Speed = Distance/Time (S = D/T), knowing formulas for this game won’t help though. I made my own formula, Winning = speed/Cornering Finesse. Sticking to my formula and of course hammering the hyper boost button for a guaranteed win. If it is this simple, is there more to this game?
Title: Extreme Formula | Developer: GOGN entertainment | Genre: Racing | Players: 1 Player | Version: 1.1.1 | Size: 49MB | Price: Free (Limited Time)
Features:
- Variety of game modes: pro-race, career mode and quick race.
- 18 In-game achievements.
- 65 tuning parts for your vehicle.
- 10 racing tracks.
- 5 vehicles to choose from.
- A special Tech Tree System for upgrading your chosen vehicle.
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Gameplay: Where do I start? Loading up this game can lead you to feeling paranoid that it has crashed. A few times I have booted the game with no lag at all and other times it can take a solid 60 seconds before you see any signs of the game actually working.
I dove right into the career mode expecting to find an in-depth game mode here, but I was mistaken. The career mode is set out just as you would expect an arcade mode to be. It has a nice variety of different types of races, from plain old time attacks to eliminations. Earning points is just about the only thing that makes this mode career-like at all. You race through a set amount of races, three, then you unlock a Grand Prix.
Next I moved on to trying the next game mode, quick race. It’s exactly what it says, nothing in-depth here either but at least that’s what you’d expect in this game mode.
Pro race mode offers more of the same to be fair, 3 game modes of a very similar style really aren’t needed here which is obvious. There really isn’t anything more to it than that.
I have a huge problem with the ads in this game. They actually ruin the entire fun of the game; during races, ads are displayed and constantly change. With them changing and actually being displayed during gameplay and not just in the menus, this causes the game to lag badly and often leads to crashing your car or missing power-ups. It’s a major mistake, as you will find when playing the game. I lost a lot of races because of this issue and I think in future updates this needs to be addressed correctly. I’m not suggesting losing the ads all together because the developer needs to make money somehow on a free title. I think it’s logical to move the ads away from the actual gameplay and more into the menus and loading screens.
Controls: When it comes to controls, it can be good, it can be bad; all depends on how you prefer your set up. I usually prefer to use the accelerometer when playing racing games but that was the first thing I changed during the first race. I tried turning sensitivity down but it didn’t change anything and I was left with the same sensitive controls. I tried the on-screen steering wheel. It’s a lot better and I would recommend it for anyone who plays this game. I have no idea where to put this piece of information but as it effects the controls of the game I guess I could put it here.
While I was reviewing the game, obviously you take your time and pause the game regularly and note down your thoughts of the game. This was a mistake, as staying in the pause menu too long will cause the game to freeze and when you finally do wait 2 minutes for it to realise you pressed continue. Upon resuming the game, you will have zero control over the car for a long time; I noted down 5 crashes in the car before I could steer left or right. Even with the car moving, all the turns got back logged and again I had to wait a long time before I could actually control the car in real time. So far the formula isn’t adding up too well.
Graphics/Sound: The graphics are by far the best thing about this game, and even these are flawed. The car animations when activating the hyper boost is really satisfying; also the tracks are well detailed too within the game. Here comes the ‘but’… The other cars you race against are nowhere near as detailed as your car or the track you’re racing on. The opponents’ car wheels don’t even rotate. Seeing most of the game highly detailed then to discover this, was a shock and a big let down.
Coming to the in-game sounds and music, again another strong point that isn’t too flawed either. The car sounds are actually very good and I didn’t notice any engine tone drop-outs which have become an annoyance in past racing games. The music isn’t too bad either. Nice and high quality and very suiting to the futuristic style of the game.
Overall: At a first glance, I was expecting to get hooked on this game and spend a good few days getting the most out of it, but its lack of races, annoying lag due to in-game ads and other annoyances mentioned throughout the review, I can safely say I don’t think I will be playing this again any time soon. It was fun for 10 minutes, until all the flaws out-weighed the up-sides. Although it isn’t a great game at the minute due to bugs and what not, they have promised to update it regularly with fixes, so in the future, this game could become something good. As of now, I think I’ll pass. For a free game it’s bitter-sweet. Go judge for yourself. I would love to read your comments on the game.
Rating: 2/5
Developer Website: GOGN Entertainment
Market Link: Extreme Formula
