I’m a casual anime fan, but a massive car fan, so most racing games usually grab my attention in some way. But when I saw Screamer’s blend of anime cutscenes and stylish racing sequences, I was ready to go.
For what it’s worth, I’m also just finding out that this is the fourth game in the Screamer franchise, with the series being born in the 90s, on the MS-DOS computers too. While I would have been quite young then, I’m still surprised as to how I never came across this.
While this latest entry, simply titled Screamer, has its flaws, it still stands tall as an impressive racer. filled with style, speed, and at times, real heart.
The Heart of the Tournament
While Screamer offers you a few different ways to race, the Tournament serves as the central experience, in which various teams from around the world enter in the hopes of winning one hundred billion yen.
Ridiculous amount of cash aside, the story does go deeper, as the drama follows a particular trio led by protagonist Hiroshi, who seek to enter the tournament simply for revenge, as one of the tournament’s contestants, Gabriel, had killed their former leader and friend.
As we come to grips with the remaining contestants, we do get a fair few interesting storylines that dive deeper into surrounding characters and their motivations, but it feels a little too much at times, and I ultimately found it hard to care about anyone else except our main trio.
The story is propelled forward through expertly animated cutscenes, which admittedly look incredible. The only issue with them is that there aren’t enough of them. While these cutscenes do yield important information and memorable moments, we’re also treated to text-based conversations with static images of each character, which stunt the story’s pacing at times.
The entire experience is voice-acted, and it’s decent across the board, but I just wish more of these conversations were interwoven into these animated sequences, which never last as long.
The story does throw you in and out of races quite quickly, and most of these races not only get you comfortable with the game’s various mechanics, but familiar with various characters and their vehicles. The objectives themselves are relatively straightforward; you’ll need to finish in a certain position, clock the race within a certain time or simply drift or boost a certain portion of the race.
I do wish these races were a little more fulfilling in the context of the story, but I can forgive them as Screamer is simply so fun to play.
Speed and Style
If you haven’t played a Screamer game before, I’m willing to bet you’ve played something similar. Think the flair and style of Ridge Racer, or the blistering pace of a Burnout game, both of which yield positively satisfying results here. In many ways, Screamer’s gameplay boasts a learning curve of sorts, which initially felt frustrating based on the fact that you’ll have to manage a few of its mechanics at any given time, but once I got the hang of things, I was hooked.
Players will race across a variety of relatively straightforward circuits, over a handful of laps. While it’s easy enough to learn the basic mechanics, Screamer’s more advanced controls take over pretty soon. For example, you’ll steer with the left stick, but drift with the right stick, by pushing that independently, to the left or right. You’ll also be able to use the right stick in tandem with the standard steering of the left stick to get sharper drifts for more dangerous corners.
Cars then work with a semi-automatic gearbox, as far as the player is concerned, and players can also tap the L1 or left bumper button to shift gears at the right time, granting players a small speed boost.
There’s even a dedicated speed boost or Sync, which can be gathered by remining at high speeds for a certain amount of time. You’ll then be able to tap and hold the R1 or right bumper button to activate your boost, triggering a small quicktime event, and releasing the button at the right time for the best results. The sense of speed here is incredible, and as most foes can be quite aggressive with their speed, you’re encouraged to use this as much as possible.
While Sync is important, you’ll also gain access to Entropy, which essentially allows players to launch attacks on other vehicles for the ultimate KO. As I mentioned, opponents can get quite tough at times, and this feels just as useful when you’re in a pinch.
Filling your Sync grants you an Overdrive ability, which can be used to destroy vehicles around you, and the results, if timed right, are generally devastating. But at the same time, you’re constantly choosing between boosting and attacking, which always feels like a battle of risk and reward.
I’ll admit, this confused me at first, and overwhelmed me somewhat, but this has become a shining example of just how unique and satisfying certain games can be, even when they’re utilising existing tropes. Screamer just feels so consistently addictive, and it adds so much weight to certain races, especially later on, that are subject to those sudden difficulty spikes.
The Track Awaits
Outside of the main story, there’s still plenty to do. While the main story yields plenty of unlockable rewards, from racers to tracks and customisable parts for vehicles, it only adds more reasons to pick up and play Screamer even after the credits have rolled.
The Single Races speak for themselves, while Team Races allow you to pick leaders and trios, across more in-depth races where both the positions and KO counts of racers count for points. That being said, I fell in love with the various challenges that you can undertake here, too. The Score Challenge feels the most like a traditional arcade racer, where players must drift and confront other drivers for the highest score.
The Overdrive Challenge also sees you getting faster and faster, scoring more points and attempting to last as long as possible. The Time Attack mode, where you’ll chase the best times across three laps, and the Checkpoint mode, where you’ll need to cross each checkpoint within a certain amount of time.
Finally, players can take races online or locally with up to four racers, to top local and global leaderboards alike. I admittedly had trouble finding a match online, so this mode was a little tricky to comment on.
Look the Part
While I reserve this section for the game’s overall look and performance, I feel it’s only right to add here just how many customisable options you can unlock for your vehicles. I would recommend playing through the Tournament to unlock a few goodies in advance, but from wings, fenders, wheels, and the ability to add and remove liveries, there’s plenty to mess around with.
Visually speaking, Screamer looks fantastic. It’s vibrant, clean, detailed, and both the animated characters and vehicles look incredible. While I wish there were more cutscenes to stitch the races together, I must still commend them. Admittedly, some tracks look much nicer than others, with more detailed backgrounds, for example, but it’s not a dealbreaker.
On the PS5 Pro, Screamer also ran at a very even clip. While there’s no dedicated quality or performance option, PSSR enhanced lighting looks great, and I can’t say I ran into any glaring frame rate drops, texture pop-ins or bugs.
Final Thoughts
While I wish Screamer’s main story was a little more engaging and stitched together with more cutscenes instead of boring conversations, there’s a very satisfying racing game in the midst of it all.
With various modes and customisable options, it’s consistently fun to play, even if you have to get past the game’s initial leaning curve and unorthodox drifting controls.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Highlights: Satisfying mechanics; Slick visuals; Gorgeous animated cutscenes
Lowlights: Bit of a learning curve; Tournament mode packs in too many boring conversations outside of its cutscenes; Motion blur can be a little overbearing
Developer: Milestone
Publisher: Milestone
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC
Available: Now
Review conducted on PlayStation 5 Pro with a launch code provided by the publisher.
Featured header image also provided by the publisher.
