A promising and enjoyable anti-gravity racer that’s got some design flaws. Going into Pacer, it's best to set your expectations right. If you're looking to play Wipeout, this isn't it. While the game scratches a similar itch, Pacer is its own thing in a variety of ways. It’s well-worth playing. Fans of AG racing will find plenty to enjoy, and it's good fun by and large. Judging it by the standards of a legendary studio like Psygnosis doesn’t make much sense, because that was a highly experienced team that had many opportunities to perfect their formula. Come into Pacer with an open mind and you'll be pleasantly surprised. That said, it has its flaws and I'll be highlighting those. Just keep in mind throughout that, on the balance, it’s still got a lot going for it.

So how does it differ from Wipeout then? Fundamentally, the handling model here is a lot more grounded than what you'd expect of those games. You'll not find yourself bopping around on slopes or catching air very often. In Pacer, you're not free of gravity as much as you're hovering really. More mag-lev than anti-grav, which is why it’s a little reminiscent of F-Zero. That’s pretty much where the similarities to F-Zero end though, because otherwise the way your ship moves is pretty similar to Wipeout. Racing in Pacer is satisfying, snappy, direct and incorporates much of the fidelity of movement that this sub-genre presupposes. You've got analog airbrakes on the triggers, you manage the ship's pitch with the left stick and you've got a manual boost. What’s out are in-air control (mostly), tricks and side dashes.

Audiovisually, Pacer is strong. Its soundtrack is great and incorporates music that both skews contemporary and 90s. Plus, you can control which songs to keep on or off. Great! The game’s also gorgeous and rich in detail. Its environments are vibrant, lively and diverse. I’m less sold on the ship designs, but they’re fine. Overall, Pacer’s visual direction of its 3D art is cohesive and slick. The HUD and UI are remarkably weak by comparison though. Its menus are unintuitive and bland. In the pre-release footage, there was a stronger identity to the menus than what we got, which is essentially series of lists with an aggressive font. Strange. The readability of the HUD isn't too hot either. Its elements are placed too far into the corners for their small size, and their placement comes across as haphazard rather than reasoned. Problematic when you're going at high speed and need a quick status check on the race.

Another area that the game stumbles in is how it communicates upcoming turns. Usually, it's fine, and it's not as prominent of an issue at lower speeds. However, when it isn’t it can range from being unclear to straight up inserting blind turns after the crest of a slope, for example. That makes learning a track more difficult than it has to be, and I didn’t find it fun. It's not a constant issue, but it pops up often enough. As I said, that issue is compounded by the pretty high speed of the game. I got the feeling that Pacer was not quite designed around the highest speed classes. You start out at F3000, which plays fine. F2000 ramps it up and is probably the sweet spot, but even there some of its track design issues begin rearing their head. By F1000, it's so fast that some of the tracks become anti-grav pinball. Then, finally, on the Elite tier the guard rails and your ship become intimate friends. It's too fast even compared to its AG peers. The reason some tracks don’t feel designed for this is because they’re too cramped to be fun to race in high speeds, and Pacer’s issues with turn communication are exacerbated. It's where I started cooling on the game very rapidly. I don't think it's a deal-breaker, but it's unfortunate.

The game’s got fourteen tracks in total and each can be modified to be raced forward or in reverse, regular or mirrored and during the day or at night. Those modifiers can overlap, so it does actually feel like there’s plenty of content there. Despite my issues with the design of some of them, the tracks are mostly fun and generally play well. One issue, however, is that throughout the campaign you'll often find yourself racing the same tracks over and over. But, even though you'll have seen most of the tracks countless times, the game will suddenly introduce all new ones late in the campaign. While it’s nice to get surprise new content, it’s not quite as nice as getting to practice tracks before having to do them at unmanageable speeds. Two tracks that are introduced very late like this also happen to be some of the game's most winding, most narrow tracks. A thoroughly baffling choice.

Overall, the campaign is pretty forgiving and manageable. As far as I’m aware, you’ve got four speed classes, each of which get a promo tournament and three sponsored series, which in turn are made up of seven events. These include standard races as well as sponsor-specific challenges, time trials, elimination events and so forth. Oddly, the “flowmentum” mode only comes up very late. That's a mode where you've got to pass through gates to recover your depleting shields and as you do, the ship will speed up. It’s kind of like Zone then, but not quite. I did the one race that came up in the campaign and left it at that. While the other variety races mix things up, they’re not all hits and skipping them isn’t really an option – more on this later. Another oddity is how the destruction events only award points on eliminations. So, if someone else gets the last hit, the point is theirs. This makes going for golds more frustrating and chance-driven than it needs to be. Scoring based on damage dealt would’ve been much better for consistency’s sake. One final mark against the campaign is its linearity, which also means that if you can't beat an event, that's it. You'll have to bash your head against it to progress. Having multiple events open at any given time and tying campaign progress to points awarded on the basis of bronze, silver and gold completions would’ve made the game more accessible and organically incentivizes improving your performance in events you’ve already completed.

Lastly, one of the things that makes Pacer stand out from other AG racing games is the ability to customize your ship. It's indeed pretty cool -- if the game wouldn't have sabotaged it. First off, cosmetics. Throughout the campaign, you don't get to choose the look of your ship. You don't even get to choose your ship. Both the paint job and ship are a factor of which sponsor's series you're playing. I like time trials plenty, but I'll have played a lot more of the campaign by the time I'm done with Pacer. Second, there was a lot of talk about strategizing your ship's weapon and parts loadout in the pre-release interviews and demos. By the time you've amassed enough currency to make multiple meaningful choices for multiple components, you'll have already gone through the vast majority of the campaign. This strategy layer is completely kneecapped because of how slowly the campaign gives out credits. You'll just pick from the preset loadouts most of the time. This is fine, but it undercuts having that full customization layer.

Now, despite all of these criticisms, I enjoy playing Pacer, and I'm happy I got to. I'll probably stick with F2000 speeds mostly, and even though I have my issues with the higher speed classes, I'll probably go back to mop up the gold awards I've missed. The game looks good, it sounds good, and it plays really well when you're on the less narrow tracks or aren't going absurdly fast. If you enjoy anti-grav racing and have at some point liked Wipeout, you'll probably come away enjoying this. Just set the right expectations. I'd love to see R8 do another one of these, because there's so much potential there. Most of the points that I took issue with are something that a Pacer 2 could address, and I genuinely think that’d be a hell of a game.

A promising and enjoyable anti-gravity racer that’s got some design flaws. Going into Pacer, it's best to set your expectations right. If you're looking to play Wipeout, this isn't it. While the game scratches a similar itch, Pacer is its own thing in a variety of ways. It’s well-worth playing. Fans of AG racing will find plenty to enjoy, and it's good fun by and large. Judging it by the standards of a legendary studio like Psygnosis doesn’t make much sense, because that was a highly experienced team that had many opportunities to perfect their formula. Come into Pacer with an open mind and you'll be pleasantly surprised. That said, it has its flaws and I'll be highlighting those. Just keep in mind throughout that, on the balance, it’s still got a lot going for it. So how does it differ from Wipeout then? Fundamentally, the handling model here is a lot more grounded than what you'd expect of those games. You'll not find yourself bopping around on slopes or catching air very often. In Pacer, you're not free of gravity as much as you're hovering really. More mag-lev than anti-grav, which is why it’s a little reminiscent of F-Zero. That’s pretty much where the similarities to F-Zero end though, because otherwise the way your ship moves is pretty similar to Wipeout. Racing in Pacer is satisfying, snappy, direct and incorporates much of the fidelity of movement that this sub-genre presupposes. You've got analog airbrakes on the triggers, you manage the ship's pitch with the left stick and you've got a manual boost. What’s out are in-air control (mostly), tricks and side dashes. Audiovisually, Pacer is strong. Its soundtrack is great and incorporates music that both skews contemporary and 90s. Plus, you can control which songs to keep on or off. Great! The game’s also gorgeous and rich in detail. Its environments are vibrant, lively and diverse. I’m less sold on the ship designs, but they’re fine. Overall, Pacer’s visual direction of its 3D art is cohesive and slick. The HUD and UI are remarkably weak by comparison though. Its menus are unintuitive and bland. In the pre-release footage, there was a stronger identity to the menus than what we got, which is essentially series of lists with an aggressive font. Strange. The readability of the HUD isn't too hot either. Its elements are placed too far into the corners for their small size, and their placement comes across as haphazard rather than reasoned. Problematic when you're going at high speed and need a quick status check on the race. Another area that the game stumbles in is how it communicates upcoming turns. Usually, it's fine, and it's not as prominent of an issue at lower speeds. However, when it isn’t it can range from being unclear to straight up inserting blind turns after the crest of a slope, for example. That makes learning a track more difficult than it has to be, and I didn’t find it fun. It's not a constant issue, but it pops up often enough. As I said, that issue is compounded by the pretty high speed of the game. I got the feeling that Pacer was not quite designed around the highest speed classes. You start out at F3000, which plays fine. F2000 ramps it up and is probably the sweet spot, but even there some of its track design issues begin rearing their head. By F1000, it's so fast that some of the tracks become anti-grav pinball. Then, finally, on the Elite tier the guard rails and your ship become intimate friends. It's too fast even compared to its AG peers. The reason some tracks don’t feel designed for this is because they’re too cramped to be fun to race in high speeds, and Pacer’s issues with turn communication are exacerbated. It's where I started cooling on the game very rapidly. I don't think it's a deal-breaker, but it's unfortunate. The game’s got fourteen tracks in total and each can be modified to be raced forward or in reverse, regular or mirrored and during the day or at night. Those modifiers can overlap, so it does actually feel like there’s plenty of content there. Despite my issues with the design of some of them, the tracks are mostly fun and generally play well. One issue, however, is that throughout the campaign you'll often find yourself racing the same tracks over and over. But, even though you'll have seen most of the tracks countless times, the game will suddenly introduce all new ones late in the campaign. While it’s nice to get surprise new content, it’s not quite as nice as getting to practice tracks before having to do them at unmanageable speeds. Two tracks that are introduced very late like this also happen to be some of the game's most winding, most narrow tracks. A thoroughly baffling choice. Overall, the campaign is pretty forgiving and manageable. As far as I’m aware, you’ve got four speed classes, each of which get a promo tournament and three sponsored series, which in turn are made up of seven events. These include standard races as well as sponsor-specific challenges, time trials, elimination events and so forth. Oddly, the “flowmentum” mode only comes up very late. That's a mode where you've got to pass through gates to recover your depleting shields and as you do, the ship will speed up. It’s kind of like Zone then, but not quite. I did the one race that came up in the campaign and left it at that. While the other variety races mix things up, they’re not all hits and skipping them isn’t really an option – more on this later. Another oddity is how the destruction events only award points on eliminations. So, if someone else gets the last hit, the point is theirs. This makes going for golds more frustrating and chance-driven than it needs to be. Scoring based on damage dealt would’ve been much better for consistency’s sake. One final mark against the campaign is its linearity, which also means that if you can't beat an event, that's it. You'll have to bash your head against it to progress. Having multiple events open at any given time and tying campaign progress to points awarded on the basis of bronze, silver and gold completions would’ve made the game more accessible and organically incentivizes improving your performance in events you’ve already completed. Lastly, one of the things that makes Pacer stand out from other AG racing games is the ability to customize your ship. It's indeed pretty cool -- if the game wouldn't have sabotaged it. First off, cosmetics. Throughout the campaign, you don't get to choose the look of your ship. You don't even get to choose your ship. Both the paint job and ship are a factor of which sponsor's series you're playing. I like time trials plenty, but I'll have played a lot more of the campaign by the time I'm done with Pacer. Second, there was a lot of talk about strategizing your ship's weapon and parts loadout in the pre-release interviews and demos. By the time you've amassed enough currency to make multiple meaningful choices for multiple components, you'll have already gone through the vast majority of the campaign. This strategy layer is completely kneecapped because of how slowly the campaign gives out credits. You'll just pick from the preset loadouts most of the time. This is fine, but it undercuts having that full customization layer. Now, despite all of these criticisms, I enjoy playing Pacer, and I'm happy I got to. I'll probably stick with F2000 speeds mostly, and even though I have my issues with the higher speed classes, I'll probably go back to mop up the gold awards I've missed. The game looks good, it sounds good, and it plays really well when you're on the less narrow tracks or aren't going absurdly fast. If you enjoy anti-grav racing and have at some point liked Wipeout, you'll probably come away enjoying this. Just set the right expectations. I'd love to see R8 do another one of these, because there's so much potential there. Most of the points that I took issue with are something that a Pacer 2 could address, and I genuinely think that’d be a hell of a game.