So downloaded the demo and it wouldn't start for a few hours on the first day. Great start then.

Came back to it about 3~5 days later and demo started so gave it a go. Demo was alright so bought the game.

Generally gameplay is pretty good, but you really have to grind on this one, which I don't really mind.
Graphics aren't worth a millions bucks, no damage sim at all, so mega crashes can happen and no damage appears.
Have not had a single game with other humans, so I can't say what the servers are like, however I often lag so its trying to reach a server.
AI is alright, but very predictable. When race is going from wet to dry the AI pits way to early.

Overall game is not too bad. If you enjoy motorsport then give it a go, however if you aren't a motorsport person maybe try the demo before buying. Demo is basically whole game at the moment as most stuff has "Coming Soon" (tm Blizzard) all over it, so apart from the cap on races per day the demo is pretty much the main game.

Overall, a 3/5. Probably more of a 50/50 then a recomend, but it's beter than 50% so its a "recommend" nevertheless.

I have been playing multiplayer games for ~ 20 years now and after all that time i usually don't end up having adrenaline rushes anymore while gaming.. anger.. sometimes.. but not the good adrenaline rushes.

but this game.. i just had a race were the competition for place #1 was so close, i was clenching in my chair and hoping that my driver doesn't make any mistake anymore, when i pulled out of pitstop just a car length in front of him, i was so happy and then he overtook me, but i could get back in a corner and it kept going like that, back and forth and then in the last curve he was on my ♥♥♥ and his car was faster in the straights, but with a good use of the block feature i just managed to stay first by half a car length.. it was so epic.

it doesnt matter if the game has placeholder sound or lacks content at the moment (its early access, remember other reviewers, there will be more stuff added, there is a roadmap posted). the gameplay is right and it is fun and they are on the right way so far for sure

it has the thrill, and so far a very nice community that talks to each other and with people appreciating a good fight, hoping for a good race for each other vs the bots.

i like it.. i should be playing Witcher 3 or GTA5 and i sit here and play this early access game hour after hour.

This game has much potential and the developers are very communicative but right now the game feels like early access and kinda unfinished. Right now there are 6 tracks and 6 cars which seem kinda unbalanced. There is also only one race mode, quick race, right now. If this games expands and gets better I will change my rating accordingly.

If you want to support the devs and the potential of this game buy it now - if you want a finished game and you would give up when you see some bugs, please wait and come back later.

TLDR; Cool concept, for a pretty niche community. Unfortnately there's no singleplayer mode and finding other players can take upwards of 10 minutes. Controls can feel unresponsive, but gameplay is genuinely fun. Online community feels dead and the game lacks varitey and customisability.

I imagine they'd also be rolling out more updates in the future for more content, as it is there are 6 tracks and 6 different cars. When you start out you have no cars theres 6 to pick from and you have a choice of the first two as they are under 200K which is what you're given when you start out. The car models do look pretty good and was impressed with the details they were able to put into the models. After buying the car you want, take it to your garage and with whatever spare cash you have left you might be able to get an upgrade. The upgradeable aspects of your car are the brake, ECU, Exhaust, bodywork, suspension, KERS, spoiler, cooling and a few others. Upgrades will change the car in terms of fuel economy, top speed, accleration, drag, braking power and do matter. For instance the car I was using was kitted to last only about 25km's without pitting but I had constantly more power to use and ended out on top. Most races won't be longer than 50km's, also note drivers can be more fuel economic whilst driving.

Once you're actually in-game it's pretty fun, you instruct your AI driver around and tell him when to use KERS, push harder, when to change the car's fuel map, pitstops and block. Controls can feel like they are unresponsive at times but that's due to driver stats which can be upgrades with experience points.

Experience points can be used to increase the speed of certain aspects of your pitstop, increase the skill of your driver; how confident he is with braking and overtaking and how much speed he can carry through corners. You also have a manager who handles all your sponsorship contracts, you can give him greater chance of securing a contract and he can land better contracts for you aswell.

Contracts themselves aren't overly fun to handle. You're given 10 time units and every action uses a certain amount of time units, time units are replentished after each race. Pretty easy mechanic but monotonous is a good way to describe sponsorship (10/10 immersion there). To actually land a deal you need to call up the sponsor which you might or might not get through to. Once you're in you can invite them out to dinner, send them gifts, give a presentation on your raceteam few other options I've forgotten. Each option will better the relationship between you and whomever you're chasing up.

Once a you manage to squeeze out a contract offer you can change the aspects of the contract, how much you get paid, for how many races and what position you need to come in to adhere to those conditions of receiving the funds.

All up I would recommend this game if they added more varitey and the online community was bigger, it's a fairly niche market so this game may never live up to it's full potential. In it's current state I wouldn't recommend this game.

Apologies for the length of the review, it all got a bit out of hand. Cheers.

With only like 2 or 3 hours gametime, I HAVE to write a review!


I was around googeling for some Formula One manager, or even some Indycar manager. I did not find an acceptable successor, so I was typing "manager" in Steam's searchbar and stumbeled again up on Trackday Manager and gave it a shot.
Turns out, this was the best desicion to make!

Yes, it iS buggy -sometimes more, sometimes less, sometimes a few races no bug at all.
Yes, there ARE only two cars by now.
Yes, it IS laggy from time to time.


But hey, really, this an early access, so those above are for me no big deal at all. The guys at Arctic Hazard are at it and you can imagine them putting their sweat and blood in it. Thats what counts.
We are not talking about EA or something with their own money printing machine!
And I for one give a ♥♥♥♥ of beta versions sold as final releases.

This little gem is highly addictive, so I need to type fast to get back into the game.

Here's the pro's and con's, for those not willing to read: GO AND BUY IT! NOW! MOVE!

Cons:
-considering that this is early access, I cannot spot any fair con. But just to mention:
-still a bit laggy
-still some, but few, bugs
-still some, but extremely rare, uncounted races (due to the bugs)

Pros:
-gameplay is highly addictive
-races are a tactical gem
-lovely designed tracks
-good number of players online at all (my) times
-very nice and helpful community

Unsure if Arctic Hazard finds the time to read this, or if they care for this single opinion, but I would like to state my wishes:


-some kind of ingame friendlist
(to add and remove friends / chat with friends when in my own garage / group option to start races with friends)

This review is based on Early Access launch Version:

The game is abit bare on Content but that should change as it progresses. The game itself is pretty solid and fun to play. It's a mix of the sit back and watch your strategy play out as a "Manager" but more involved aswell as you have enough control over what the car does to make quite a difference.

This game is Multiplayer Only, which i personally like and enjoy, but those of you looking for a Simgleplayer Experience may not be satisfied with this.

the lack of cars/tracks/features aside, this is a pretty solid game and has got alot of potential. I would Recommend this to those who enjoy Online games where you'r managing a racing team but not quite having direct control of the cars themselves and watching your strategies play out.

Has massive potential but it really should be in early access. For a mainly multiplayer game the net code is really poor, with lag causing the game to be unplayable. With the tiny player base and lack of content I really can't recommend it.

In 18 months with a F2P business model it could be a great game.

240 hours in... best thing i can say is... It's a good idea executed extremely badly.

Each new "patch" seems to make the game worse and or more glitchy.

It was in it's simplest and best form during EA but now it's turned to crap.

What pisses me off the most is that on certain tracks the car will just lose traction, jump, slide off line when in reality the car would be stuck to the road. It took them 4 months to repair a bump in the road on Circuit De La Luna... only it wasn't fixed, they had just made it worse and made the car slow down to a stop when you went over it.

If this game had been made by actual programmers instead of teenagers in their bedrooms I'm sure most of the racing community would play it, because like i said, it's a good game executed so badly it's embarrasing.

PLAY THIS GAME IF YOU LOVE MOTORSPORT AND CIRCUIT RACING

This game uniquely explores how important it is to properly manage tyres and fuel for pitstops as well as the importance of playing the strengths of cars to their fullest, you must determine when and where to push the car to its limits and when to drive it more economically. You'll be constantly doing math to figure out if you're under or exceeding your fuel quota and you will also be watching the tyre wear so you don't burn them out too fast and make the wear eat into your lap times.

To add to the mix you can monitor what actions and strategies the opponents are employing throughout the race, this will sometimes make you rethink your strategy - will you let him pass and tail him or will you run your car at 100% and try to outrun him and if so, for how long? Keep in mind that running the car at full throttle eats into fuel and you'll finish most races with 0% - 5% fuel remaining so choose wisely.

The tuning aspect of the game allows you to buy newer and better parts, some more suited for speed and power while others are suited better for handling and fuel economy, the challenge is to build a car that is well adapted for most situations and having strengths that can be used to secure wins. Your team can be upgraded too which consists of a Driver, the Pit Crew and lastly your Marketing Manager who is in charge of obtaining sponsorship deals.

The game is still early in development phase and has numerous errors or design faults but it still brings a lot to the table, races are randomly selected and sometimes you will be put into a race where your cars setup has almost no chance of placing within the top 5 not even looking at first, this will be ironed out down the line but can detract from the experience. Pitstop bugs have happened before as well and I've had a few bugs with tyre selection costing me races in the past but I'm willing to overlook them for the time being while the developer fixes then; the developer is very active and open with progress on the steam forums so help is never too far away.

And lastly a piece of advice for the people who are considering or have just bought the game and have yet to choose a car: buy the Raptor if you want an easier experience, buy the Avalanche if you want to grind your face into the wall but learn a lot more about strategy and have a greater challenge on the managing side of things. This game is ideal for those who know a lot about racecraft but are looking to expand their knowledge on race strategy.

In this game you become the manager of your own racing team. You won't find here popular car brands like Ferrari or Maserati but just a fictional racing cars.


As a team manager you can sign new sponsor offers and help the driver to drive around the track. By earning money out of every race you can then upgrade the car or buy a new color design. The racing itself is from 3rd person perspective so you see a very small cars. As a team manager you can instruct the driver to: overtake, overload, block or tail the following car. The second set of options is: KERS button, changing the engine's ECU fuel mapping or requesting the driver to make a pitstop. Instructing the driver to overtake the following car can be from the left or right side and it works pretty well but sometimes the AI fails causing strange situations. The rest of the options work pretty well.


Single race or cup mode - new in the game. In the cup mode you also have qualification lap which i felt lacking before. Cup mode provides you also some more fun because of strategy, because there are 3 races that are longer and therefore you can go on one pitstop or two.


The game is all the time on the same level. When you start there are many cars faster than you and some of them are slower. It means that after you do the upgrades to the car your car becomes more competetive and heads to the front of the opponents. After you upgrade your car to the maximum you fight for the first places. It means that after you do it your car is always in the front so if you don't have real players as the opponents, you almost always fight for win. There should be some racing categories or one type of car races to make it more interesting.


It's the first issue - because the game doesn't have singleplayer, the game is always looking for online players. Sadly almost all the time you compete with the bots and maybe 1-2 real players.


Everything looks very nice, has good sounds. The music becomes a little boring after 5 or 10 races but you can turn it off. Some optimalizations must be made to the game because of the high cpu/gpu usage, but so far it works nice.


There are still some bugs like for example disapearing wheels, lapped cars still fight like they were racing while they shouldn't. The game needs some work but the direction is so far very good and i can recommend this game. If you like racing games, you'll definetely like this one!

Take a look at the stats of my profile here http://www.trackdaymanager.com/profile/?order=totalScore&nationality=Poland&teamID=1888