remaining Licence Points, but that’s no excuse for the poor balancing on display.

It takes a little getting used to, and you’re still going to find that you’re left behind too often when the rest of the game makes you feel like the star of the show. I’m not against earning my place at the top of the podium, but I couldn’t help but feel like Wreckreation wasn’t giving me a level playing field to begin with. However, I will say that catching up to my fellow racers and systematically taking them out of the equation was a thrill and a delight, with Takedowns being suitably satisfying to pull off and witness.

“I’m not against earning my place at the top of the podium, but I couldn’t help but feel like Wreckreation wasn’t giving me a level playing field to begin with.”

Sadly, those thrills were marred by occasional performance issues such as stuttering frames that sent me careening off the track, or a few memorable jumps off ramps where the ground beneath me seemingly vanished into thin air and left me falling into an infinite void until the game decided to put me back to the last place of safety, which was inevitably quite a disadvantage. It didn’t help that there were races where I had clawed my way to the front of the line.

The lack of any options to tweak graphic modes stuck out a little, although the game runs fine on its default settings on a base PS5 aside from the aforementioned issues. Loading times are also quite quick, with the game getting you back into the action quite rapidly any time you fast-travel.

Another issue I had with the game was its collectibles. You either crash through red gates or billboards, with the game promising you a reward in the event you manage to get them all. However, their sheer number and the fact that the billboards need a bit of acrobatic trial and error on each one had me ignoring them altogether, choosing to have fun blazing a way to glory on the streets instead.

“Wreckreation is a fun game to dive into when you feel like just getting behind the wheel and causing some chaos on the streets.”

While I couldn’t try out the game’s multiplayer options, my time with it was entirely solo. I can see how the ability to have your friends join in on the fun or dive into another player’s creations can be quite alluring. I just hope that the game’s performance doesn’t get in the way of the fun. The lack of cross-platform play is a bummer, though.

I must give credit to the game’s visuals and audio design, while the soundtrack is also solid and keeps things fun. I was especially impressed by the way different engine sounds play out, as well as crash impacts sounding quite realistic and meaty. Overall, Wreckreation is a fun game to dive into when you feel like just getting behind the wheel and causing some chaos on the streets. As an arcade racer set in a sandbox world, there’s a lot to like about it. You might even ignore its issues if you just want to let loose and drive cool cars around.

But would I recommend it to anyone looking for value from their games? I would say yes, with the hope that there are going to be a few updates to iron out its performance and balancing issues. You could, and perhaps should, wait a while to see if Three Fields does a bit of tweaking, and perhaps even pick it up on sale if the timing’s right.

This game was reviewed on the PC.