So Far I think I have 3 hours on record, at this time the game is fun. It's very reminiscant of the old games I remember playing on Dreamcast and PS2 with the DC Version of TXR2 being the best out of the series. It plays just like that and hell, i think the roads are identical which i really enjoy.

Things I like, graphics, newer cars that are actually licensed so you know what you're driving without having to look up the chassis #. When you goto a parking area you can talk w/ the locals and you can figure out what you need to do to battle certain upcoming opponents, for example one guy says you need to have a "collection" of cars, so i think thats more than 3 but he will only do battle if you own the exact car he has, back in the day you had no idea what it took to race certain opponents so this is a nice change.

Things I don't like, the unlock system, I see no reason why this exists. you challenge opponents to get points which u need to use to either extend your wallet or your garage, unlock different cars, unlock car upgrades (new engine upgrades, intake, exhaust etc) and the thing is you can't even unlock things past a certain point without beating the required racer(s). just eliminate this system entirely and unlock it based on progress.

when you beat a rival boss of a gang, or a special racer once u win it automatically takes you to a "park area" which is fine for story dialogue but put me back on the road once they've said their piece, don't kick me back to the garage especially if its only been 1 or 2 races i did in that time. I don't mind challenging opponents in the parking area either but again u challenge them and when u win/lose it puts u back there I don't like that much either.

when you're aroung 190km/h+ if you're using the chase cam view the screen shakes so much and there is no way to disable it. while i don't get motion sickness this will easily trigger someone if they do get it. i only prefer that view while playing but if you're in car or hood view its not there. just give us an option to disable it please.

for the moment that is all that comes to mind, but this is a nice throwback to a good game that i enjoyed as a teen. I Will definitely be playing more and I know it's early access so things will change, and if/when they do the review will change with it. but for me, still easily worth the money for it. Get it now it should only get better.

EDIT: 1/31/25

I am happy to report that they have added a slider option to get rid of the screen shake and by god is it glorious. Thank you so much for this.

So, this game off the rip is a fun and addictive game if you're into base building and collecting. And by collecting I don't mean all the pals, I mean building mass amounts of resources to be able to build whatever you want, but not in a factorio sense, this has some automation to it but nothing like a factory game because your pals do the work for you on your base. They will gather and craft, seed and water and harvest crops, if you have an assembly line they will craft whatever it is you're making on it. The thing is trying to find pals that are great at a couple things so your base runs smoothly and thats the difficult part. if you use the mill and something else that requires watering, but you have multi crops like wheat, tomato, berries and lettuce well you don't want 4 or so level 1 watering pals, you want 2 level 3 watering ones and they will do all that work etc. finding the balance is the challenge.

With all that positive, there is some negative. First off, there is no commands for auto run and I wish there was some sort of "batch" crafting. Like make 10 of this, then 50 of this etc. It's clunky in this regard and hopefully they will add it later being an advanced assembly line or something. Also, having to sit there and hold "F" to craft something and being forced to sit there holding "F" is stupid. Give me an option to sit and craft diligently without having to hold that 1 key down myself. If you have a keyboard that supports macro's you can program 1 to toggle "F" being held down and a 2nd press to release it but in this day and age I don't think you should have too. While I get the possible understanding they don't want it to be "too automated" thats ridiculous, Ammo in all forms takes a while to craft, so if i want to craft 300 of it it'll take 10 or more minutes even with pals lending a hand. So hopefully this is addressed later.

Also, the pals have ADD. they really need to fix their pathing. Some will jump on a task with me, and their Sanity meter will be decently high and they'll work for 2 seconds and leave. Whatever the player is doing if a pal is capable of helping no matter what other task they could be doing, whatever the player is doing should take #1 precedence and that task should be focused.

Having only 16 boxes for pals is a bit low considering the best way to get XP is to catch 10 of each. This should be upped to at least 30. There is no mini map, i sure with there was. You can add icons to the map but they don't let you type in a description, or if they have I completely missed it but I don't think you can. Adding the mining icon is nice to know where resources are but a quick label to said icon would be nice. Late game ore isn't an issue, but Sulfur and Coal is. Around the volcano you'll find tons of sulfur but there is ore mixed in and even down south I found a nice grouping of Coal, i even made my 3rd base there just for it as refined ingots are all late game.

So while the game is fun, you can tell it's early release but with some polishing this game will be fantastic. Will there be some replayability, that remains to be seen. Depending how much they add with the road map will decide this games longevity but with base building being a thing with SO many options, it'll be relevant in this regard. This game takes queues from many games, valheim for the base building aspect, then Zelda BOTW for exploration with climbing, the sail and map functions and of course pokemon for the pal system. I see people making the assumption this plays like a pokemon rpg but the pals have guns is the furthest thing from pokemon could ever be, this takes heavy inspiration from the pokemon arceus game for the crafting of the balls to letting pokes pick up resources when they're walking besides you to leting u ride some of them to even collecting 10 of each. but thats as far as pokemon could be seen, aside from some blatant design infringement on some of the pokemon this game doesn't remind me of that style game at all. Which is refreshing as I like the pokemon games as well.

Thats my review for now. Thanks for reading!