One of the surprises of the Summer Game Fest was in a small corner of the area led by Level Infinite. Sumo Digital allowed those present to try a tiny preview of what is to come in DeathSprint 66. It probably doesn’t sound familiar to many of you, but we find a new multiplayer that comes to break the rules.
The goriest show of the future
We are told that DeathSprint 66 is the result of mixing the concept of Mario Kart with that of SSX. In this game we have to literally run for our lives while our rivals try to make our lives miserable on the track. It’s all or nothing as we jump, run along walls and avoid countless traps that seek to crush every inch of our body.
Playing it is like riding a bicycle. After five minutes you are adapted to its mechanics. It controls like a driving game. By pressing the right trigger we maintain the sprint while we combine it with the actions that the track requires us to do.. Is there a rail to go faster? Jump on it and control your body’s inertia so as not to put your body on the crusher, as if you were on a surfboard.
When taking a curve we can skid. We lose speed, as is normal, but at the same time we maintain the necessary inertia to continue the race. Control is solid. The weight of the body and how the physics is altered when colliding with others or entering stage props is very well conveyed.. During our second race things start to get serious: those in charge activate the power-ups that we can obtain along the track, which can be both defensive and offensive.
One of them, for example, activates a body shield that attracts all the objects around us. Objects with a thunder symbol fill our momentum meter, a key element to use to gain speed when we lose momentum, such as when going around a curve. In the case of attack items, we go from tornadoes that chase a target to large sharp blades that cut those in front of us in half.. The possibilities are broad and bloody in equal measure.
15 minutes of demonstration is not enough, but it is enough to confirm that we want to play a complete session with players (up to 8 simultaneous). The futuristic aesthetic with a dark tone and gore looks great on a title that seeks to carve out its identity from the moment we grab the controller.. They are pursuing a PC release sometime this year. Maybe in early access, but it’s something the team has yet to decide. Consoles will follow later.
