Mantis Burn Racing® Reviews

First played this at EGX and really liked it. Not played it very much to date but so far I'm enjoying it, career mode is good and the local split screen is fun. If you have 7 other mates who have this then it's going to loads of fun. Graphics are good, sounds is ok, handling is good and the camera I don't think is too bad. Not sure this is going to keep your attention for too long unless you really like these types of games. Check out some local split screen racing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER-_qrg_37s&feature=youtu.be

Excellent Top-Down Racer! For those who remember the old days, I'm a fan of Supercars 1 and 2 on Amiga (yeah, like 30 years ago) and its the best game of the genre that I've played since and I've played a lot of them. Good driving, good physics, beautiful graphics, this game absolutely deserves more audience! buy now and join!

I have mixed feeling with this one. First and foremost I like the gameplay, campaigns and different driving style of the 3 vehicles class. However I have a few serious issue that lower my enjoyment. - Long loading time, even when yo replay the same map. - The gfx are too dark and drab, making the action unnecessarily hard to follow on some map (not all) - Sometime the game hang up while loading a map, It seems to be related to server access. With a few minor upgrades I could see this game becoming a favorite of mine. But those niggles reduce my rating.

The game itself is great. Controls and gameplay are amazing. Selections and options and variety of cars are very good. The only complaint is it takes sooooooo long to load. Still giving it a thumbs up, but beware to have races that are shorter than the load times.

Great game! Really enjoying playing! Pros: -Good vehicle and environment physics -Decent graphics -Simple and attractive menus (interface works!) -Fun gameplay Cons: -Camera angles are very similar and don't seem to change much -Sounds are a little boring and unengaging Would recommend you pick this up if looking for a top-down dirt racer!

Great little game to fire up when you don't have a great deal of time to play. Good: -Easy to grasp -Gradually increasing difficulty -Possible to upgrade cars -Good handling Bad: -Feels a bit repetive in the long run

Early critisisms A few things that stuck out to me within my first day of owning the game, when reading please remember that this is a DAY ONE, EARLY ACCESS review, and its not even a review, more like a few issues that struck me within the first day of ownership. The one thing that is bugging me currently more than anything is the camera, and this is probably why I've spent so little time in the game so far. The in game camera is hard tethered to the car and its movement, resulting in the camera swinging jarringly at the touch of a joystick, this is extremely nausiating for me, especially because of the wide FOV of the viewing camera, which is not helping at all. I was rather hoping the camera would be fixed, like in the release trailer, or have an option to be soft tethered, whereby the camera is following the direction and angle of the track, and not the car. Secondly, the handling of the cars seems far too forgiving. The way the cars slide, and speed and angle around corners regardless of how much I try to whip it into a corner is highly unrealistic. Yes, I get that this is a casual, arcade racer, almost all arcade racing games adhere to basic physics when it comes to cornering, and it just looks plain weird to see a car getting a load of angle around a corner, without the slightest dab of countersteer, thats not how any of this works. However, the gameplay is good, the AI are okay for what they are, the environment and tracks are great to look and and even better to race, but the UI is a bit counter intuitive, and the lack of mouse navigation, and being forced to chose between Keyboard and Pad is confusing, but I honestly wasn't expecting much for the initial release on early access, other than some basic functionality and gameplay, and looking at the career mode, VooFoo has exceeded that. I'll definitely be playing more of this game, and would recommend it, of course only if you're willing to get into an early access game that is currently in development, but currently the camera mode is holding me back, as I'd rather not get motion sick after 5 minutes of playing.

The game is not bad for a short-term blast but does not quite compete for quality over similar games such as the more polished top-down racers such as Reckless Racing, Circuit Superstars or Bang Bang Racing. Little Racers Street and Blaze Rush are also better value in my opinion. The game is well-presented, driving feels fluid and is generally enjoyable, AI is well implemented, it does not suffer from any noticeable bugs and the progress system is well paced overall. It also has a good upgrade system for your roster of four cars. Its main downside apart from the painfully slow load-times when accessing menus from the main title page or simply starting (a single-player!) race... is the lack of a time-trail / hot-lap mode with ghost car feature (made brilliantly by Little Racers Street and Reckless Racing). Additionally there is a very strange driving assist mechanic going on under-the-hood when you go round corners that is kinda like an invisible force pushing you round as you go. It just feels odd. So yeh, not a terrible game by any means... but you really need a time trial / hot-lap mode (with ghost cars of personal best times), along with near-instant load-screens, for a top-down racer to be anywhere near decent.

[h1]Rating[/h1] [b]6/10[/b] [h1]Worth it?[/h1] For the full price - no. I got it on a -50% discount (7.99€) and that's fair. [h1]Playtime[/h1] I've played it for more than 15 hours. In that time I've completed the Rookie and the Pro seasons in the single player mode. I haven't played any multi player games or the Veteran seasons. [h1]Comparison[/h1] I got interested in it because I loved [b]Death Rally[/b]. Mostly the classic 1996 version, but the 2012 remake was also pretty good. This is similar, but with limited features. The most noticeable difference is that there's no weapons here. You don't try to destroy your enemies, it's purely about racing. [h1]Plot[/h1] There isn't any. You just race in different types of events with different types of cars. You get paid and you can upgrade your car, but that's it. [h1]Look...[/h1] It looks... ok. When you see it for the first time you might actually say that it's pretty. But then you get to play the first season where the only tracks are in a sandy scenery, about 3 of them in different variations. That gets really boring really quickly. Then you play the next season and the next, race after race, 50, 60, 70 of them, and you realize there are less than 10 tracks (and their reversed versions or day/night) in 3 different settings (sand, city, industrial). And you don't care how pretty they might be, because you're getting sick of looking at the same tracks over and over again. The menus and UI in general could use some improvements. It often happens that the information you're looking for is not displayed anywhere - for example when you need to complete a race in under 3 minutes to get a bonus, but after the race it doesn't show the total race time but only your fastest lap time. [h1]... and Feel[/h1] Driving can actually be fun. I've played with a Steam Controller and I've enjoyed driving enough to spend 15 hours doing it. There are three types of cars (light, medium & heavy) and you can feel the difference between them. And while using the controller for racing is great, in some of the menus the control schema can be confusing. A couple of times I've sold an already-equipped upgrade when I wanted unlock more upgrade slots. The game constantly shows which buttons do what in menus, but the assigned actions were not natural and I pressed something else because it felt right. [h1]Music[/h1] The soundtrack by Robert Paul Allen & Jon Bates was actually pretty good. Some of the tracks were energetic and great for driving. You can check it out on [url=https://robertpaulallen.bandcamp.com/album/mantis-burn-racing-original-soundtrack]Bandcamp[/url]. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] Like I already mentioned, this is a game about driving. You drive one of three classes of cars in various racing events (sprint, time trial, overtake, hot lap, knockout, etc.). And even though the number of various maps is limited and quite boring, the actual racing is not. You can earn 6 gears for each race (required to unlock more races) - there's usually 3 for winning the event and 3 additional ones for performing some other feats during the race (destroying 10 obstructions, not using boost, using all shortcuts, not using shortcuts, completing the race in a specific time, etc.). Those are not always easy and I found myself repeating some races only to unlock all of them. Winning races also grants you some upgrades for your cars to improve speed, boost, handling and other stats. Each type of car has different base stats so you need to pick the right upgrades to make the car better. Sometimes when you choose a wrong type of upgrade you can actually lower the stats of your car, so you have to be careful about that. Some races are limited to one car class, but you can also run in open races where all three classes drive together and you have to select the right car to win (or pick the one that can grant you an additional gear bonus). [h1]DLC[/h1] There are two DLCs. One is free and introduces new tracks in a snow-themed environment. Unfortunately in career mode they are only available in Veteran seasons two and three. That means you have to complete seven other seasons before you get to them. That was too much for me and I didn't get that far, so not much I can say about them. The second one (2.99€) introduces an elite class of cars that hover above the ground, making them less affected by the tracks' surface. They come with a stand-alone career campaign. One that I also did not play, so again, cannot comment on them. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] It's a fun little game. Nothing special, but also not too bad. The limited number of tracks gets boring pretty fast, but the driving is good enough to make you want to play just one more race (while listening to a good soundtrack). [h1]Pros[/h1] - strong one-more-race syndrome - good soundtrack - some Death Rally nostalgia [h1]Cons[/h1] - small number of tracks (with high re-use) - slow pace of unlocks (both cars and tracks) - UI and the menus could use some improvements [quote][i]For more reviews, follow my Curator page[/i] - [b][url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31210849-Sublime-Dent/]Sublime Dent[/url][/b].[/quote]

Mantis Burn Racing….WHERE to begin! It’s a fun, top-down racing game. Just that simple. But it’s also much more. It’s a game of extreme skill (over time), as well as some unusually complex strategy. I’d guess from the point that I’ve reached that success is about half skill, and about half a carefully upgraded vehicle. But it’s also very much a game of patience, (and no small amount of grinding) as skills and currency are obtained. Especially for the lesser skilled player. Mantis Burn Racing (MBR) is a “game of threes”: THREE vehicle classes – light, medium and heavy THREE skill levels – Rookie (the starting level), Pro and Veteran (both acquired through skill over time.) THREE seasons for each skill level, each involving all three classes of vehicle. Each new season (after the original) is started upon the acquisition of a specific number of “gears”, or awards for each of numerous races and groups of races within each season. Each skill level has three “new” vehicles to be upgraded, and used for that level alone (I’m told.) The MBR races award experience points based on actions within each race (such as “air”, drafting, and destruction), and coming in third place or better provides “cash” awards (as does reaching what might be called levels.) Early in the game, upgrades, levels (and currency) are awarded quickly. Later on, more and more slowly. So as a rookie, a player finds their cars upgraded quickly. Later on, more slowly. MBR has numerous tracks of various surfaces and environments: sand, city, night, day, caves, snow…..a little bit of everything for everyone. A less skilled player will likely use up a significant number of total upgrades on Rookie level season, and the associated vehicles. A skilled player will advance quickly, and therefore see more upgrades applied to Pro or Veteran vehicles. As such, each player will see their own skills most suitable utilized. Though MBR is really fun, it’s not yet perfect. For one example, MBR basically places your vehicle dead center, then spins and rotates the world around you as you drive. Some players may find that to be disconcerting, and indeed must be ignored to some degree until one grows accustomed to it, and can focus on that very small mid-screen point. A beginning player may find the game frustrating, as skills are developed and beginning cars are VERY basic. And the grinding can be a bit annoying, as only success provides the necessary cash awards. (Failing at necessary goals does not.) There are no overall maps of tracks (that I can find.) And to take one’s eyes away long enough to take a glance at the screen-corner map segment generally is very costly on courses as active as these are. Much of MBR is as expected, but offers some degree of originality, though few surprises. Even if a player finds they lack the skills necessary to complete the game (as I suspect is most common), this is a game that offers play based on skill, and should be appreciated and played as such. MBR deserves a far more involved and detailed review, but that should be left for each player to gain on their own. Thank you.