I really don't know what to say about Distance. I've literally been staring at the review box for over 10 minutes now, trying to find a way to describe how simply amazing this game is. Distance is one of those games that is just an absolute blast to play. You'll never find a dull moment while playing this game, unless of course you are exploring the ♥♥♥♥♥ier portion of the community made maps, which I even have fun doing occasionally. The fast-paced madness combined with the epic, hypnotic music makes Distance a game to truly love. I can say with confidence that this is one of my favorite games of 2014, and it deserves more recognition. Unless you hate fast-paced racing mixed with compelling concepts, you'll adore this masterpiece called Distance.

Pros:

• The Car has Reaction Control System (RCS) much like you'd find on a spaceship to adjuct attitude or rotation while making a jump
  
• It has a flight system that works well in game
  
• Electo-Magnet under the car keeps it attached to the walls/surfaces you drive on
  
• Tron-like look, and simulation feeling
  
• Obstacles that actually obstruct your driving.

Cons:

• Aside from community levels, the tracks/obstacles feel the same
  
• The game is still early in development and lacks content
  
• Car feels like something out of a new line of hotwheels (Potential Toy-line?)
  
• When you race, you can 95% of the time just spam the speed-boost making the drive button useless.

All in all 9/10 fun racing game, AMAZING mechanics and feel complete aside from content. Gives you more than most of these racing games, aslong as you like the sci-fi look/feel of this game you won't be dissapointed.

Gameplay and thoughts:

http://youtu.be/0L-7wheqNV4

I absolutely fell in love with this game. It looks great and feels great to play. It's very responsive and the levels look just beautiful! With the bonus of steam support already functioning this game is just great!

I can't believe how amazing and trippy experience that i felt playing this game!
AWESOME OST <3

GG
10/10
fell through the floor one time
Still good game.

[Review date: Dec. 2nd, 2014; one week before Early Access]

Alpha Backer here
First and foremost: For a title that just now hits Early Access the game is working surprisingly well. The implemented gamemodes work, offline and online Multiplayer works, leaderboards and steam workshop work too :3

+ postive
- negative
o neither, but wanted to mention

Gameplay / Controls
+ Car controls nicely
+ Lots of obstacles to avoid. Placement of obstacles can make for great flow in levels, ranging from hectic dodging to smooth precision driving.
+ Getting cut to pieces by lasers does not kill you. Instead it chops off a piece of your car, and you can continue with a few missing wheels, greatly impacting the car controls.
+ Flying and rotational jets allow for a great amount of agility. It feels badass to just throw in a random backflip.
+ Possible overheat from boosting too much keeps player on his toes. The best players will find ways to boost for entire levels by utilizing the stunt-system for heat-management.
+ Checkpoints are optional, allowing for offroad search for crazy shortcuts.
+ Sprint and Challenge gamemodes require a surprisingly different approach, making for nice variety.

o No AI vehicles, but to be honest who would expect that with such a powerfull level editor.

- Main menu does not react to mouse input at all. Only part of the game that accepts mouse input is the Level Editor.
- No way of saving ghosts or up/downloading replays. All that gets saved is the time / points (depending on gamemode) you got on the track. (Devs plan to implement this)
- Game's physics are tied to the FPS, resulting in inconsistent physics below 60 frames per second. Can rarely cause going straight through solid objects unharmed or blowing up on steep quarterpipes that suddenly count as walls.
- Stunt-system is lackluster, making both the Stunt and the Speed&Style gamemodes kinda "meh". Not a wide variety of tricks, no comboing, cooldown given for stunts doesn't value the aquired points / the stunt difficulty properly (One barrel roll cools 50%, two rolls cool 50%, three rolls cool 55%, so why would I ever do more than one at a time?).

Visuals
+ Bright, neon-y graphics style, somewhat reminding of TRON.
+ Great futuristic racing atmosphere, scrating that itch the same way games like F-Zero or Wipeout do.
+ Decently detailed car, which can be recolored for a feeling of individualism (said recolor will be shown in online multiplayer matches!).
+ Getting cut to pieces by lasers can look entertainingly goofy.
+ Looks great even on lower graphics settings, as long as texture quality is set high.
+ A lot of graphics options.
+ The entire HUD is on a screen on the back of the car, making the game more emersive.

o Activating Bloom is often overkill, causing you to get blinded frequently.
o The entire HUD being on the back of the car takes a bit of getting used to. HUD gets pretty much disabled when you get cut in half by a laser.

Audio
+ Catchy techno soundtrack that has something fitting for every kind of level.
+ Music adjusts to surroundings, e.g. becomes muffled in tunnels or gets almost drowned out in zero-g.
+ Futuristic soundeffects that always fit their origin (shrieking sawblades, low-pitched rumble for big drones hunting you etc.)
+ Can set audio levels for several sources (car, music, environment etc.) independently

o Music can get old after grinding a level for a few hours, since musictracks are fixed for each level.

- The sound of the car's engine is basically just a low-pitched buzz which gets old pretty quickly.

Multiplayer
+ All tracks are available in Multiplayer, plus tracks from multiplayer-only modes Reverse Tag and Soccer.
+ Fully working splitscreen mode for 2-4 players (car collision is ON, so shove that guy off the track! :D ).
+ Fully working online mode for up to 6 players per server (no car collision).
+ Can connect to a server via serverbrowser or via IP, essentially enabling offline LAN play.
+ Host can set password for a lobby, making it private.

o Ingame chat and server messages (e.g. "x finished the race!", "y got wrecked!") share a chatlog, making it difficult to maintain conversation. But who has time for that anyway, gotta go fast VROOM VROOM.
o You can play tracks from the Workshop online, but everybody must download the track to be played beforehand. Otherwise you need to exit to menu, open the workshop, subscribe to the track(s) there, then the game asks you about updating your workshop items.

- No dedicated servers.
- Soccer and Speed&Style gamemodes cannot be played online, they are local-only.
- Reverse Tag mode suffers greatly under higher ping (does not affect other gamemodes).


Level Editor
+ Big amount of functionality, tons of settings for each individual object.
+ Can place, resize and rotate objects with high precision for seamless leveldesign.
+ Splices on the ends of all track-like pieces, allowing for easy connection between trackobjects as well as intuitive manipulation of tracks.
+ Can individually disable abilities of the car for a varied experience, or even set triggers for reaquiring selected abilities mid-level.
+ Atmosphere triggers like music changers, skybox changers.
+ All advanced hotkeys and shortcuts are also listed as clickable buttons under the 'Tools' tab, making learning the advanced functions less frustrating.

o You cannot import custom assets to the editor, like custom models or custom music.
o With complexity comes a learning curve. No "let's just put down some trackpieces" a la Trackmania, but not too difficult either.

- UI sometimes a bit buggy, but can easily be fixed by saving, quitting to menu and re-entering the editor.
- Some moving objects have strange behaviour under extreme conditions (like very high movement speed or very small size).

Great game and is already more polished in early access than alot of fully released games.

I can only continously recommend this.

If you want a taste, then play Nitronic Rush. Free game made by the dev team while they were attending college.

http://nitronic-rush.com/

Wow. Not very far in...about 3-4 hours. But when I know I have found a badass game, I know.

Imagine those fast paced old school games of dodging obstacles moving at high speeds.
Now add in jumping.
Add 4 pivot jets to control airborne movement.
Add wings for flight, dogrolling and all.
Now add gravity.
Now add gravity in not just in 1 direction.
Now add other people.

This game has the best kind of video game progression. You gain skill.
You start with fundemental basics. Die alot. Suck at controls.
You learn. Now you are boosting and dodging good now.
You overheat if you hold down boost too long.
Now you learn that doing tricks (barrel rolls, backflips/frontflips) reduces the cooldown of your boost.
Later slow driving. All of this adds more and more and more the more you play.

You'll amaze yourself at what you can do after 5 hours of play compared to the first hour.

Insane fun. Easy to get in games, easy to leave. Short, sick, ****in A.

Distance is a racing game where your main goal is to survive and to get to the end of the level. It’s just you and the track. There are no opponents that can run you off the road, but there are many obstacles. But is it interesting enough to keep you going ?

When you first start you’re put into the seat of a futuristic racing car where you have to race across tracks and just survive. Just. Survive.
But this is not just an ordinary car. Your car can, besides racing at insane speeds, also turn mid-air, fly, boost and jump. It’s quite spectacular to see your car appear, especially with the HUD being projected on the car itself. There’s no true HUD, because the car will show you all the vital information: the direction you need to go to, your boost meter, your speed-o-meter and a timer. The timer allows you to set a high score and I guess that’s the true goal of the game: repeating a level over and over again and hoping that you get better and beat your previous high score(s).

All of this is done while you complete random tracks. At the end of the track you’re being teleported to a new one where the whole process begins anew. Except that it gets more difficult with each new track. You’re gradually introduced to new gameplay mechanics and after about 10 tracks or so you should know exactly what to do when an object appears out of thin air or when a new part of the track suddenly appears beside or above you. That still doesn’t make it an easy game. On the contrary; it’s a hard game and you have to choose when and how long you want to boost and you have to perfect your flight and trick abilities at the same time. You’ll frequently crash and burn.
That’s partly thanks to the game itself (well, the game designers really), because it doesn’t always let you fly whenever you want to. For me personally it was very confusing because I had no idea when I could or couldn’t use it. Whenever I was about to drop down a track I just pressed the button and hoped that it would work. Unfortunately this didn’t work more than half of the time. When you’re playing a game where the goal is to get to the end of the track as quick as possible then you don’t want to have worry about if you’re being able to fly or not whenever you’re about to crash. It’s a small design flaw in my eyes. You either let people know that they will be able to fly during a track or you don’t. You can’t just change things up halfway through a track. But enough about that for now; it’s still an Early Access title and we must have faith that things can still change. And obviously I understand that the developers want to add an extra layer of difficulty to the game this way.

I haven’t yet talked about some of the things that will appear on the track so I’ll try to spend a minute talking about that. The game starts with introducing ramps and other basic/common things you find in most race games. After a while, huge, sharp rotating blades can be seen cutting into the tracks as well as laserbeams moving around trying to cut your car in half (which really does happen and you can then decide to either try and get to the next checkpoint or you can reset to the last one). Not much later you’ll also encounter blocks appearing out of thin air, rotating fans and spikes coming in from all sides. Plenty of stuff to keep you on your toes, as you can see.

The game has an Adventure Mode and an Arcade Mode. Adventure Mode is the single-player mode that I was just talking about where you follow a story (yes, there’s a story). Arcade Mode lets you play solo, split screen or online. Solo gives you different choices than split screen and online so there’s plenty to do. I haven’t yet tried any of the modes except for Adventure Mode but unfortunately that one is incomplete and still being worked on. I’ve seen glimpses of the story but I’m not quite sure that I understand what it’s all about. Maybe soon.

Graphically Distance is pretty impressive with dark lighting and a dark atmosphere in general, only brightened by colorful neon colors that appear on the tracks and specific objects (now I think about it; it’s shown on pretty much anything that can kill you). It has a cool Tron-like vibe but unfortunately the game uses a lot of basic geometry. Levels are kinda boring and the car itself doesn’t have much detail. I get that it’s futuristic but a little more variety in the tracks would’ve brought the game to life. But, since I don’t know if it’s part of the story I can’t properly talk about it I guess. So again, maybe we’ll know when the game finally releases somewhere next year.
The audio consists of sci-fi music with a somewhat frantic tempo. It fits the game completely so this is all good. Sounds like your car crashing and beams and blades closing in also sound great. No, the sound department is just fine.

Since this is an Early Access title the game isn’t yet complete. Still, the Adventure Mode can take you anywhere between 1,5-3 hours I think. After that you will probably have seen it all until the next part of the game releases.
But, of course, you can always spend some time with the Editor to create some new tracks yourself, or download custom made tracks from the Steam Workshop. That will add at least several hours extra to the total playtime.

Distance hasn’t entirely become the game that I initially expected. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting, but I think that I was expecting a game similar to WipeOut maybe. While it doesn’t even come close to being that game this game is good in its own right. Partly thanks to the fact that it tries to do something different. I honestly can’t think of a game that uses these kind of mechanics so that’s absolutely a good sign. While it can definitely use some more polish and maybe a few changes here and there I certainly like what I’ve been playing thus far. And who knows what more we can expect in the near future ? I for one am looking forward to the final release. For now I’ll rate this as follows:

[Rating: 76/100]

In a game you are racing a car.
Against what? Time, death, the apocolypse? No, you race against yourself.
Whether you are hypnotized by the somewhat calming but exciting frequency as the sound of tame but chaotic percussion on your long midnight drive into the abandoned areas of which you so delicately turn the wheel to.
Or maybe perhaps you are simply keeping your head, making only the absolute minimal turns as you dodge the exonerate obstacles and navigate the sleek paths while never intending to let go of the accelerator.
Perhaps instead you are instead the type to take the eloquent route of the persuasive vocal pathways, and yes, the walls do speak to you my friend, they always have, and you listen, you even hear the ground beneath you grow ineffective as you lift up from the road into a much greater road.
And even if, you just so happened to be the daring type, trying your best to be in complete control of kinetics, the forces as your final goal is to bring your car back onto a path only after such a prodigious display of control and finesse.
Whatever it is, it is you, and you continue only to better yourself, you have only to gain, you are the driver, you are the car, and you are free.

Nitronic Rush 2.0. Totally worth the Kickstart.

Very fun game! Doing wall-to-wall transfers at a gorillion miles an hour is some of the most satisfying stuff ever!
Also, did I tell you about flying cars? Thrusters for when you are in low gravity?

Get it!

This game is pure fantastic! The graphics are top notch, especially with stylised lines turned on. The environment looks beautiful, and the controls of the cars felt JUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSST right. The gameplay is fantastic too. Much better than many AAA racing games made by big companies. This definitely deserves your money. Support the developers, don't wait for a sale. Buy it now!

One of the most fun games I have ever played. If you enjoy counter strike surfing, this game will be right up your ally.

* Game play is extremely addictive.

* Controls are tight.

* Music is good.

* High skill ceiling

* Active online community.

10 / 10 best game I have played in 2014.

YES YES YES YES!!!

This game gave me the goosebumps when I first played.

The audio from music to sound effectsed, the models from cars to these huge structures are truely AMAZING.
The controls for the keyboard are great for a game that would be better played with a controller.
In the storyline each new feature of the car and obstacle on the course are introduced FLAWLESSLY.
I never knew that I could be scared in a game about driving, but that proved me wrong.
Although there is a flying mechanic, I prefer to stay on the ground, but it's still fun.

This is not like any other game I've played. The audio, animation, gameplay, muliplayerability. IT'S AWESOME!

Do I recommend this game? ♥♥♥♥ YEAH!

Hands down love this game! It has that arcade sensation, high speed "must go faster" mentality while smirking at the wreckless destruction of your opponents' failed attempt at flying to the other side of the track when you need to change gravity. Pressing down the accelerator with the firm grip of your hands, cracking your controller/keyboard with the hopeful desire that the working half of your car, divided by lasers or saws, will pass the regeneration checkpoint so you don't have to redo that one part over and over and over again is a thrill like no other and when you do cross that line--it is a high like no other.

It reminds me of Rush 2049 with the wings on the car and the stunts; I am sure it had some inspiration to this game. The tracks are wonderful, the workshop gives it tons of replayability. Create your own tracks. Game modes like Tag, Challenge and Stunt. What else could make this game perfect? More car customizations? More obstacles? Ambient supplement? I mean we could ask for a lot, but the bare necessities are there and they are glorious.

If you play with controllers, be prepared to have some spares. The frustration is beautiful.

Distance. This is a game that many people have been waiting for. Some of you might not know it yet but this is THAT game.

Dont know what else to say really. The developers behind this are SUPER awesome and you can feel that they truly want whats best for the game at all times. They arent in this for the money. They are in it to make the dream that is Distance come true.

If you in any way enjoy making levels for games. This is a MUST have. The level editor is amazing and will allow you to do pretty much anything your heart desires!

No need to write a long review. Imagine the endless possibilities the LBP series has brought with comminuty levels. Now imagine that with cars. In a futuristic survival-driven Tron world. The community levels alone bring in hours of replay-value and are fun & creative as heck.

This is one of the few games that gets everything perfect. Difficulty is just right, there is online play, WORKSHOP SUPPORT, fun game modes, it becomes addicting like Trackmania, oh and 4-player split-screen!

BUY THIS NOW!

Although the game isn't finished yet, what they did to it in a little over three years is amazing. As other people probably stated in other reviews, this game was based off of a college project game called "Nitronic Rush" (look it up and you could try it out for free). It stood out from other racing games in the way that you had to survive several deadly obstacles in order to finish the track. The biggest complaint about the game was that there was no multiplayer. So that's one main feature that they added into Distance. Another interesting feature that they added into the game (kinda shocked me) was a level editor with Steam workshop support. This definitely had me sold when It was finally released. So if you're finally board of track mania, give this game a shot. It's much better and much more challenging.

I loved Nitronic Rush, so I could easily recommend this game. This also makes me a bit bias, so stating this outright. If you wish for a Demo, search for Nitronic Rush. Over all it is a well-polished game with little to no bugs, and only increases in its polish and content.
-----
Distance is a survival racer; Get to the objective as fast as possible with minimal deaths.
Go upside down, dodge lasers, and do it in style doing flips and tricks using small rockets inside the car, along with wings to fly through the map. By default these are controlled with the sticks on gamepads or wasd with the arrow keys.

Multiplayer, co-op, a rocking sound track and Steam workshop make this game all the better, with new songs being added all the time and a massive dedicated community of map makers who have been around since the map editor was a hidden asset in the original game.

Current complaints are no mouse compatibility for menus, and as of the time of writing, the campaign is missing quite a few levels, a bit of a steep learning curve for the level editor in my opinion and an inability to sort levels in menus when using the level selector, but both are easily fixable as the beta continues. In terms of difference from Nitronic Rush, flying is bound to space when in air, which I’m not a fan of personally but it's preference (and can be changed in menu).

The Developers have been very open with the backers through this process and have been providing plenty of updates to keep backers of the original Kickstarter up to date, I personally believe they will finish the project and it will be fantastic.