Here’s another contender for the best freeware top-down racing game. Real Race seems to have everything going for it: great graphics, and a nice variety of tracks and vehicles. So, why is it that it turns out lacking?
Before I go into details, a short description of Real Race. It’s one of those racing games that can be easily compared to Micro Machines, without any weapons but some power-ups to spice things up along the way. There’s no car damage, no trouble, it’s just racing for fun.
The tournament mode provides some hours of entertainment, with 50 challenges to overcome, but obviously this means that quite a few tracks are used again and again. However, if we want to unlock all of the 12 cars we really need to win a lot of races. As far as the ‘real’ driving goes, the three different cameras may confuse at first, but soon the player will get the hang of it and settle for the one he prefers – to fix perspective on track or on car is the main question.
Power-ups are extremely scarce. One places the rivals in slow motion, other gives us a temporary speed boost, another makes the car invulnerable and the last one slows the player down. Not much to get excited about, really.
Graphics are, just as told, great. The cars zip nicely along forest and desert tracks, among others. So, again, what’s the problem with Real Race? Well, it’s... kinda boring. There’s no challenge, not even in the highest difficulty setting, the player just has to win race after race with little to no trouble. It gets monotonous, and what could have been a captivating challenge becomes a walk in the park. The cars also tend to stick to the track, making driving less than exciting. Shame, really.
Still, Real Race is a nice attempt at the genre. Visually it’s all very polished, which makes the run-of-the-mill driving even more regretful.
Free PC Game Download
 |  |  |
The Good: Great graphics - 12 cars to unlock
The Bad: Lack of challenge - Driving isn't very exciting
