Quick Look: GRIP: Combat Racing

Supported this on Kickstarter, was really sad that it didn't get funded. Kudos to the devs for sticking with it. Rollcage absolutely deserves a (spiritual) sequel.

Wipeout was always in a very unique niche of it's own that I think is difficult to compare with other racers. The physics were just so weird in that game where at some point shortcuts required you to do really weird out of bounds jumps and stuff.

I really liked Rollcage back in the day. Sadly this doesn't seem to be all that great, mainly cause it's so weirdly bleak instead of fun neon craziness.

Rollcage, this game's progenitor, is the reason I see Mario Kart as sort of a joke.

Perhaps the wheels are not responsible for acceleration? The engine exhaust on the back is, so the wheels rotate freely either way?

This launched on Gamepass so I'll give it a try.

Vinny asking the important questions like "Why don't the monkeys die in the ball in Monkey Ball?"

Time to Rollcage : 30 Seconds.

Almost everything Dan says about the game rings true to me. It just does not feel right. Also levels are really bad compared to RC2.

That is the worst depiction of a minigun I have ever seen. It has the rate of fire of a Civil War gatling gun, while firing from two separate mechanisms!

The UI is better than the Giant Bomb redesign at least.
BOOOOOM.

Aren't the red lines that Dan keeps trying to hit danger indicators with xxx in them telling you to watch out?

Shame Dan's not a fan, I've been enjoying this game a bunch on PC.

I'm also really enjoying this on PC. Especially online. There's not a lot of people playing and most people in there are quite nice and helpful, which is pretty rare these days.

Also, Dan kept playing the worst map in the game for some reason. There are good maps in there.

You came!

Thank you Vinny for the Blur love. I looove that game!

Wow Kinetica. I haven't thought about that game in over a decade. It was the first time I ever wanted to fuck a motorcycle.

Rollcage was one of my favourite PS1 games back in the day. I think the problem with Grip, from looking at this video, is that it's not ... tekno-ey enough? Needs a bit more of the Chemical Brothers and/or weird neon font signs you'd also see in your Wipeouts of the era.

VInny Nailed it! Mario Kart is a game of chance! thank you for speaking the truth!

They tried to with the soundtrack in this but the Rollcage sound track is of a time and place. filled with nostalgic bangers.

I just played Grip some, and it's really good.

Dan and Vinny probably should have played the Rollcage games before making this quicklook, because almost everything they complain about are things that Rollcage does exactly the same as Grip. The ultra-loose handling, the way you spin out, the way it punishes you harshly for mistakes, the look of the vehicles and tracks, all of that is taken straight out of Rollcage. Rollcage is a tough, tough game which takes quite a while to get used to, and a lot of people disliked the games back then for the same reasons Vinny and Dan give now, but once I got used to it I loved Rollcage, and I think most people who did will like Grip. This is a challenging game the requires precision, not a fast-and-fun game where you just hold down the accelerator; precise control is vital. Make small, controlled movements in order to not spin out, and learn the tracks. It's much more like Wipeout than Mario Kart in that respect. Now, Grip is clearly a lower-budget game which can't match Rollcage's flash, and you see that throughout the game, but it does fantastic for what it is and it is the modern Rollcage game that I wanted.

The carkour mode is something that Rollcage Stage II has in it as well, and I really loved it there and beat all of the courses, I believe, so it's fantastic to see it return in Grip! Car platforming it tough but really interesting. (And yes, Rollcage did this before Trackmania or Monkey Ball released.)

One thing is missing from Rollcage though, there don't seem to be any destructible buildings you can blow up by driving through, like the Rollcage games have. That's too bad, because that was a fun element of the games. Still though, Grip is great stuff for Rollcage fans. As this video shows though, non-fans probably won't like it.

I came

1st

so basically it lives up to Rollcage exactly, great idea with terrible execution.

The conceit could be that they be rocket like cars. Force applied to the car frame and not to the axle(s).

Also I came...

to post.

I like the Twisted Metal/Jet Moto-style concept art loading screens.

I liked the mechanic of winning by points, not just position in Excite Truck.

Mom's dead, carkour?

@zokamoka: Yes Dan is bad at this game. Also he didn't even show off the Carkour level that is like a big construction site.

You take that back. I'm loving this new version of the site!

Don't think i have seen it mentioned but they added this to Game Pass on Xbox

grip colon

I was fine with having both my index and middle fingers on the shoulder buttons on the original PS1 controller which was small and light. But as pads got bigger and heavier I stopped being OK with having my middle fingers up all the time.

Did anyone else have one of these growing up? They were damn near indestructible, and great fun.

Also, Mario Kart and Wipeout are definitely in the same category.

Mario Kart was a direct inspiration for Wipeout, Wipeout inspired Rollcage, GRIP is a spiritual successor to Rollcage, so ergo Rollcage is the same as Mario Kart.

Call me crazy, but since the Xbox I've played with my middle fingers on the triggers, no matter what

@chrisflavin I had that exact car, actually, same blocky battery and all. Good times.

You came

7th

Yikes!

You Came

1st

Story of my life. :/

I played a lot of Rollcage 2 on the Playstation, but I do remember it taking a pretty long time to click. That game also had mostly narrower, tunnel-like tracks, which just seem better-suited than the ones shown in this quicklook. A case where the original's hardware limitations actually may have helped make it better!

This reminds me of the racing in Jak 3, or the entirety of Jak X.

I bought this game 2 years ago when it was in EA, but I refunded it as it felt empty. I had no direction. Looks like to me it did indeed go nowhere, really....bums me out. We need more futuristic racers!

I loved Blur, shame they never got to make a sequel.

Ah, Grip Colon. The IBS vehicular combat disaster.

It looks like they have jets coming out the back. If the cars are propelled with jets out of the back and the tires were all free spinning it COULD work.

V has come, too.

I've only been playing the campaign and the tracks get way more interesting and complicated as you progress. Loving it even more now!

@mordja:

100% agree with you. Once you hit the middle tiers of the campaign, some of the tracks are an absolute blast to play (and some of them look pretty great too)!

To be fair, none of Dan's critiques are wrong. The game does not do itself any justice in the early running. The camera is at times crazy, the physics can be unforgiving, and the tutorial is utterly useless. After a bit of playing though, you learn the tracks and start to know how, when, and why a crazy camera movement is about to occur. Once you hit that point, it's an absolute blast.

It's worth stating that Dan didn't do himself any favors by immediately jumping to 'Wild' speed either. There's a reason the campaign starts you on easy and slowly ramps up the speed and difficulty...

And for those curious...Dan is playing tracks from what I thought was by far the worst planet in the game.

Damn shame the servers are dead on this game - because it's a pretty great game overall.