Onrush: What’s less is more
This is script for the Onrush Beta video. If you’d like to watch the video as well as hear my voice again, click here.
Hello shareholders and investors, it’s time for your quarterly video courtesy of The Domus Project. As you have noted in the updated contracts back in January, we refocused more efforts to streaming on twitch.tv/domus877 but that doesn’t mean our video efforts can’t be completely squandered right??
All right, enough with the role-play there’s a new racing game coming out and I’m mad hype. Every time I look at the yearly calendar of announced game releases, Xbox guys always have something wonderful to look forward to with a new Forza every year, and after the wonderful experience my PC had churning out Forza Horizon 3, I did buy an Xbox One.
I justified the expense as an excuse to play Halo for the first time, but in reality, I just wanted to play Forza on a platform that didn’t stutter excessively 10 minutes into my play session. That stream will come soon though, I still need to beat Zelda first.
But enough of that, we’re here to celebrate the release of Onrush with a crispy new beta that dropped on PlayStation this weekend! Onrush is a team based driving geared towards stunts, carnage, and of course teamwork, to score points, stack multipliers, complete objectives and win rounds.
Created by the former guys and gals of Evolution Studios (rest in peace DriveClub), Codemasters Evo’s first title is slated to launch June 5th for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. This open beta lasts from May 17th to May 20th at the time of writing. And by the time this vide is out, it’s probably over.
It’s an arcade driving game, and let’s hold for a sec, when was the last time you played one of those? And I really do feel need to qualify it as a driving game more than a racing game. See, a driving games minimum qualification require that driving is the core loop of gameplay. Sure, there are objectives, collectibles, and other of the such, but it’s important to remember that driving is the main focus.
Burnout Paradise, Twisted Metal, MOTORSTORM, ATV OFFROAD FURY, are all, at the core, driving game. And bruh, don’t even @ about ATV, that’s my childhood screaming at me to do double backflips off a grounded 747).
Racing games narrow the focus of driving by hard-lining the primary objective: to finish first. “If you’re not first, you’re last” (1).
So, in Onrush, you drive around in a closed looped track. It’s isn’t a strict oval, there are left and right turns mind you. In the beta, we have access to two tracks: A dune beach tropical setting called big dune beach and a snow-baked tundra setting called crater lake.
Surrounding you are AI vehicles, appearing in grey. This is called “fodder”. No really, the game actually calls them fodder it’s amazing. Their only purpose is to be slammed, shunted, and taken down so you can build boost (2).
There are other opportunities to build boost: Jumps, tricks, and dueling all come to mind. And you should be building boost, constantly. One, it earns points, which you know, is kind of essential towards winning? You like to win, right?
Two, it charges your rush ability. It’s your ultimate ability, the game changer button press that “turns the tide of war”. When you boost, you charge rush. Finally, it just keeps you in the thick of the race. If you fall behind, the game will punt you back into the middle of the pack.
Rush is the defining ability of the game, allowing you to chain more takedowns, build boost, and score more points for your team. We’ll come back to rush later, there’s a bit of high level gameplay related to it.
Activate rush, take down opponents, smash big jumps, and chain tricks to rack points towards wining the round. Rounds are usually 2/3 or 3/5 endeavors. Matches last about 10 to 15 minutes each, although if someone is godlike, they can definitely snowball the pace of the game.
There are 4 vehicles we can mess with in the beta, each with different handling characteristics, and interesting gameplay to “make them feel unique”. Feel free to stamp that on your video game PR bingo board, right next to “new ways to play”.
First, Blade. This is one of the few bikes in the game we get to play with, and hey! It’s actually pretty good (3)! Blade has three main “skills”. Tumblr (insert jpeg here), where pulling off tricks and flips grants you more charge towards rush. With the amount of jumps and elevation changes the tracks have, it’s actually really easy to chain this.
Crashbang, where when you die you leave behind an emblem on the track. If an opponent runs into it, a blinding effect will take place, and hopefully cause them to crash. To my knowledge, only one person has actually crashed out due to my flashbang. And finally, Firewall. It’s the light wall from Tron/Tron Legacy (4). It only lasts as long as the rush is active but is effective at taking out unsuspecting drivers. It feels broken, and I love it.
Next, is Vortex the dune buggy. Vortex has Spiral, where performing barrel rolls grants rush charge. This ability is more track dependent, as there are ramps scattered around to set you up. Or you know, you can just be fearless and figure it out yourself. The cars seem to auto-correct to the max number of rolls to grant you the most rush possible, so crashing out on a bad roll is more you just being bad at the game (5).
Touchdown, where big jumps grant extra boost, and ergo, extra rush. It adds to the “trickster” persona of the car, and the boost has a decent punch to make it not feel wasted. And finally, Turbulence: It’s Hyrdo Thunder (6) packaged into an offensive ability. Increased top speed, with a wake of destruction left behind that lets you disrupt enemy drivers, causing them to crash out.
Interceptor is the third vehicle we get access to in the beta (8 in the main game by the way) and is a heavier machine than Vortex. Think trophy truck ripped straight out of Cars 3. This vehicle is Burnout personified, exemplified by its skills.
Pinpoint rewards near misses and quick dodges (7). Surge boosts your initial acceleration when boosting for the first time and burns quicker as a result. It’s a great catch up mechanic to secure takedowns. And Rampage simply taps you on the shoulder and whispers, “Road Rage, baby”. Taking down AI and human opponents resets your RUSH gauge, allowing you to chain even more takedowns.
Finally, we come to mama Titan. It’s a Humvee with reinforced chassis, and an engine in the middle that doesn’t suck. Who doesn’t want that? Impact grants you rush for dueling. Shunt, Slam, and Jam with other racers to build that meter up.
Shield rewards pack driving. Sticking close to your teammates protects them from opponent’s rush abilities, and grants you rush as well. And finally, Blockade. Spam a ton of road blocks to upset your opponents, causing them to slow down or crash out.
With all that out of the way, we can answer the age-old question of “is it good?”. And to that I say, hold your horses bro, it’s a beta. Rather than review a game like it’s early access, we’re just going to focus on the core gameplay loop. You know, the reason you play in the first place, and why you keep playing.
The core loop here, the act of driving, crashing, jumping, and smashing, feels fun to play. The controls are light and offer just enough responsiveness that with time, can show off some pretty crazy maneuvers. The two tracks are well put together, and since they vary enough in environment design, I’m excited to see where else Onrush will take us.
The main objective feels harder to understand initially. You know what you’re supposed to do, you know what your team is supposed to do, but everything gets lost in the chaos of it all. There’s AI flying left and right, everyone is barrel rolling and spamming tricks like it’s the X Games, and they you’ve got Billy in the front activating rush one minute into the first round.
It’s hard to call it a team game, as the same way it’s hard to call team racing a team endeavor (8). Sure it’s a collaborative effort to score points, to set up and execute takedowns. You drive together, win together (9).
But the strategy most team games, especially team games in fast paced situations, require some level of coordination and mastery (10), and that’s a bit challenging to achieve in this game.
There is synergy with the cars. The interceptor is definitely the power forward of the team. He’s responsible for shutting down enemy cars, scoring takedowns, and racking points. He opens up room for Blade and Vortex to get to the front of the pack less contested. They can barrel roll and chain tricks in peace, building rush gauge faster, and using rush to control the flow of the race.
Interceptor can’t do it alone, he’ll be challenged of course. Which is where mama Titan comes in. Providing shields, dueling other assailants, and deploying blockades so interceptor can secure key takedowns. Against AI, I had a blast doing this! But with human opponents, anything can happen, and chaos usually reigns supreme.
Blade has trouble getting to the front and can’t farm rush properly. Titan can’t protect the entire team effectively. Vortex is too weak to duel opposing interceptors and Titans. And Interceptor? He’s in the back, ping ponging off of the enemy, all while trying to keep up with Titan’s setups.
The balance towards individual contributions and team play, in regard to points, may need some tweaking in the future. Expecting the random player to coordinate properly will take time, and knowledge to be absorbed by the community. Let’s face it, everyone just wants to takedown everyone. Its Burnout meets MotorStorm online.
In the chaos of it all, there are moments where it’s really fun! But there are also moments that can be quite head-scratching. Scoring takedowns feels limited so far. With the interceptor, I was able to keep a relative chain of takedowns going between humans and AI. You would think the Titan can do the same, but to my experience, it’s hit or miss. It’s great at fending off attacks but going for the kill has felt slightly muted compared to the interceptor combo of surge and strike.
Same for the Blade. When you can take down a titan as a blade by slamming into it from the side, it does ruffle a chuckle, but feels a little weird in hindsight. The game has tactical depth, the worlds look amazing, the announcers… need to chill out just a hair. But the big thing is that the vehicle to vehicle combat can benefit from being turned up to 11.
I’d fully recommend drilling deeper into the roles of each vehicle, as well as refining the hit registration to make impacts feel like the count. Make the interceptor a toughed out machine of war, ready to duke it out with people of any size. Make the titan the unmovable object, unfazed by any threat, and always ready to protect. Configure the Blader to be the ultimate Jebaiter, a disruptor created, once firewall is activated. Make the vortex the real trickster, casually and gleefully flipping and flying, but a true force for concern once the wake has baked.
I have hope for this game, I really want it to succeed. I’ll pre-order it due to personal reasons. I honestly love the past work the dev team have put it, and I have high hopes they’ll continue to improve the game. It’s fun to play, and it offers something we haven’t seen in a while, an arcade racer. And no, NFS doesn’t quite count, that’s honestly its own thing.
Thanks for watching. If you want to watch more content, check out the upcoming Onrush gameplay commentary on Twitch, and keep an eye out for launch for more streams and a possible “one month later” dive. Follow me on the socials, and heart the script on Medium.
