FutureGrind reminds at once all the two-dimensional arcade games about extreme stunts: and the antediluvian Uniracers from the SNES console, and stylish OlliOlli about a skateboarder, and even a series Trials from Ubisoft. At the same time, it has enough of its own ideas so that it does not seem like a copy of someone else. The project was announced back in 2015, and since then the gameplay has not changed much – FutureGrind only acquired additional features and even acquired a storyline. Something was successful, something should have been given more attention, but overall, you definitely won’t have to regret the time spent passing through it.
Skilled stuntman
The game takes place in the distant future, when everyone is tired of ordinary racing, and sponsors are investing in a new entertainment – riding motorcycles along multi-colored rails. The faceless main character, who has no name and customizable appearance, accepts any suggestions and completes one race after another on a variety of tracks. As it turns out later, the character is doing all this for a reason – his actions are being monitored by a powerful corporation that wants to turn the world upside down. At the same time, he is actively helped by a hacker who transmits messages to the hero through a hacked system, and thanks to such cooperation it will be possible to prevent the destruction of the planet.
There are 30 levels in total. There is no narration during the races – only between them the player reads short messages and learns the details of the story. It’s difficult to tell something interesting this way, and FutureGrind it hardly works, especially with such a banal plot and predictable ending. But the idea of hacking is not bad – after completing a level, interference may appear under the challenges associated with it, meaning that someone is trying to contact the hero. By completing all these bonus tasks, you will unlock additional races that are much more difficult than the previous ones, and you will also get to the true ending and see the credits for the second time.
The essence of racing is FutureGrind is very simple: you get a motorcycle at your disposal, it automatically moves from left to right, and all you have to do is jump and turn it around so that the wheels cling to the rails of the desired colors. If the yellow wheel touches the blue beam, the bike will explode – you’ll have to start all over again. In addition to multi-colored rails, there are also white ones, which can be touched by any part of the motorcycle. However, those who want to get the highest score should avoid them – landing on them resets the combo counter, which increases when moving from one colored rail to another. Ideally, you need to drive the entire route from start to finish without ever touching the white beams (although in this case a high score is not guaranteed).
You can get it by performing https://bingositesnotongamstop.co.uk/1-deposit-bingo/ tricks, and there aren’t many of them in the game. Additional points are given for moving from one rail to another without jumping, for “frontflips” with “backflips” and in cases where a beam ends up between the wheel riding on it and the rest of the motorcycle. Therefore, after the first levels you understand that you have to do approximately the same thing, the developers will not be able to offer anything new. This is not OlliOlli with her many tricks, the number of which increased in the sequel. Here the complexity increases by adding new obstacles on the tracks: either mines will appear that explode the motorcycle when touched, or rings that change colors on all rails. There will even be zones that recolor the wheels – here the player decides whether he wants to make both wheels yellow or blue or just one. However, the basis of the gameplay does not change, you won’t be able to somehow contrive and demonstrate something unusual to yourself, you still ride on rails and turn the bike.
Biker test
Monotonous FutureGrind does not become thanks to five motorcycles that differ in behavior on the track. The most common one, suitable only for the first levels, is equipped with two wheels of the same color. The other one is issued quite quickly, and its wheels are different. The third has one half much larger than the other, which is why he constantly falls over. The fourth one rides perfectly smooth and allows you to bounce three times instead of two, and the last one changes the color of the only impeller after each touch on the rail. You cannot choose a bike before the race – for each race the authors have already done this in advance. When you spend a lot of time on one level, and then move on to the next and are forced to play by different rules, it’s difficult to change gears – you want, for example, to jump three times, but with this motorcycle you won’t be able to do that. But the idea was implemented well, without such a mishmash it would probably have been more boring.
Despite the monotonous stunts, thanks to obstacles and frequent vehicle changes FutureGrind remains interesting and terribly exciting until the final level, where you have to show all your skills on all the bikes. The gameplay mechanics are very easy to understand, and the controls are so responsive that you always blame yourself for your own failures, not the developers.
You will die and explode very, very often, but with each failure you remember the track better and find new ways to score as many points as possible to win the Diamond Cup. The ability to instantly restart a level with one click allows you not to waste a second and each time achieve more and more impressive results worthy of an online leaderboard.
It’s a pity that these results are counted only during regular races, but not when passing tests. Each level has two bonus “challenges” needed to get the “real” ending. On the same track that you just completed, you will be asked to complete the race in an unusual way: perform the same trick several times, avoid rails of one color or another, collect all the rings that change the color of the beams along the way, and so on. In most cases, these tests help to better understand what is required to get a high score in the regular version of the level – on one of the tracks I had no idea how and where to do a 900 degree backflip, but I still managed to do it and earned the most prestigious cup. However, this division into regular tracks and test tracks, when in fact they are almost the same locations, is a little depressing: what is the point in switching between them and why you can’t count points everywhere?
But these are trifles, the game has much more advantages. I especially want to praise the interface, which is not overloaded with information, but allows you to see golden windows with information about the combo counter during the race. And when you die in the middle of a level, the game tells you how far you have come and how much is left to the finish, which is also very useful. Everything looks stylish, the effects do not interfere with seeing the track, there are even modes for colorblind people – for both rails you can set colors that will not change from one level to another, as happens when the option is turned off.
The only complaint I can make is the musical accompaniment – electronic music with rich beats from the musician Bignic perfectly complements what is happening, but there are so few compositions that very soon they begin to repeat themselves. And new tracks can only be heard at the last levels.
IN FutureGrind not even without several simplified modes in the manner of Celeste. You can slow down the bike by a third or half, but in this case the result will not be entered into the online leaderboard. Or you can make it so that you can touch any rails with any wheels without subsequent explosions, but then the points earned will not be saved even locally. In general, the game is suitable for everyone: those who like to score points and pass difficult tests, and those who simply want to try something unusual and spend a few hours on a project with original mechanics. FutureGrind not without flaws and not as magnificent as OlliOlli, but it’s still worth a look and is sure to inspire you to achieve better grades at all levels, even if you’d normally rather not spend the time on it.
Pros: original mechanics; several types of motorcycles that differ in behavior at levels; exciting additional challenges; very convenient control; an irresistible desire to restart levels for higher scores.
Cons: few tricks; Points are not counted during individual challenges, no matter how well you perform; the music gets boring quickly.
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