At this year’s E3, the online racing MMO game World of Speed was shown for the very first time and we had actually been truly excited to get our hands on this fast-paced free-to-play title with its awesome AAA HD graphics. We were fortunate to be able to enjoy a demo play and this is what we experienced.
Our demo started with a trailer and then had us test drive both the stock version of a car as well as its upgraded version on the San Francisco map in order to make us feel the difference. The game features a huge variety of events, moulds, tracks and car requirements for different objectives as well as different times of day and weather conditions in the maps, which truly adds to both the atmosphere and the actual gameplay.
The team presented the two different ways of customisation available for players in the game: visual customisation and upgrades. Visual customisation essentially allows for a physical modification of vehicles for a solely cosmetic and aesthetic purpose. Changes range from paint jobs (matt, gloss and chrome jobs as well as the full colour spectrum) to the player’s own livery/ insignia that others can identify them by.
Similar to guilds in MMORPGs, players can also form their own clubs with their own livery and club colours that will be shown on the car to identify them as members of a specific club. In addition to drastically modifying physical aspects, e.g. the trim, hoods and spoilers, there are also more subtle options such as only changing headlights.
Since the developing team aims at enabling players to creatively express themselves without being restricted by any performance requirement of the components, all cosmetic changes players are able make to their vehicle won’t have any impact on the car’s performance. This is meant to avoid a circumstance often realised in other racing MMOs, in which players are forced to attach more importance to stats than style, as all high-end gear cosmetically looks the same, thus all high-level vehicles having a similar appearance.
In World of Speed, players can enhance their cars with upgrades instead. This nonlinear system resembles the MMO type character building, allowing players to add points to their car’s various aspects in order to specialise them for a specific style of play. This is moreover aiming at enhancing team-based gameplay as it is the case with different player roles in traditional combat MMORPGs.
If players, for instance, want to be the one who always crosses the finish line first, they will have to select the appropriate upgrades for this purpose. Whereas players focusing on being a blocker will need distinct upgrades which allow for fast acceleration and taking more damage to be able to ensure their team-mate remains in the first position. And those who upgrade with nitrous oxide and drift tyres will be able to score points for drifting.
Providentially, drivers are not limited to only use a single car with a specific upgrade set but are allowed to have several builds/ loadouts in their garage tuned for successfully completing different objectives.
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