Racing sims aren’t for everyone. The precision required to just complete a course, let alone win it, can be daunting for someone who just wants to drive around in a video game. But if you’re looking for some more arcade-like — and incredibly forgiving — try Milestone’s Gravel.
Milestone, headquartered in Milan, specializes in racing games — so you already know they know their stuff. Gravel is very much a more arcade-like title, with less focus on precision driving and more on getting through and enjoying the challenge of the course.
In Gravel, you can select your car and the course and just head out to have fun. If you choose, you can also pick the time of day and the weather of each course, as well as how skilled you want your AI opponents to be.
Each course is a straight beginning-to-finish affair, with no loops but plenty of scenery to get around. In my hands-on time with the game, I drove through a dirty canyon with steep walls, and then a woodsy Alaskan countryside that dropped me off right on the shoreline to finish the race.
Perhaps the best part of Gravel is a tweak for bad racers like me: you can’t wipe out. You can certainly total your car, and when you crash into other cars you both take damage, but if you slam too hard into a wall or careen out of control, you can do one of three things to fix this.
You can rewind time in the race to give yourself another chance and get through the tough spot; you can choose to respawn, which is almost instant, and gets you back in the race in no time; or you can keep going, damage and all. There is no instance in which you can total yourself so badly you can’t go on or lose. It’s a win-win situation, and much appreciated for a player like me who lacks understanding of more nuanced racing sim controls.
I spent some time with the game and as a clumsy driver, I had no problems getting through courses. I had my fair share of bumps and crashes, but in the end, I became a better racer — learning the ins and outs of each trail helped me tune my driving, and in no time I felt like I’d been playing these kinds of games forever. Definitely the best option for a “derpy” racer, like me.
Gravel will be out in Q1 next year, on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
