Remember that movie “Death Race” or maybe the old game Car Wars? If either of those appealed to you, you might find a happy home for havoc and driving in Apocalypse Motor Racers. It’s chok-full of weapons, explosions, speed and skill challenges and it costs absolutely nothing to download and play!
I’ve always been more a fan of shooter and RPG games than driving or racing games, but when you add explosions and guns and missiles to any racing game, it becomes that much more fun and Apocalypse Motor Racers (AMR) is no exception to that rule.
The graphics are pretty (with options for shadows and light bloom) without being horribly demanding on your system, which means that even the average laptop these days can play it. The sound is decent, but the real value in this game, however, is in the actual playing of it.
I might classify AMR as a casual game, since it can be picked up, played and put down again without having to devote more than a few minutes at a time, but the depth of play takes it out of the casual category and moves it into the realm of full blown gaming goodness. In the future, they say, the major form of entertainment is racing around ruined cities after WWIII and blowing up the opponents you can’t actually out drive. You’re given a car to begin with that has nothing special in the way of stats, handling or weapons, though it does have a simple machine gun and plenty of ammo loaded in the trunk. This car will be your only one until you manage to get enough money in race winnings to purchase a new one and add it to your garage. Other ones you can buy include such monsters as a fire truck with a missile launcher, as well as a sleek corvette-looking sports car with better handling, among others.
The races themselves are quite standard fare for a driving game, with the exception that if someone gets in front of you or too close, you can use your weapons to try and blow them up or at least knock them off the road. Also, there are always more opponents to shoot at, but this is a boon rather than a problem, since you gain money, medals and points for shooting your opponents just as much as for out racing them. As you progress, the races will get tougher and so will your opponents, but as long as you spend your winnings wisely and remember to hit those power ups and ammo load spots you won’t have too much in the way of trouble. The controls in the menu use the mouse and the controls in the races are entirely on the keyboard, so it’s an easy fit for those who aren’t used to the WASD configuration. Arrow keys, X and left CTRL are the main keys used so, again, it’s nearly ideal for laptops with touchpads instead of external mice. There are three different options for playing: Online, Downloading to your local system (I recommend downloading) and using the Chrome extension as a launcher.
The only real downside I found to this game is that during installation it does ask you to install a couple of toolbars but these are not in any way demanded and can be avoided simply by paying attention to the installation screens and unchecking the boxes for them before hitting next. When you close the game and go back to your desktop, you’ll be taken to an ad screen, as well, that will let you know about other great free games from the company but that’s not really a downside for anyone who likes hearing about games they may enjoy that they have not heard of yet. So, if racing, blowing stuff up, and pretty graphics are your thing, check this one out! I doubt you’ll be disappointed. Until next time, my friends!
- Get Apocalypse Motor Racers here (Windows).
