Unique and beautiful revival of Arcade Driving: Inertial Drift
You guys know that I am very aware of every new game that Steam recommends me to add to my library, in most cases when I buy is because there is some discount price in front and also has an interesting premise in between, which Inertial Drift had plenty the first time I read about its attributes, they commented that the game was the resurrection of driving in the style of arcade machines with some extras in between and that was enough to spend the last thing left on my balance. Will it have been worth it? Let's find out, I was doing a lot of research on this video game before trying it and I must say that I highly recommend those who have been into video games for decades to try it, even for a few moments, for sure its driving, extreme drifts and general gameplay will bring back good memories of the arcades that dominated the world a couple of decades ago.
Cell Shading graphics, a view towards a citadel of the future with neon and a gameplay that takes full advantage of the spirit of racing and explores new controls to take drifting to new horizons, Inertial Drifting is one of those games that innovate on the fly and make me think how is it that no developer has thought of this, and is that behind its aesthetics reminiscent of cyberpunk or retro futuristic modeling of the 80s has some gameplay mechanics and controls that pull in an exciting direction, The essence of the game is the discipline of drifting or drifting in every curve you see and the game has a bold decision to use a Double Stick to take these skids to unsuspected levels, each curve is an opportunity to test us and there is no excuse not to do so in an experience that escapes from the realistic and chooses to revive in a spectacular way the arcade driving of the arcades.
The level of the proposal is high and although it takes some time for us to grab the controls with confidence the game has no mercy with us from the start, the difficulty is as unexpected as radical, advocating quick games and that we are constantly starting a new race and learning about our mistakes, the Double Stick works wonders when we are on the curve but we will have to play several games before we feel confident enough to challenge those who are higher, We will have a story mode if we want the difficulty to be progressively increasing but the game is so full of life and game modes that most likely we will want to take a quick game to test us at the wheel, Inertial Drifting gives you that feeling that you have enough options to choose from and where they highlight a challenge mode, the aforementioned story mode and a Grand Prix mode and the classic multiplayer modes online and split-screen.
As for the gameplay, this experience bets for simplicity and originality, I had already mentioned that the Double Stick mechanics was a total success but now we will add that apart from these two functions we will only have the classic acceleration and braking controls, that's all you need to play and perfect this game, The mechanics of the two sticks where we have to calculate and tilt the joystick in each curve that we enter becomes vitally important to know the exact moment where we can skid to reach and overtake our opponents, we will also have a lower bar to qualify our skids and improve accordingly, at first it will cost us but once we understand the physics and master the controls the next big challenge will be to win the Grand Prix and overcome the story mode.
The graphics in motion are a real beauty, not too much when we are still or even worse when we see the animations of the story mode, but trust me, when we are moving the cars in conjunction with the neon lights of this retro futuristic city make the game shine and makes worth every skid and sharp curve in which we get, has that air of the first Fast and Furious movies and the whole atmosphere seems to revolve around the night races and the discipline of drifting, Something that I could miss is the variety of cars to choose from, I feel that there are too few for my taste and also the cars do not differ too much from each other, some have more ease when it comes to driving but that's about it, although I do not feel it spoils the experience in any way as we will be more busy trying to control the cars we have and the ones we unlock.
It doesn't seem like Inertial Drifting is making too much noise, and although it has been a total success on all the platforms it has been released on I insist that its take on arcade driving is superb, full of creativity and a breath of fresh air for those who want a new experience behind the wheel away from the big companies, is one of those little gems that you expect to see more often and especially in a genre so scarce of good ideas (like this one) and more focused on polishing those already on the market, in short Inertial Drifting ladies and gentlemen.
Visually I think it looks wonderful, it gives me a "psychedelic" air and seeing the screenshots the city gives that "cyberpunk" feeling in some areas. I like the way the cars look, you can see that they haven't looked for graphic "realism" but to perfect that style of drawing.
Indie games are the best, thanks for the comment!