Since the surprise announcement at Paris Games Week, Onrush news has been pretty thin on the ground. That’s slowly starting to change though, as a recent interview and new video series indicate.
The first discussion points of the game focus on what makes Onrush unique and how it aims to bring back the arcade racer.
Codemasters’ latest will certainly be unique if a recent question and answer session with Eurogamer is anything to go on. Paul “Rushy” Rustchynsky talked about ONRUSH with the outlet and in amongst the conversation, there’s an interesting reveal.
“There’s no concept of position or startline or finishing position as such,” explains Rustchynsky. “It’s all about scoring points. So, if you wreck it doesn’t matter – it’s an opportunity to be put back in the pack, in the thick of it, to fight to score more points. If you fall behind, we put you back in the pack. If you race ahead, we put you back in the action. It’s essentially all 24 vehicles on one track, racing around our version of off-road heaven.
It appears that the racer will judge players on their ability to play with style, rather than being the fastest. It’s hardly a new concept and those who’ve played titles like OutRun and Pure will be familiar with the idea. Initially, comparisons were drawn to Evolution’s previous series Motorstorm but this scoring mechanism is distinctly different.
The reason why Onrush is changing up the expected conventions of a racing game is to try and remove the niggles of the genre. Rushy explains that racing is at its best when everyone is competing closely and aiming for the win but sometimes it’s hard to consistently keep that level of competition. Codemasters is essentially looking to create an “always on” racer that keeps excitement high with every play.
The first video in the new Midweek Rush series also seems to support this motive. Hosted by Onrush Community Manager Aaron Rook, Midweek Rush offers a behind the scenes look at how development of the game is coming along. The topic this week is a look at the reveal trailer and how it was made.
A key takeaway from the conversation is that the entirety of the reveal was made from footage of one race. With the amount that goes on during the trailer, this bodes well for the level of hype players should expect. If you were hoping for a relaxing ride in some 4x4s, we suggest you look elsewhere.
As it stands, we haven’t seen any actual gameplay for Onrush but it’s clear what Codies wants to achieve. The arcade racer will launch with a mantra of having rewarding gameplay all the time. It remains to be seen just how engaging this philosophy will be, but if there’s ever a team that can make it work, it is certainly Codemasters and Evolution Studios.
Stay tuned to GTPlanet for the latest news on Onrush.
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