Harms Way

The good news is that this game was free and only took twenty minutes to "beat." The bad news is most other things about it. The premise here is actually kind of cool. Four cars race around a track and the first to complete three laps wins. Meanwhile, human-operated turrets skirt the perimeter of the map, shooting at the vehicles to impede them. The idea is that every vehicle has a gunner teammate and together their goal is for the vehicle to win the race. An interesting twist on a tried and true genre, I supposed. But the racing aspect was executed in such a piss-poor manner that it nearly ruined the game for me; only when I played the role of the shooter did I have any fun at all. Whenever I had to drive around, I was frustrated by a number of things: poor handling, an innate inability to avoid or evade or defend against turret fire, and a horribly ineffective overhead map display. The game isn't necessarily flawed or broken, but at least if it had been I would have been able to laugh at it. Instead, fifteen minutes of racing felt like an hour's worth of wasted time. But playing as the turret was pretty fun. When I finally got the opportunity to do so, I actually smiled for the first time since booting up the game. There's just a small but undeniable sense of satisfaction derived from sniping a car from across the level through the windshield (an instant kill) or blowing out a car's tires (for a substantial handicap). It was as the shooter, too, when I really began to rack up achievements. Now, there is a co-op mode in which the driver can pick up upgrades for the turret man. I haven't played this yet (and may never do so) but it does sound like what could easily be the game's best feature. If anyone else out there has any interest at all (remember, this game is free and takes fifteen minutes to "beat") then by all means let me know you want to tag team it up. Otherwise, I doubt I'll ever touch this free download again.