With Wreckfest 2 launching into early access last year, I was excited to see this second game grow. With humble beginnings, offering up just a few tracks and vehicles, more than a year has seen plenty added to it. With some new additions that make this sequel more than just an expanded Wreckfest. I won’t be mentioning any of that early content, so take a read of my experiences from last Racing Month if you want to know my early thoughts.
Original tracks Scrapyard and Savolax Sandpit have had new additions to them across the year, with numerous routes being added to Scrapyard. It got a reverse route for its main circuit. A figure-8 circuit, complete with a berserk crane adding further chaos around the crossroads. And a speedbowl circuit. For Savolax Sandpit, the short circuit has returned from the first game. With a new waypoint race providing a new way to navigate the area for both.
Waypoint races are one of those new additions I was talking about. Races outside the confines of a track. Introduced in the sixth update, waypoint races are a lot of fun. They are more freeform in approach, even if the waypoints are linear. The first one was added to the new Crash Canyon, racing around the bluffs and canyons on dirt roads. Being guided by an arrow to the next waypoint. Unsure if staying on the higher route will prove to be faster. And there’s many more cases of choices like that.
Two updates later, the waypoint races for Savolax Sandpit and Scrapyard arrive. With new rules for waypoint races. Random and free order. Random is only available online owing to the nature of it being a programming nightmare for the CPU drivers, but free order makes for a very fun test of skill. At least online. What direction to start? Will this route be free from other drivers? When will other drivers be encountered, and how much of a problem will they be?
Offline, the drivers still act as though it is a sequential waypoint race, so it’s easy to win by going the other way to them. Hopefully an update can sort that. And I’m also hoping new updates bring waypoint races to more tracks. Perhaps even all of them. Just like Crash Canyon, I suspect new tracks will be built with waypoint races in mind. Though I feel some tracks, such as Moorfeld, have been modified a bit to work with waypoint races.
Customisation has seen a big boost with the Crap-It system. Enabling the use of varied tools, cars can have custom rust, damaged paint, and decals added to them. Since being introduced in update 4, there’s been various fixes and adjustments to the system, along with the ability to share designs. It’s a great tool for anyone wanting to add a real spark to their cars, showing off their creativity on the track during online racing.
There’s been a lot of new challenges added over the updates, whether adding new time trials, certain scenarios, or even highlighting the new modes. New modes because waypoint races aren’t the only new addition. Suicide races place half the pack running the track in the opposite direction. There’s plenty of chaos to be found with these races, even more so than those that double back on themselves, such as with Crash Canyon.
It is starting to feel like Wreckfest 2 is close to its full release, now. The UI has seen a large update, making things such as track selection and even loading into tracks look nicer. And finally! There’s a minimap now! The standard appearance for it looks nice, contained within its circle. It works well for standard races, but is built for the openness of waypoint races. Navigation is somewhat easier during them now.
The career progression has also started to be implemented. The various blog posts on Steam have gone into it in detail, with Bugbear wanting a freeform approach where players choose their main discipline and progress through that in a way that suits them. Allowing new content to be slotted into that career so it’s not just only available in custom races.
Experience and the badge system are the first parts here. Experience is earned through racing, much as with the first Wreckfest. Finishing position, crashing, drifting, and air time all contribute to the experience earnt. That experience then filters into the badges, adding up the likes of points earned from finishing and crashing, and the time spent drifting and being in the air.
Split into the three categories of race, crash, and mayhem, there’s numerous tiers to each badge, with each category having its own level. These badges are used to calculate my playstyle, too. Which clearly is a racer. At present, there’s 379 badges to earn split across 11 distinct badges. And there will be more to come. Likely tying into when more of the career gets implemented into the game.
Wreckfest 2 has seen a lot of great updates, and will be seeing a lot more. Even after the full release. There’s many great vehicles that have been added, with so many great tracks. Each update has been pushing it closer to that full release, which I’ll be very happy to see come about. Same as my early impressions, Wreckfest 2 gets an easy recommendation in its current form, where I’m sure that will stick for the full release, too.
Images Taken From:
Wreckfest 2 | PC
