Platform: PC

Developer: Gamempires

Publisher: Iceberg Interactive

# of Players: 1 – 8

ESRB Rating:

Official Site

Score: A- (90%)

If Gas Guzzlers Extreme was running on a console or three about a year or two ago, it would probably be getting a great deal of playtime and raves for its pick up and play car combat action, extensive customization elements, decent visuals and sense of speed, 50 tracks and more. But on PC with plenty of fickle rig-building gamers demanding every game be a graphics showpiece for whatever configuration every single person can build, this one’s not getting the respect it truly deserves. GGE is a great throwback to the days of Twisted Metal, Interstate ’76/Vigilante 8, FlatOut and other destruction-heavy games where all sense of realism flies out the window in favor of all-out car carnage with a side of tinkering. This one’s a keeper whether you play it solo or online with up to eight friends who will soon be enemies on the wild roadways this game lets you have at it on…

Gamempires snazzy little gem starts out of the gate with a simple driver editor that could have used some more options, but gets it done on a basic level. Gameplay starts out strong with a blast of a tutorial race that’s merely a teaser of the thrills to come, then yanks you back a bit to driving a few lesser quality cars that force you to build up your skills and earn your way back up to better and better rides. This is actually a good thing, as these sort of car combat racing hybrids work best when you’re having to earn every inch of ground as you fight your way to the top of the pack. Events range from straight up races to full-on kill anything on the track matches that rely on you knowing each weapon and when to use it for best results.

In solo play, the AI is pretty fierce and cheap, but it’s nothing your own road raging skills can’t put a halt to. In some cases it’s best to blaze past trouble while in others, hanging back a bit while the AI takes each other out and finishing up stragglers as you blast past them is a key to that win or loss. There are some nicely destructible objects along the courses, but the game doesn’t quite reach the heights of Bugbear Studios’ FlatOut games (and it’s not even close to their upcoming Next Car Game project). Still, you can definitely see and appreciate Gameempire’s skills here as you blaze around the various tracks in your quest for glory and better upgrades.

The visuals here are decent unless you’re one of those folks with a fully tricked out gaming setup who expects EVERY game you play to be better looking than the last one. GGE can indeed run on a medium range PC, but it performs best on a powerful system when you can dial up all the settings and get the full effect of all the little things GameEmpires wants to impress you with. I liked that car models look close to the rides they’re supposed to be and the hilarious product placement is twisted enough to make you want to snap a few screenshots just to check out a few rude slogans. When you boost, take or deal damage, the screen does a few nice tricks that make nice visual cues if you happen to be playing with the sound low or off, although for best effect you want to blast this one LOUD.

Speaking of blasting things loud, sound here is quite good overall and you even get the choice of a few different commentators if you want to add some humor to the different events. I turned the voice off after a few races, as it tends to get distracting, but it was awesome the have a Duke Nukem sound-alike as one potential option. The music is pretty decent-sounding generic tunes that don’t intrude on the action at all. Like the announcer, I ended up dialing it down so I could concentrate on winning events and not deciding how much I liked a certain piece of music.

Online play is pretty solid, but during my review, it took me a little while to find enough people playing to make things interesting. I could see this doing pretty well on a console with some sort of local network options or a smaller but tightly dedicated community devoted to mining this one for everything its worth. One issue with such a huge service as Steam is trying to align oneself with the millions of other players out there and hoping someone is playing the exact same game you are at the exact same time. A few times I was logging off when someone was popping onto Steam looking for people to play with (argh), but given that I don’t spend a LOT of time online unless I’m reviewing games with online modes, it’s probably my not hanging out for that extra half hour or more that made my MP experiences somewhat lacking.

Your own mileage may vary, of course… but such is the way of the online samurai, I suppose. Nevertheless, it’s clear that Gamempires is a pretty talented developer to keep an eye peeled for as they improve and expand upon this instant classic. GGE’s pick up and play appeal, solid if not spectacular graphics and excellent sense of speed and destruction make it a blast to play as well as make it reminder of the “good old days” of car combat bliss. Take it for a spin sometime and see for yourself, I say…

Gas Guzzlers Extreme Demo (Steam)!