Genre - Racing whilst Fighting
I never really got the Road Rash bug back in the day but played similar games like Chase HQ and Road Blasters. This game is actually really fun and the developers seem quite passionate about it. The levels are as varied as they can be with one taking place flying over rooftops with jet propulsion and harpoons (I was quite happy staying on the road to be honest). There are various weapons you can pick up and you can get upgrades between games. There are also permanent upgrades, definately a mechanic to follow, as seen in Rogue Legacy and Iron Fisticle. This means that if you are crap like me, if you play the game enough you will progress, not just keep falling at the same hurdle. There are other bikes and cards to contend with. Sometimes a straight race, othertimes a battle. You will crash if you ram into things not bouce off like in some games, which I like as it adds to the tension, but the game can still be forgiving re-setting you and taking some health. I would recommend giving this game a blast, I am not biased as I received a free copy of the game, honest. If anything I would more likely give them a bad review to show my neutrality!

This game nails the feel of Road Rash, particularly with its controls. The swerving is tight, the way your rider stiffens up to take a swing with his weapon, kicking other riders in midair, hitting the brakes to power through a turn horizontally, landing on riders to knock them off... it's all there.

The destruction is fun and ludicrous. The original Road Rash had a more "serious" feel to it, while this spiritual remake turns it up to 11 for good measure. Watching my friend play through a Hallucination race was one of the more hilarious gaming experiences of my life.

With its short levels (2-5 minutes of intense racing) and the cash/xp rewards model that doesn't really offer any poor choices, this is a great "pass the controller" game to play with others and it's easy to play "just one more race" until you notice it's 2 hours past your bedtime.

Pros:
-slick action arcade racing mechanics
-large amount of vehicles on screen
-great draw distance
-good collision detection
-wide tracks
-highly replayable campaign
-includes New Game+
-multiplayer on the horizon
-pretty good uptempo music
-generated level geometry feels consistent, works well
-guns feel substantial and are well balanced

Cons:
-bad split-screen performance
-sounds could use some work
-no interesting differences between enemy rider types other than durability
-world feels a bit flat, not many trees
-no real feel to powersliding/skidding
-no feedback or visual splendor to landing critical hits
-camera can be annoying and finnicky on rooftop levels, can't see where you're landing

Bugs, Issues, Suggestions
As an early access title, I don't count bugs as Cons as these issues will likely be fixed with development time

-engine sounds can cut out
-campaign levels can bug to the point where nothing spawns until you Reset your track position, at which point it seems like the AI just shuts itself off, race position icon doesn't move until reset. Races can still be finished, however.
-no way to save and quit from campaign menu screens between races
-Experience point abilities could use some more interesting choices aside from increased health, damage, critical hits, etc
-hitbox wonkiness if an enemy swings a weapon in mid-air when he's five feet above you, you can still be hit
-no gender selection (Player or AI... Road Rash did have the infamous Natasha, after all)
-motorcycle tires don't actually turn like car tires at speeds above 10mph, they rarely angle themselves and turns are initiated by the wheel moving in the opposite direction of the turn (countersteering). Graphically the game shouldn't show the tire moving at all. Rarely any games (aside from MotoGP) have this mechanic so it's hard to slight this game for it.
-some drifting mechanics could be fun for the more hardcore braking/turning maneuvers
-harpoon gun doesn't seem to have much of a use for now
-could use some more rolling road hazards. The logging trucks are a good idea, maybe throw in gas tankers that can be shot for explosions, tractor trailers that are carrying cars, and more trucks in general
-no oil slicks or ways of losing traction like Road Rash
-jumps make you lose speed, no purpose to ramps being in the middle of some of the levels, perhaps stunts will be added for experience/nitrous/health gain effects?
-more racing types or ludicrous level effects would be great... perhaps modes such as Slalom, Guns-Only, Always-On Nitrous
-no rain, snow, city level is a bit bland and repetetive
-no chain weapon (come on this was a key Road Rash weapon!)
-weapons that include a grabbing mechanic would be pretty awesome (the harpoon gun might be that type of weapon at some point?)

Conclusion: For an early access title this is so far a quality experience, and is nowhere near the realm of early access games that come out unplayable or with false hopes and undelivered promises. Humble Deal or Winter Sale makes it a no-brainer, and at the original price it's still a great value for anyone that likes Road Rash or action/arcade racing, and hopefully when the success comes and the sales roll in, the developers (who seem like great people) will continue to make meaningful updates and get the game to a solid 1.0 state.

Thumbs Up!

There was a tornado. It was raining cars. Everyone died.

Loving the work in progress...
Road Redemption is THE First game to make my palms sweat, and my arms twitch since the 90's. Its great to feel that semi post-coital rush of adolescense again. Thanks for that.

this is an awesome game i bought it when it was early release and have loved it the whole time. i would recommend this game to anyone and everyone

keep up the great work DEV TEAM

Just like the old school Road Rash games. If you like those, you'll like this.

Unlike most reviews, I'm not gonna start by telling you what this game is for 2 very good reasons:

1) All the info is on the Store page,
2) This game is much more fun if you don't explain anything.

I stumbled across this game after watching the wonderful Jerma985 play it, and as a result it was sitting in my wishlist for a couple of months. Now that I've given it a go, it was certainly worth the wait.
Road Redemption is still Early Access, but most of it is pretty much done from what I've seen; just a couple textures which need finalizing. The environments are great, the physics is great and the carnage even more so.

And that music. Good god, when this is complete, I hope you can get the Soundtrack for Steam Music, coz that would be brilliant!

No matter how many times you play you always come across an even funnier way to wipe out, a new and exciting stunt, or a different Youtuber to kill by accident; according to the kill feed I've murdered Danny Sexbang and Jackscepticeye already. It feels fresh every time I start it up, because no two sessions play the same.

Road Redemption is pretty much a high value barrel of laughs that is worth every penny/cent/euro/yen/peso etc. If you love mayhem and are looking for a new game in the sales, let it be this one.

- Early Access Review -

This game is a love-letter to the Road Rash series. Even in its current state, if you have any fond nostalgia for those games, you owe it to your inner-child to pick this title up.

Currently, the game is limited to a campaign mode of progressive areas and difficulty. There is racing against the timer, racing against a specific rival gang, night driving, icy tracks, cars raining down from the sky, police chases, exploding vehicles, rooftop racing... and I enjoyed every satisfying slash and crash that forcibly de-seated my fellow racers as I burned past them. Every time you die, all of your XP earned through that play-through can be spent on permanent player upgrades, adding to your health, damage, weapon durability, ammuntion, etc... so on each successive run, you'll have even more of an edge on your side.

The game plays fast and feels fast with little stuttering (running on an i3 processor with a GTX 640 Nvidia card), though there are instances of SUDDENLY-CARS, because the draw distance seems a little close to your bike. The way the bikes handle feels instinctive (using an x360 controller), and the button layout is workable... though not perfect. The ability to remap the keys isn't currently implemented, but it is one of the features on the list to be added. Based on the level of polish the game already has, this is definitely not a project with sloppy devs... I would highly believe that patches, new game modes, and features are en route.

For downsides, though... with only one current play-mode, the game will grow repetitive after a while. The AI routines of the opponent riders is somewhat predictable, and once you learn the timing of the weapon swings, they frequently fall for a basic swerve-n-strike pattern. There are plenty of weapons to experiment with, including the grappling hook which is a blast to use, but its still an issue of slowly becoming familiar and then boring. There is no automatic lock-on for any firing weapon... that takes a while to get used to, as your ability to aim is also your camera control... perfect for the shotgun, but very tricky for the uzi. The roads themselves are far more lethal than the other riders, and while this is an excellent thing, currently specific conditions like the raining cars can make those races VERY difficult, and can completely shut down a run.

Its an awesome thing to see, mind you... driving through a downpour of debris, but that feature needs to be scaled back enough to be able to actually navigate through the falling wrecks.

Multiplayer is a listed feature of the game. That would seriously increase this game's replayability factor, and it would be AWESOME to be able to race against other players with this engine, but currently that feature isn't available.

All that said, I still HIGHLY recommend this game in its current state. Its very playable, low on the glitches, a TON of fun, and I have full confidence that upcoming features and fixes will just make this even more enjoyable of an experience.

Got my copy from the dev team itself, and for this kind of indie game this is a good call to spread the world about their game by giving some copy here and there.

This is a cool game to play with friends (haven't try the local multiplayer, we've just switch turn after each run)
And so far it's really funny to see how crazy some race can go, specially when the raining cars event is on.
You probably won't play it hours straight but when you have some time to kill, this can be your game. It's a little frustrating to start over and over (at some point you get a checkpoint to start at lvl 3) at the begining when you don't have a lot of health but just like Rogue Legacy, the more you play, and easier it gets. The "skill" tree and the market is well done, you can spend the XP point in it when you're dead to get more HP, or Nitro, Melee attack power, weaponery mastery ...
As well for the in-game money, to recover some health, nitro, and some perks for the next race if you can afford it ^^

In its state it's already a fun game but a little expensive on the steam store in my opinion and you might want to wait for a sale.

Might see you next time on the multiplayer (futur feature)

Certainly lives up to "Road Rash". Ridiculously fun racing game with melee and ranged weapons. Though you aren't limited to them, you can kick someone off a bridge or pull them into an oncoming car.

Video on the game here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv1nWUMHW0A
TL;DR: The game is incredibly fun, and stands out amongst the crowd of both racing and early access games. I definitely recommend purchasing it for countless hours of fun.

I'm really, REALLY impressed with the developer team... I purchased this game in the first week of sales. My first review was 2 or 3/10. And in all of foruns by road redemption, I posted my complaints about this game, because had no fun.
My first complaint was about lack of custom character and bikes (like harley e.g) and rock n'roll in the game.
But the developer team has been showed worried about the complaints of players, and added in the steam to talk with me. I said my reasons not to like much this game, and they told me that would analyze my suggestion.
Today I made loggin in my steam and surprise! All of my suggestions was implemented... and this game is getting ♥♥♥♥ING AWESOME. Today, I recommend this game. I'm a annoying player, but I try to make constructive criticism. Thanks dev. team!

This game is freaking excellent! If you've longed for more Road Rash action this delivers and it delivers twisted! This game is absolutely bonkers and in all the right ways. Halucinogens, axes, shotguns, GRENADE LAUNCHERS!? Sign me up. This is a no brainer for anyone who loves driving at break-neck speeds, beating the hell out of everything and an RPG-like character progression. Oh, and you get to kill cops. 'Nuff said.

This game is already very fun, i would rate it in the top 5 so far for top indie games. Make no mistake though that this game is indeed a full game its just early access and very much so gives one an nastalgia feeling as he or herself clubs or noob toobs some random biker in the face, anyway i would recommend this game highly to anyone who reads this comment or that i know

excellent game in the works for sure killed many foes and many hours playing this game. I have 150 games on steam and yet this is one that I constantly go back to. Seeing all the updates like new bikes, new riders, and graphic fixes makes me super excited to see the end result.

Instantly reminds me of Road Rash on N64. Weapons are satisfying to use and the soundtrack is great.

Mostly fun, with controller in hand ready to go this game plays well out of the box. We all know what game this reminds us older players of. Here we are in a different time to do it all again, better and brutal online. Im really looking forward to the coming year of updates to gauge the level invested by this Louisiana company.

Features I find lacking or just bugs.

- Poor leaning on the bike
- No cat walks or stoppies
- Double health skill carries to ng+ but starting level 3 & $1500 does not
- Starting a race is always set up at paces from other bikes and based on distance, its possible to not start a race until you want there is no time limit just a bar telling you when you finish
- Maybe add street races where you all have a starting line and the option to have a delay to use weapons
- Buying from the store the double dmg for the next race is bs garbage, its a gamble. make it a xp skill
- There is no proper way to quit after you finish a race and spend exp if youre not dead.
- No proper brake, just forward and reverse. never puts leg down.
- The check points between levels to buy stuff show have more random one type of item(e.g cb radio, +mass/kg but can hear chatter maybe learn a thing, chains as weapons, screwdrivers, mail boxes, a whip, road beers, piss jugs, etc)
- More chatter between all motorists, gestures too.
- Mission to get 4of 4 stars you have to drive slow before reaching the end. its a problem of too short of a distance.
- Cash into exp store item should display the ratio of $:exp.
- Disarming a rider does nothing but killing a guy nets you a weapon...kick a guy off a roof top much.
- Hands not attached to the handle bars
- The magnum hand gun is large compare to our players hand, compare it to the harpoon gun in size.
- Why is it with a handgun equipped that three different buttons are used to fire a gun?
- More race modes: Defeating mob bosses on bikes with gang in tow, Tsunami run where you stay ahead of the death hunting you down, Hallucinegenic Zone you have an ability to slow time(e.g Max Payne 3 online) allowing the rider to duck and weave.
- Intersections, over passes, on ramps off ramps. get those alt routes
- Not enough variations, the style going is very spaced out 0_0
- Steamworks or GTFO


Overall 7, because there is only 7 levels and it plays very well. Its not even half way across to what appears the end. At this time the game is .827 in Early Access. I like the randomness and hope to see a roguelike story making choices. Im sure to spend many hours playing once multiplayer rolls up

Fast-paced action racing. Great graphics. Raining cars? Grenade Launchers? Rooftops? Kills? Cops? Bikes? Suits? This game has them all and it's only Early-Acess so who know how good it'll be when its fully finished. It may have a few glitches that make you shout but... Of all other things, Its amazing.

8 / 10

Keep it up.

ROAD RASH ON STEROIDS!

10/10 For an Alpha Game
Obviously has too many bugs for a final review, though for an alpha; this is AWESOME!

This game is better then Road Rash! I Love the Helloween Character!

This is the type of game that makes me question steam's binary review system - you either give thumbs up or thumbs down, neither of which conveys my feelings about this game. Then again, it's still an improvement from steam's old system, which didn't even have a "no" option at all!

So, on to Road Redemption. This game is a spiritual successor to EA's Road Rash series of games, so the main game play consists of beating the crap out of your fellow bikers and trying to be the first to the finish line. But this isn't just a re-skin of road rash with modern graphics. Combat is effectively required, as some missions flat out require you to eliminate enough enemies to advance. But all the missions (save the pure time trials) require plenty of fighting. Taking down another racer will knock them out of the race, and taking down almost anyone will restore some health and nitro, as well as reward some money and their weapon.

It's no surprise then, that the developers took care to make the fighting the single best part of the game. There's a lot of depth to the combat, from kicks and grabs to baseball bats and pistols. Kicks and grabs are good for steering someone into an oncoming car or forcing them off a cliff. Melee weapons vary in speed, strength, and durability - for instance, shovels are strong but slow, while bats are weaker but faster. Swords break easily but are both fast and strong. Then you have the guns, ranging from pistols to Uzis and grenade launchers. They are great for shooting other bikers from a distance. Finally, you can deflect an attack from an enemy - if done right it blocks the attack and makes your next attack very powerful.

There are various missions and various conditions to preform them under. Most of these are fun, such as eliminataing a certain number of enemies, or attracting police attention. However, the 'time trial' missions lack the fun factor present in the other mission types. They are the only missions with no one to fight, and it seems that there's no reason for these missions to be here, other than "a racing game needs time trials"! Many also cannot stand the 'car rain' missions, where cars literally rain down from the sky and crash into the ground. They'd be pretty fun if it wasn't for the pure randomness of it - it's possible for a car to land right in your way (or otherwise bounce or slide in your wary) with no chance to react, causing an instant crash and a loss of some health.

Losing health is a big deal, because unlike in the road rash games where zero health meant losing a few positions, in Road Redemption it's an instant game over! This is the most drastic departure from the classics, where the only way to lose was inability to pay for your wrecked bike or a ticket form the cops. Death means starting back from square one, except for the skills you purchase with XP, which you get to retain between playthroughs. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the skills are fairly neat. But it may tick of long-time rashers who just wanted to relive the classics.

The game's actual problem lies in it's lack of content. I was able to complete everything this game has to offer within 3.1 hours, according to steam. At present, the campaign is comprised of 12 levels with randomly generated missions, and there is a harder campaign+ which is the same, just harder. There is no story to speak of, and the only multiplayer is local split-screen co-op. This is what made the game so hard to recommenced - 3.1 hours does not justify the game's $19.99 price tag - even if it were 75% off, that's well over a dollar an hour! So why then, is there blue, rather than red, at the top of this review?

My final recommendation arises not from what this game currently is, but from what it can be in the future. This game's Greenlight page gives a description of a story featuring multiple outcomes depending on your actions, as well as facing betrayal from your gang, and leading your own gang at some point later in the plot. This story mode alone would be worth the price if added to the already outstanding gameplay, but the developer seems to be active in the forums and seems to express a desire to add plenty of other content, and already has added quite a bit since early access release. Based on what this game can become, I ultimately must recommend this game.

I must make sure to revisit this review in the future once the game is completed, whenever that may be.