Arcade racing fans have been crying out for an overtly action-packed, outlandish racing video game: no serious pretences, just visceral speed, Hollywood-esque crashes and a compelling single-player campaign.
Wreckreation promises to be the answer to this, with the bonus of a unique track-building mode.
Burnout was a series that once delivered similar thrills. Despite fans begging for its return, sadly, it has been dormant for well over a decade since the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation, with the last mainline entry, Burnout Paradise, releasing in 2008.
With no signs of it returning, the original series creators, Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry, have attempted to keep its spirit alive since forming Three Fields Entertainment over 10 years ago.
After the Danger Zone games reprised Burnout’s chaotic Crash mode, 2019’s Dangerous Driving was a valiant attempt to recreate Burnout 3’s circuit racing, let down by its low budget.
Six years later, we have Wreckreation. Going open world was the next logical step, making this the studio’s equivalent of Burnout Paradise.
The diminutive indie team could have created a facsimile of that genre-defining game to please fans, and that certainly seemed to be the vision when Dangerous Driving 2 was announced in 2021.
Longtime fans will spot plenty of references to Criterion’s venerable open-world racer, from the license tier progression system and dot matrix scrolling text, to a ‘Daydream’ mode that makes the screen black and white and plays classical music.
Even the tutorial voice sounds very familiar. But, by the time the project had morphed from a sequel into what is now Wreckreation, it’s more than a simple spiritual successor
Five years in the making and made by a team of just ten, Wreckreation is wildly ambitious. Burnout Paradise was ahead of its time, offering a seamless experience and unparalleled sense of freedom.
Wreckreation takes this further by making the open world completely customisable. It essentially wants to be the driving game equivalent of Media Molecule’s Dreams.
Tools of destruction
Burnout Paradise aficionados will feel a rush of nostalgia when entering the open world, known as a renameable ‘MixWorld,’ for the first time.
The kinship to the developer’s former titles is obvious thanks to the seamless pop-up menu. Tapping the d-pad brings up the ‘DJ’ menu, where you can change the weather, set the time of day, or adjust the traffic density, all in real time. It’s a novel feature, like having access to the developer’s debug tools.
It’s in the separate ‘Live Mix’ tool where you have complete creative control, however. Here, you can hover over the world, placing objects you’ve unlocked, such as stunt ramps, jumps and moving obstacles, anywhere in your MixWorld, along with novelty items like giant rubber ducks and flaming cannons.
Taking cues from Trackmania, you can also build giant rollercoaster-style sky tracks that soar high above the map, with sharp corners, steep drops and stomach-churning loops if you wish. An intuitive interface makes it easy to build a sky track in minutes. You select a track piece, whether it’s a straight, corner, on, or off-ramp, and press the modify button to view different variants before placing or deleting it.
While you can start building anywhere on the map, the editor occasionally prevents you from adding a track piece to an existing layout with no explanation. Frustratingly, there is also no option to delete an entire custom track, with the editor forcing you to remove individual LiveMix items manually. Once a track is completed, an event customiser lets you place checkpoints and configure everything from the number of AI opponents to prioritising trucks in traffic.
While the game warns you if a particularly crazy circuit may cause issues, the AI sometimes exhibits strange behaviour, such as stopping randomly, even on simple sky tracks.
The level of customisation is impressive, but you can’t adjust existing road layouts on the map. It’s also a shame that sky tracks can’t be customised in designated areas away from the standard MixWorld. This can make it difficult to place an on-ramp at the correct height when the terrain is uneven. As a result, the integration of the track builder isn’t as cohesive as it could be. Some extra tutorials would be helpful here.
It’s not just the environment that can be modified either. Vehicle customisation is equally extensive, allowing you to change everything from the paint, brake light and boost flame colours to the wheels and engine sounds on the fly. It’s swift, seamless and straightforward.
Multiplayer mischief
So too is the multiplayer. Mercifully, unlike most modern open-world games, Wreckreation doesn’t require an internet connection – take note, Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown. However, the open-world racer is primarily designed for online play with friends. Up to eight players can join a MixWorld, but friends can only be invited through the console menu on PS5 rather than in-game, which isn’t initially clear.
In addition to standard races, the host can start competitive or cooperative mini games inspired by Burnout Paradise’s Freeburn challenges, such as scoring the highest drift score or reaching a landmark in the fastest time.
Other challenges utilise the Live Mix editor in interesting ways. One challenge, for example, sees the host place a giant X on the map, challenging players to experiment with placing items to help them reach and smash into the target for the highest score.
For added chaos, other players can be invited to be a ‘DJ Mixer,’ giving them access to the Live Mix editor and insert items into the MixWorld on the fly. This can lead to scenarios like placing hazards to trip up your friends – which we would never do, ahem, honest… – or collaborating to build a sky track together.
Another benefit of connecting online is that every drift, time and boost, among other achievements, is tracked as a ‘Wreckord.’ It works similarly to the Autolog system in Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, which, incidentally, was pioneered by Burnout’s original creators, comparing scores with players on your friends list.
If a friend beats your score, the game notifies and challenges you to reclaim the record. Helpfully, you can fast travel to the road your record was beaten on.
Wreckreation is at its best when messing around with friends, experimenting and creating mischievous mayhem in online multiplayer sessions. However, matchmaking with random players could become an issue because Wreckreation doesn’t offer cross-platform support.
It’s an understandable omission given the team’s size. However, it could limit the game’s lasting appeal if it struggles to sustain an active player base, especially since it’s not an established IP..
A substantial single-player campaign
While the marketing has primarily focused on the multiplayer and customisation, the single-player campaign doesn’t feel like an afterthought. With nearly 150 events to complete, the solo experience is substantial, with a satisfying sense of progression.
Offline events range from traditional Takedown races to Road Rage events, where you must destroy a target number of cars within the time limit, with each vehicle you wreck topping up the timer. Reducing rivals to twisted metal in takedowns is as satisfying as ever, as they crash, flip and roll in a slick camera cut. However, rivals take too long to respawn in these events, often making it too difficult to reach the target in time.
Off-road time trials, where you navigate checkpoints to reach the finish line in a time limit, round off the single-player events. With only three offline event types, plus the odd derivation such as penalty road rage, and several modes missing from Dangerous Driving, like Pursuit, Eliminator and Survival, the single-player experience can get repetitive.
It’s well-paced, however. Winning events earns you license points, unlocking new vehicles and creator modes as you rank up. If you want to access the full suite of creator tools, progressing through the single-player is essential, as sky tracks, event and challenge creator modes aren’t unlocked at the start.
If, however, you want to relive classic racing on grounded roads and ignore the customisation, you can.
Like Burnout Paradise – yes, we’re referencing it again, Wreckreation really is that much of a stark reminder – events can only be entered after they are discovered on the map, which is gradually revealed as you drive on new roads. Once found, events can be played in any order.
There’s plenty to do outside of the events, too. Completionists will relish collecting every breakable billboard and gate, which return from – yes, you’ve guessed it Burnout Paradise! – scattered around the map or hunting bonus cars roaming around the world, which unlock if you wreck them.
With over 400 LiveMix objects to discover in addition to the collectables, exploration is encouraged and rewarded. It’s a shame, then, that the map design leaves a lot to be desired.
While there are points of interest, including beaches, an abandoned airport and even an oval racetrack, this world consists mainly of open country roads and long highways. With no urban areas to explore coupled with the lack of landmarks, the locations sometimes lack variety and feel barren.
Filling empty areas with Live Mix items can compensate for this, and the environment is enormous, covering over 150 square miles of drivable roads. But overall, the map isn’t as memorable as Paradise City or contemporary rivals.
The vehicle handling isn’t class-leading, either, although it is a significant improvement from the team’s most recent games. Dangerous Driving exhibited all the cornering finesse of a 1000-horsepower milk float, but here, turning feels smoother and weightier.
These refinements make drifting feel more natural and satisfying to control. Vehicles also feel distinct across the Bruiser, Race and Off-Road classes, with different handling characteristics, speed and boost systems.
Another area of improvement is the damage, which was rudimentary in Dangerous Driving. Thankfully, Wreckreation addresses this with significantly improved destruction.
Bodywork now bends out of shape, panels fly off, and roofs collapse, leaving your car looking mangled after violent, high-speed wrecks. In another homage to Burnout, you can even use Aftertouch to steer your wreck into the path of rivals during spectacular crashes.
Rough around the edges
Wreckreation is not all bombastic crashes and satisfying unlockables as some areas require more polish.
We encountered various glitches, from traffic falling into the road like quicksand and cars getting stuck on stunt ramps, to rival cars launching in the air like a rocket during takedowns and the occasional game freeze.
The sense of speed is superb, but the perspective can look distorted when the chase camera zooms out. Playing in bumper camera can also be disorientating as the camera movement looks disconnected from the car. Collision physics can be inconsistent, too, and the light bloom effects can sometimes be excessive.
While Wreckreation is unrefined in places, and the environments could be more diverse, its ambition is admirable. The reckless arcade racing on display here scratches that Burnout itch, combined with comprehensive customisation tools that let players design their own driving playgrounds.
Just don’t expect it to match the calibre of Criterion’s acclaimed arcade racing series. Having such lofty expectations is unrealistic given the small team and budget price, with Wreckreation retailing at just £34.99 / $39.99. But the fact it even comes close to capturing Burnout’s spirit is a tremendous triumph.
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