Destroy the Competition in Wreckfest 2

Last updated: 2025/03/31 at 8:02 PM

Contents

Wreckfest 2 Early Access Preview Sneak Peak Tracked Fun Wrecking Ball

Wreckfest 2 Early Access Preview

As far as racing games go, demolition derby racers have a few built-in design challenges from the jump. For starters, banging the heck out of your and your competitor’s cars is fun but, over time can get repetitious. All those small refinements you can make to your car in a traditional racing game are a bit lost when the purpose is to survive rather than thrive. Having a stable of ultra slick, high-performance machines doesn’t really work when the end race result is always a smoking collection of dented metal. Caveats aside, both 2018’s Wreckfest and its new sequel, Wreckfest 2, find ways to overcome the challenges.

Sneak Peak

Wreckfest 2 recently pulled into Early Access, but it’s more a slice of game-slash-demo than a base model with options. Currently, there are only four environments, each with some track options and a quartet of unbranded cars. The Early Access version is missing a lot of features, too, like extensive car customization. Still, the present version is a pretty good preview of the kinds of fun gamers can expect.

Already, Wreckfest 2 looks very impressive and sounds even better. The tracks and destructible environments are exceptionally detailed. While the lighting in the early version is limited to bright daylight and sunset, the engine does a fantastic job of creating atmosphere and ambiance. Remarkably, Wreckfest 2 currently runs quite well, with solid framerates at the highest settings. Considering how many destructible elements are on screen, it’s a welcome surprise.

Hand in hand with the graphics, the game’s physics and collision model do a great job of simulating the metal mayhem at the core of every race. Collisions result in very precise damage that impacts handling, depending on how you dial in the realism. These are not the auto-porn cars of high-end racing sims, but even the early access cars have a lot of beat-down character. They have the proper, throaty sound of engines tuned to survivability mode, like monsters with a massive amount of vocal fry.

Tracked Fun

Currently, there are four environments, one of which is essentially a physics playground of simulated craziness. By far, the most enjoyable racing environment is the auto scrapyard, stocked with stacks of junked cars and piles of tires. Derby Racing on this course is a wild ride, and its impossible to drive more than a few dozen yards before impacting another car or scenic element. Glorious mayhem. The two other tracks are fairly standard. One is a sand track and the other starts as a basic asphalt oval. Each is adaptable to a couple of different modes and useable in various race configurations.

Wreckfest 2’s driver AI is decent and feels fair at most levels of difficulty/realism. Of course, demolition race AI is a different beast than in traditional racing games, where the goal is generally not to collide with other cars, so aggressive handling is part of the fun.

At present, Wreckfest 2 is limited to derby and racing modes. The developers are up front about what’s missing and what’s coming to Early Access, which includes more cars, tracks, customizable elements, and Steam Workshop mods, just for starters.

Wrecking Ball

A lot of racing games take themselves pretty seriously. This is not to suggest that Wreckfest 2 is not a serious sim, but it certainly embraces mayhem and a certain degree of automotive ridiculousness. It’s clear from the modest slice of the game currently available that the developers have ambitions far beyond the first Wreckfest. They have a clear path to the finish line, collisions and chaos be damned.

Thank you for keeping it locked on COGconnected.