Updated 01/09/26: Regular missions have been fixed. Game can be completed. Horn is also camera reset. Loading seems faster. Achievements fixed.
I like this game, it is fun, it has potential, there's a lot of good stuff here, and it can be a blast to play. Everything that follows in my review can be fixed and improved (and hopefully they will).
That said, it was not ready to leave early access.
The current market for indie racing games is very competitive, there are many well known killers games available, so for the price Race Jam is asking (higher than many), I would expect a high degree of quality, and it's not there just yet.
Good things? Driving is fun, drift and boost mechanics are fun and sometimes I found myself "in the zone" drifting and boosting at high speeds feeling like a pro. The songs at minimum are generic, and some are outstanding. Car variety is great with different driving feeling, there are plenty of events and "things" to do, overall art style and visuals are nice and fun.
Now for the bad things:
The worst one are the loading times and overall quantity of loading screens. Usually for smaller indie games I install them on a HDD. I was getting an average of ~45 seconds to load EACH race/mission. Some easily took longer than 1 minute to load. After moving the game into my NVMe SSD, loading races/missions can still take 7 seconds or more.
Missions? There are plenty, 90+, but they're the same thing again and again. You'll basically do every type of event (race, chase, stun, collect, face-off) in the same 9 base maps (plus the stunt maps).
You'll do a race on the freeway, and then a chase on the freeway, and then collect on the freeway, etc. which brings me to the next point...
...Events are all basically a time trial;
Chase event? Cops are too powerful, so just outrun them = time trial
Collect? Race while hitting objects before the end = time trial
Face-off? A race against a single bot = time trial
And they all happen in the few same maps. Every event being basically always a race makes the maps repetitive and dull.
The Gauntlet mode, the "roguelike" mode of the game, is a series of events you are not allowed to restart, and if you fail a race before beating the boss, you lose everything. It would be a nice fun extra mode, if not for the physics, map layout and minigames.
[strike]There are 3 minigames, a copy of Simon (repeat a sequence of buttons), a literal button masher with a timer and a copy of the shell game (object under cups being shuffled). I really don't think they fit a roguelike mode, especially the shell game, it feels like a pure gamble in a mode where failing is fatal and skill should be the focus. I failed the shell game once and was able to restart it, I don't know if it was a bug or if there are limits to repeating, and in any case, what's the point? If we're racing, why are there minigames that I can try again in a mode I can NOT try again if I fail?[/strike] EDIT: They are free, should be improved soon.
The physics do not always behave, it is common for cars to wobble on regular ramps, bounce awkwardly after any jump even when you try and land perfectly, slide weirdly on contact with other opponents, and so on.
The stunt mode is fine if you like driving your car on ramps while flipping and jumping around.
The collection events have a dubious item rotation. In these events there are big glowing valuable items scattered around the (repetitive) roads, like a big Glowing White TV, which you drive through to collect it. however, after some amount of time, the white glow turns into a RED Glow for no reason and with no warning. There are no signs for when it happens, sometimes it starts changing when you're basically on top of it and it explodes you. Why? To add a kind of gamble to collecting them? We're playing COLLECT events, I shouldn't be afraid to COLLECT stuff (while also trying to avoid the chaotic traffic).
The chase events are just boring. Cops are very strong, if they get by your side there's nothing you can do, they just push your car to the wall. The cop roadblocks and spike traps can sometimes be impossible to avoid, the cell shading effect is so strong that they get lost in the visual noise, I often couldn't find the spot to avoid before it was too late. And nothing matters, just race ahead before they can touch you.
Golden bumper, the one hit die/kill as it is, boring. Do the SAME races, but this time a lot slower because you can die if you hit the wall, if you hit someone from behind, or if you're hit from any angle, or if you mistime the flawless boost. I could see it becoming actually fun if it were focused on destroying cars like Burnout instead of just another slower race.
The camera height is too low, often hiding the road ahead. When you're "On Fire" the camera zooms farther away and adds a very strong camera distortion to the screen plus visual effects, disabling all possible effects on the settings do not fully disable it. You can disable the auto camera re-center, which allows you to move up and get a better view, but because the right analog stick is also needed for aerial control, you need to constantly manually recenter it.
The flawless boost timing feel inconsistent, I often feel like I miss it when I shouldn't. Every bump or minor elevation change makes the boost charge stop, so maybe that is what bothers me? I don't know, this one is probably an skill issue.
Glitches/BUGs:
Ramps may sometimes clip and stop vehicles. There are plenty of visual bugs, like car decals not despawning with the car, flashing images in stunt maps, LOD changes on distance, weird shadows, and the cell shading effect makes it all worse when it happens.
Menus may sometimes show wrong information, the game seems to try and convert currency from objectives(?) so I see Dollars/Euros/Local in different menus.
Game needed more testing, even for basic progression. I'll update when fixed. This game has soul, but it's simply too messy right now. In lack a Neutral rating, [strike]Not Recommended for now![/strike] EDIT: I'm a believer now, it seems one should be able to complete the game and get all current achievements without problems. I would still give it a neutral rating if I could, and since they've quickly resolved the major issues, the negative rating is now unfair.
