Strap on your seatbelt, adjust your seat, and get ready for Heading Out, the new racing game by Serious Sam. This game aims to add a unique twist to the traditional racing category while also incorporating a more emotional plot. Players take on the role of Jackie, an outlaw on the run while racing through highways and backroads of America. To make each experience more unique and personal to each player, the game has you pick from different scenarios and situations explaining your motives and explanations as to why you’re on the run.
When driving, it’s easy to switch between different radio stations and listen to various shows. I often find myself laughing at the opinions and jokes of the hosts. Sometimes, they’re just plain funny, but other times, I can relate to what they’re saying. Many tracks often sounded familiar although I never found myself identifying any particular song.
Unlike most games, Heading Out has primarily a black-and-white comic book styling to the gameplay, which adds a degree of charm to the game while adding the occasional splash of colour to important elements such as police lights, opponents or some obstacles you may encounter along the way. I was rather impressed and amazed at just how much detail the developers were able to capture with such a small range of colours, from road detail to the leaves on trees and even the amount of detail on the vehicle.
“I can’t help but find myself wanting just a little more from it.”
While driving between cities and states, players must monitor their level of fear trying to catch up with them along the way while trying to get to their end destination. Along the way, you can repair your vehicle, race opponents to make more money, outrun the police if you so choose, and face a number of mini-events where you will pick what happens to show people what kind of person you truly are.
During each act, players will encounter different scenarios where they must pick how they progress their story. Some choices can have negative outcomes while others can be positive, but it makes each player’s game tailored to their liking and adds a uniqueness to the game unlike many I have tried in the past. I would’ve liked a little more character development over just these few short moments, but it still added an aspect to the game I did enjoy overall.
I found the handling of different vehicles while driving to be a bit bothersome. It often felt like each car was driving on an icy surface, and my car would slide out from under me on some corners, even at lower speeds. However, the addition of rumble did provide some nice feedback when bumping into guardrails or debris on the road.
“While in no way would I call Heading Out a bad game, I would’ve liked to have seen maybe a little more to it.”
True to life, there are no do-overs or restarts. If, during a race, you spin out or get in a bad wreck, you may be able to revive or recover your vehicle; you do not have the option of restarting the race to do things differently and must accept what has happened and do your best to make up for it. While losing races or police chases certainly is not what you want to do a lot of, I did have the occasional race I could not make up enough ground on to regain the lead thus adding to some difficulty in the game at times.
While in no way would I call Heading Out a bad game, I would’ve liked to have seen maybe a little more to it, to further add to the experience. Whether it be engine upgrades or better tires on your car, more character development etc., I often found myself wishing there was more to it. It wasn’t quite as thrilling as some racing games can be, races and outruns are only a few minutes long each. Great for times when you only have a few minutes to play but underwhelming when you want to spend a night gaming and want to immerse yourself for a while.
Overall, I think Heading Out has many of the right aspects to make a great game, unfortunately, I find it falls a little short of what I was hoping for. I enjoyed the new concept of trying to run from your past, and this was a fun way to do it; however, shoddy physicals, minimal character development, and minimal tasks to really do just make Heading Out feel a little repetitive, not entirely polished yet. With some updates, I could see this being a much better game, I can’t help but find myself wanting just a little more from it.