It’s the year 2088 and the Gravity Chase race series is on. Transport and fighter craft have been converted to compete on Hyperloop circuits set in various themed locations. Gravity Chase, the sequel to Velocity G, is a futuristic anti-gravity racer with a twist. Competition takes place on Hyperloop circuits, vacuum tunnel tracks that allow super-fast 360 degree Zero-G racing. Skill and precision piloting are required to follow the optimum line along with strategic use of pickups, powerups and weapons in order to progress through the race series...

Gravity Chase is a fast paced, strategic racer that will push your driving skills and reaction speed to the max

Gravity Chase is a cheap and cheerful sci-fi anti-gravity racing game in the same vein as the Wipeout franchise.

It's a fast paced, strategic racer that will push your driving skills and reaction speed to the max.

The one sticking point, which some gamers may not be able to see past, is that each race sees your vehicle of choice running on Hyperloop circuits. These are vacuum tunnel or pipe tracks that see you either racing inside 360 degree tunnels or on top of pipes. Either way you can spin the entire way around every part of the surface so that up and down soon have very little meaning.

On first playing, the issue I had with the tunnel configuration is that I was constantly overcorrecting my steering and for some time I kept getting caught in a loop, whereby I'd just go around and around barely moving forwards. But, if you take the time to get to grips with these unusual physics, the game soon becomes a lot of fun to play.

When playing on tracks where you're outside the loop (like navigating around the outside of a pipe), there's a lot of fun to be had. It's almost impossible to keep tabs on your competitors and so you might think you're doing well and no one can catch you, but the person in second place might be a split second behind, but on the other side of the track.

You can play local with up to four players on the one screen or online against strangers

You can play local with up to four players on the one screen or online against strangers. However, at the time of writing this review (weeks before release date) there wasn't much point in trying to find other players online.

There's enough variety of circuits to keep racing fans happy and the various modes will be familiar to Wipeout fans.

It's just different enough to warrant checking out, especially considering how cheap it is.

7

Darren Rea