Onrush has given some hands-on time of the game to various media folks recently, and a lot of the report is likely to stop calling Codemasters’ new game an arcade racer.
Gameplay details have been hinted bit by bit if you followed enough of the game’s development, but it still comes out as a surprise. In an early interview with Eurogamer, game director Paul Rustchynsky mentioned that “no concept of position or startline or finishing position as such” will be in Onrush and said that “if you fall behind, we put you back in the pack. If you race ahead, we put you back in the action.”
In the first gameplay trailer, accompanying the release was an FAQ that detailed the game further having 6 V 6 matches with 12 neutral AI, car classes (one being mentioned as a support class) that can be switched while waiting to respawn.
So how in the world would it be a racing game? It apparently isn’t.
Onrush plays in like match of the Titanfall or Overwatch would be- get the objective (which varies according to game modes) to win a round, the team with the wins the most rounds declared the match winner. Depending on your car class- which have specific loadouts, you can score points by tricking or taking down enemy cars or the fodders- the neutral AI. Whatever you do, you will always be in the thick of the action surrounded by 23 vehicles all the time, referred to as the stampede.
As a team-based game should do nowadays, there’s a dialogue wheel for team prompts. And like modern service-based games, there will be cosmetics, unlocked via loot boxes.
This is a lot to take in, but this radical approach to how a game with vehicles might just what we need right now. Rocket League managed to be a successful game with cars without any racing involved, and should all the mechanics click well, Onrush might be something special.
Onrush will be out on the PS4 and Xbox One on June 5th.