Redline: Xtreme Air Racing 2 – PC – Review

Many of us are big racing
fans. I know I am … and my TV often times is tuned into Speedvision as I watch
everything from Nascar to F1 races to the Gran Turismo tracks whenever I can.
Well, honestly I can say that I’ve never really heard of aerial racing until I
got the chance to play Redline: Xtreme Air Racing 2. Apparently, there is
actually an air race that is held in Reno, Nevada each year that has pilots
racing not automobiles … but planes in what would seem like a most dangerous but
thrilling sport. Now, Encore has brought this racing style home to you for your
PC.

Redline features over 70
different aircraft for you to race with, including such well known ones as the
P-51 Mustang and P-38 Lightning. There are also a bunch of different fantasy
tracks that you get to fly on in either single race, multiplayer, or
championship season modes, and will have gamers flying their planes around
course markers in such locales as Reno (of course), Asia, the Alps, or the
British Isles. In addition, there is also an option ability to use .50 calibur
machine guns, which of course adds some additional excitement to your standard
racing format.

One thing that I was
particularly impressed with in Redline was the fact that the game is a racing
game with fantasy elements, but also is a good simulation title as well. The
controls were the typical sim style controls, where gentle maneuvering of the
flight stick is necessary in order to make proper adjustments versus slamming
the stick around, as you would expect to find in arcade titles. This makes it
even more enjoyable when going into a dogfight and whatnot, especially for you
sim fans out there.

Along the same simulation
lines, Redline also contains the ability to do different adjustments to your
plane, and Encore was nice enough to explain them in the instruction manual for
those of use who are not as airplane savvy as others may be. Before a race
begins, you can go in and fine tune various things about your craft, such as
changing engines, propeller size, fuel, nitrous load or wingspan, which helps
you fix up your plane however you feel most comfortable with.

Finally, one of the coolest
options in Redline was the ability to not only make your own course, but also to
go in and decorate your own plane or even add your own face to the pilot. What’s
more enjoyable than starring in your own video game? Not much really … and the
ability to do all of this definitely helps in not only overall enjoyment, but
also in the longevity department and helps to find reasons to pick it up and
play some more.

While racing through the
various canyons or over snowy islands, one thing that wasn’t there that I felt
should have been in a racing title was an overall sense of speed. While zipping
your plane around at a readout of 200 – 300 MPH, the game felt a heck of a lot
slower than that which anyone can probably relate to if they’ve flown across a
continent in a sim combat title or whatnot. A lot of the time I just felt like
it was droning on around the simulated tracks and it didn’t really feel like
racing … but more like sim flying around markers that I needed to do. To its
credit, adding in weapons made it a lot more exciting though.

Graphically, Redline was
decent. There were some really nice touches to the tracks like obstacles, clouds
moving by, or things like ships in the water that you could fly around or try to
pull some stunts like maneuvers off of. There is also a nifty replay mode so
that you can go back and watch your flying skills (or lack thereof) in movie
style format. The sound in Redline hit a little lower than the graphics though,
and I felt that the planes sounded more like toy models than actual aircraft and
the race announcer tended to sound canned and repetitive overall.

Overall, Redline: Xtreme Air
Racing 2 is a fun and unique spin on your typical racing style game, even
despite the fact that the simulation style gameplay will make the game seem a
lot slower than it really should be. The addition of various creation modes adds
to the enjoyment of the game, and the dogfighting and combat elements definitely
make up for some lack of excitement in the actual racing speed of the game.
Flight sim fans that also enjoy racing titles should definitely look into
checking it out.

Gameplay: 7.9
Anyone who has
played a flight sim should be able to hop right in and figure out Redline. While
the optimum option is to use a flight stick, a keyboard / mouse combo can be
used as well. The combat style was a neat addition, as was the ability to
customize many aspects of your plane including the looks, but overall the sim
style of gameplay just made the actual racing piece feel a little too slow.

Graphics: 7.7
The graphics to
Redline were pretty good, and there were some neat little add ins done like
clouds breaking up and drifting by as you flew through them and a cool little
replay mode that you could watch after you raced.

Sound: 7.0
I thought that
the sound in Redline could have been done a little better, and couldn’t get by
the fact that the planes themselves seemed to sound more like toy planes than
actual planes. The announcer also seemed to feel like he was a little canned in
his comments, and also tended to get repetitive in his comments throughout the
game.

Difficulty: Medium
Due to the fact
that this is a flight sim racing game, there are some things that you will have
to learn and apply like how to pick up speed by diving versus just drafting like
a standard car racing title. To make the plane adjustments easier, Encore did
explain them in the instruction manual.

Concept: 7.9
This was a neat
concept … and I wasn’t even aware that there was an actual air race until I
played Redline. The addition of combat play was neat, and added a little
exciting arcade touch to the standard racing style format.

Multiplayer: N/A

There is the ability to play Redline either on the
internet or over a LAN with up to 7 other players, but it is through the use of
IP addresses and I wasn’t able to try it out.

Overall: 7.8
While it felt a
little slow to be a racing title, Encore did a good job in taking simulation
style gameplay and offering up a new way to race against opponents. They also
added in enough from a creativity standpoint to help gamers have fun long past
the first play run, which will add to the replay value. If you are a fan of
flight sims and racing titles, Redline is one that you might want to check out.