Star Wars: Galactic Racer proves that roguelikes and racing are "a match made in heaven," and it's bringing white knuckle consequences back to the genre

Star Wars: Galactic Racer aims to bring consequence back to racing games, offering the kind of white-knuckle thrills you can only get when your life is on the line with every corner you take. That's why its campaign is built on a roguelike-style, run-based structure and after an hour of hands-on time at Summer Game Fest, I can say that the combination has produced some spectacular results. This is a game that feels incredible to play, offers a real sense of danger, and captures the Star Wars vibe impeccably.

"We were trying to push the genre forward by looking at some things that we might have done and used to do in the past that have been missing," Matt Webster, founder and CEO of developer Fuse Games explains. The team aims to create the feeling that "when I crash, when I hit something, there is a consequence to that, and I feel like that's been a little bit missing out of the racing genre."

The deadliest sport in the galaxy

Certainly, I felt those consequences in my hands-on time. Each run sees you follow a tree of events, choosing at each branch whether you'd prefer to, say, take on a standard race, an eliminator challenge, or a mystery event. Fail to finish in the required position – or crash three times in one event – and you're out, left to start all over again.

"We think that that structure and racing is a match made in heaven, because racing thrives on replayability. Let's have a progression system that encourages replayability and mastery, and feels a lot, I suppose, more contemporary. That's a way in which we can breathe some new life into racing by using a more contemporary progression system that's very well in sync with the choices you make and the decisions that you take along the way."

I'd describe myself as a roguelike skeptic – there are entries in the genre that I enjoy, but I generally prefer a more crafted experience. That said, playing with that roguelike structure in a racing game instantly clicks for me. As Webster suggests, the replayability inherent to the racing genre is a perfect fit, and the choices I get for new upgrades between races feels all the more impactful when a mistake could force me back to the start of the tour.

Of course, none of this would matter if the racing didn't feel good to control. Thankfully, Galactic Racer has sublime fundamentals. You choose one of three types of craft to pilot through the races – the all-around landspeeder, the boatlike skim speeder, or the small, darting speeder bike – each of which feels distinct, complete with unique drift mechanics to help you take turns more efficiently.

The thing all vehicles share is a pair of boost mechanics. There's an afterburner that recharges over time, which you can naturally activate for a quick boost, as you'd expect to see in any arcade racer. There's also the riskier ramjet, which separately charges over time and has to be primed with a separate button press before use. The ramjet will shoot you off at out of control speeds with such force that you can shunt opposing racers off into walls in spectacular crashes, but if you use it too long your engine will overheat and blow your own vehicle to smithereens.

"We've spent time making Burnout games and making Need for Speed games, and it's great to bring some of that inspiration and influence into a new expression of this sort of racing," Webster explains, and if you've ever played a Burnout game before, you will absolutely recognize that influence in the slow-motion cutaways that let you indulge in the vehicular carnage for a few seconds before getting back to racing.

There's also a bit of MotorStorm – another sadly long-dormant racing series – in the way that each race sees several different vehicle classes all competing together, but there's one thing missing from the standard tracks: podracers. The opportunity to drive these vehicles is presented as a special treat, which you can access either from the main menu or as part of the campaign in a "fun and interesting way" that Webster was not willing to spoil.

My time in a podracer feels like going from street racing in a coupe to screaming down the highway in a McLaren supercar. The difference in speed is immense, and even after an hour of getting to grips with Galactic Racer's basic mechanics I'm struggling to go an entire lap without one of my twin engines smashing directly into a rock wall. But those few stretches where I'm able to keep it on track are extremely satisfying, especially playing as Sebulba and getting to unleash his racer's flame jets on nearby opponents.

There are so many more cool things in Galactic Racer, like the tactile little minigame where you start up your vehicle, or the paddock where you can chill out between races and chat with NPCs. It all feels like a complete package, and out of everything I played at Summer Game Fest, this is the one I'm most looking forward to. It's a tried and tested concept molded with a structure that makes it feel fresh, and I can't wait to be zooming around the galaxy far, far away once again this October.

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