Previews

Hands-on with RedLynx and Chillingo’s art-racing DrawRace 2: Racing Evolved

Burning rubbers

Hands-on with RedLynx and Chillingo’s art-racing DrawRace 2: Racing Evolved
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iOS
| DrawRace 2

It’s always interesting to see how developers approach the touchscreen when it comes to established genres.

Initially, everyone presumed that the virtual D-pad and buttons configuration would be the best way of recreating the home console experience, but this has rarely proven the ideal way of controlling iPhone games.

Others such as RedLynx instead turned the limitations of the controller into a strength, blending elements of line-drawing titles like Flight Control (a genre that works especially well on the touchscreen) with the racing sim to create the Pocket Gamer Silver Award-winning DrawRace.

Now, the Trials HD team are back with the sequel, and to say it’s looking a bit good is an understatement - it's looking like a championship contender.

Metallic paint job

The revamped visuals are the first thing to strike home about DrawRace 2, although this is as much down to the radical departure in style from the original game, as to the quality of the graphics themselves.

Gone is the cartoon, abstract look, and in comes a realistic feel that rivals the best top-down racers on the platform. Even the lines you draw on-screen now look more elegant - like a paintbrush stroking out the racing line.

Elsewhere, RedLynx’s usual attention to detail is on display, with everything from the type of vehicle racing to the different track surfaces all affecting how well your plotted path plays out.

Supercharge engine

As with its predecessor, in DrawRace 2 you have very little direct control over the car once the race is underway.

Instead, you trace out the desired route with your finger before the race begins, with the speed your digit travels at correlating to how fast your AI driver will attempt to take the corner once it gets underway.

Unlike the original, though, there’s a boost button that can be deployed during the race for that extra ‘oomph’: this could mean the difference between winning and losing down the home straight.

Press it on a corner and you’re likely to see your driver struggle to keep his tyres on the track, no matter how carefully you traced the apex of the curve.

Talking of recovery, the AI reacts far more realistically on the circuit this time, with the cars making intelligent attempts at restoring track position if they slip off your carefully drawn line.

After market parts

DrawRace 2 expands on the original in pretty much every single feature you can think of - it’s not kidding around with the Racing Evolved subtitle.

For instance, the fairly bare bones single-player mode has been overhauled, now flaunting some 180+ races, 32 tracks, and 16 different types of car (from F1 to rally). The events themselves range from standard two-lap sprints to ones that require you to hold a certain line (popping balloons) and still win.

On top of all that, the menu music is brilliantly evocative, with a dramatic piano setting the scene for either single-player or up to eight-way multiplayer racing.

We’ll see precisely what feelings it evokes in us when we get our hands properly wrapped around its steering wheel later this month.

In the meantime, check out the DrawRace 2: Racing Evolve hands-on video below.

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Will Wilson
Will Wilson
Will's obsession with gaming started off with sketching Laser Squad levels on pads of paper, but recently grew into violently shouting "Tango Down!" at random strangers on the street. He now directs that positive energy into his writing (due in no small part to a binding court order).