EGX Highlights: Even with the horsepower of friendship, Resistor’s electric deathracing comes first

Pitched as "a racing game for people who don’t like racing games," Resistor shows an immediate disinterest in tracks, time trials, or even really the cars themselves. This racing game, I’m told as I sit down to play a demo in the EGX 2023’s Rezzed Zone, cares about the person behind the wheel – and their burgeoning camaraderie with a roughneck pit crew.

Narrative-heavy driving games have been around for ages, of course, from the introspective and atmospheric Jalopy to the action movie antics of Need for Speed: The Run. Resistor’s Badlands-hopping, rocket-propelled racing is outrageously fast and explosively (if bloodlessly) violent, yet its personal touch still seems to be trying something new. No sooner is the opening cross-country sprint complete that your mechanic attempts a heart-to-heart chat from the passenger seat, and by the time you’ve sped back to base, you’ve opened up about your mother’s illness and a desire to return to the city that cast you out.

Feels before wheels? Maybe in the full game, which will supposedly feature a lot of time spent mooching around your current home – a dilapidated, oil rig-esque metal tower in the middle of the desert, a haven for those who don’t get to ride out the post-disaster world in a cushy city – and making face time with crew members and acquaintances. Eventually, I’m told, this can eventually result in a Mass Effect-style squad of BFFs, minus the alien boinking. Presumably.

Sadly, I didn’t get to see this RPG dynamic in the demo, which called curtains almost immediately after I took my first steps on the rig. Primarily, I was there to drive, and drive hard.

Less sadly, this was fun as hell. Resistor wants you, begs you, to go fast, take risks, and occasionally slam your bumper into competitors so hard they explode. It has dedicated buttons for 360-degree sideways flips and borrows the Burnout boost system almost wholesale, so dangerous driving is rewarded by a turbo meter that can be drained on command for even more speed. Or, should you choose, more of those sick sideways flips.

This larger-than-life approach extends to the vehicular combat. Again, it’s inspired by Burnout’s fender-bending car melees, much more so than the missiles and miniguns that the word “combat” usually evokes. Still, it’s exaggerated to the point of cartoonishness: attacks are essentially offensive doughnuts, your car’s rear bumper slamming into opponents with enough force to detonate them instantly.

Could such carnage, usually accompanied by a gratuitous slow-mo shot of an airbound flaming wreck, be at odds with Resistor’s more intimate relationship-building? Maybe, though if the races you need to win for Mum’s sake come with a non-zero chance of sudden fiery death, that might at least raise the stakes. These two personalities aren’t entirely split, either,as raising affinity with your teammates will eventually translate into improved car performance.

For what it’s worth, Resistor already shows enough heart to suggest that those interactions won’t just be for the benefit of a faster ride. Even the character creation menu has, for want of a different word, character: your adult avatar is a reflection in your younger self’s childhood bedroom mirror, the rest of the room dotted with racing trophies and triumphant podium photos. By the time you take control, you’re less of an aspirational ideal and more of an exhausted bum, but that contrast is only evident because of the deft narrative touch that precedes it. Cause for optimism, I reckon, that Resistor’s social side won’t just be an afterthought to its mad, loud racing.