As I play DeathSprint 66, I'm no longer in a small demo room tucked away in a hall in the Koelnmesse at Gamescom. I'm instead transported into a dystopian gameshow, racing on-foot across a track that's hellbent on killing me. Laser traps of all shapes and sizes threaten to slice me to smithereens with one wrong turn, while I also have to contend with menacing twirling blades that jut out on walls, and competing bot racers that aren't above shoving me.
I fall into a flow state as I try to survive, drifting around tight bends, hitting Surge to boost, and taking note of the direction of traps as I wall-run and propel myself over to a higher track. When I land on a rail with a well-timed jump, gliding across it and avoiding several traps in a row as I go, a sense of satisfaction washes over me. The fluid, fast pace of the race, coupled with the chaos swirling on screen, constantly keeps me on my toes. I'm so invested in reaching the finish line, in fact, that I even notice myself leaning in my seat to mirror the direction of every twist and turn of the race.
Everything is going well until another gameshow contestant smacks me into a row of lasers and I unceremoniously explode. But this isn't the first time I've died, and it certainly won't be the last. I'm quickly back in the race, once again gliding, sliding, and swinging my way across rails, walls, and lanes, and my flow doesn't break for a moment. I'm immediately struck by how smooth and responsive the controls are, and it's not long before I come to realize I haven't had this much fun playing a competitive racing game since Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
I can't remember the last time I clicked with a game so quickly. But Deathsprint 66 is one of the biggest highlights of my Gamescom experience this year, and one of the best surprises for me personally.
Fast and Furious
I've lost count of the amount of hours I've spent over the last several years playing Mario Kart 8. As a game I play regularly against my sister, nothing has come close to replacing Nintendo's competitive racing game. But DeathSprint 66 taps into a similar kind of satisfying chaos as Mario Kart - albeit with its own distinctive dystopian edge - and I can already see myself playing it again and again. Perhaps the comparison shouldn't be so surprising - when I say it reminds me of Deathrace 2000 without cars, game director Andrew Willans compares DeathSprint to "The Running Man meets Mario Kart".
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Not unlike the item boxes you can smash into in Mario Kart, for example, DeathSprint 66 serves up its own item markers that will give you one of a number of different useful tools against other racers at random. Because reaching the finish line isn't all that matters in Sumo Newcastle's racer - causing more havoc and sprinting through the track in style will please the audience. From throwing out a giant round saw blade to slice through anyone that's ahead of you, to activating a shield that makes you invincible against laser traps for a short duration, deploying one at just the right time can make all the difference.
DeathSprint also boasts several different tracks and events in a variety of PvP and PvE formats. I get to try out an assortment of single-player PvE modes aptly known as "Episodes" to feed into the game show set up during my demo session. I kick things off with "Killing Time", a timed challenge that sees me start off with 15 seconds on the clock. I have to race my way across the track to rush through rings that give me more precious seconds. Of course, traps do get in my way, and after one too many, my head suddenly explodes when my time has run out.
In a hardcore death race known as "Five Lives", where I have five clone racers - aka five chances - to make it to the finish line, more chaos ensues. It's certainly not easy when so many traps lie in wait at every turn, but I feel myself once again locking in and getting swept up in the track. Everything really amps up, though, when I step into "Bloodbath Sprints". Willans introduces me to the mode by prefacing that I will "die a lot and that's absolutely okay", and as I soon discover, he's not wrong. Racing against seven other bot players, the track is teeming with deadly traps and unexpected surprises around every bend. With the other racers also firing out items and shoving me off course, every leg of the race I stay alive feels like an accomplishment.
Finding my flow
Willans tells me he's always been a fan of snowboarding and wanted to create an experience that will help players find the satisfying flowstate that can bring. DeathSprint 66 definitely delivers in that respect; I once again find my flow as I'm drawn into the mayhem of the Bloodbath episodes, and I frequently lose all sense of time and place because of how much fun I'm having throughout my session.
As I switch between modes, I see some announcements on screen from a fictional in-game news channel, Bachman Media Network. It's through the "BBC news-like banners", as Willans puts it, that we'll learn more about the backstory of DeathSprint 66 and the futuristic world setting that's home to this bloodthirsty show. The name of network is even a playful nod to its inspiration, with Willans highlighting that Bachman is the pseudonym Stephen King used when The Running Man book was first published.
I've had something of a love affair with some of the best racing games for as long as I can remember. From Sega's Out Run to Super Mario Kart on the SNES (and every subsequent one to follow), I have many fond memories playing the likes of Crazy Taxi, Simpsons Hit and Run, and Midtown Madness 3. I then fell head over heels for the Forza Horizon series later in life, but I've so far never played an on-foot racing experience like DeathSprint 66. I'm surprised by just how well it works without vehicles in the picture, and by how much I enjoy my time with it. It's fast, chaotic, and incredibly satisfying to play, and by the time my demo ends, all I want to do is tuck into more episodes. Happily, I won't have long to wait to find my flow again, with the September 12 release date on the horizon.
