Star Wars Galactic Racer Review: A Fast, Fun Racing Game Worth Your Time

And we're back with another episode of Before You Buy, that show where we give you some straightup gameplay and our

first impressions of the latest games releasing. It's me, Jake Baldino, and today we're talking about Star Wars

Galactic Racer. Uh, this is a racing game straight up that takes place after the fall of the Galactic Empire. Uh,

it's pretty straightforward, but I got to say, I've been having a lot of fun with it. That's the bottom line. To me,

Star Wars Galactic Racer here kind of reminds me of Star Wars Squadrons, as in like a uh really fun, quality, no BS

game that a lot of people are going to sleep on. So, if you're the type of person that likes Squadrons and didn't

sleep on that, I'd say Galactic Racer might be interesting for you. Don't expect just like a Star Wars pod racing

game here. Uh it's got a lot more going on than that. But I do think it's interesting to talk about. So, uh just

so you know, this is going to be spoiler-free cuz there is a story mode. Uh and the footage captured here is

running on PC. So, just jumping right in, we should talk about the core gameplay itself. Uh, you get to race in

all types of matches, uh, with land speededers, speeder bikes, or skim speeders. Uh, there are also pod racers

involved at some points, but mostly it's going to be these main three. Uh, it doesn't sound like a lot of vehicles,

and I will admit, I think this could lead to some repetition after a while, but at the very least, all three are

solid, like well-honed, well-controlling vehicle styles that all kind of offer their own little uh personal quirks uh

that different people will embrace. You're going to find one that you like and end up sticking with it. The land

speeder, it's kind of like the all-arounder. Pretty good at handling. It can drift, it can boost, all that.

The speeder bike is faster, but you can crash and die instantly. Uh, but you also have a more fun drift where if you

hold it for a certain period, you'll get a little boost out of it, almost like Mario Kart. Then there's the skim

speeder, which can like bank and turn uh way more easy by basically turning sideways. So, you can really thread the

needle sometimes. All of these are fun to play as in my opinion. Uh, they all have a really good sense of speed and I

think that just comes down to how the gameplay feels here. It's the sound design, but again, it's like the sense

of speed and like how that's portrayed on screen, how you feel the momentum, how fast and how crazy it can be. Uh,

that really sells it. These vehicles all have essentially two options for how you're going to boost. Uh, the main one

is you press a button, you hold the afterburner, and you burn that boost meter until it goes down. Then you wait

for it to fill back up, and then you hold boost again. If you've ever played a racing game, you get it. But then

there's also the ramjet, which is an alternative boosting mode that you can manually switch on and then you hold for

a really good speed boost, but a meter will fill up. And basically, if you push your vehicle too hard, uh you'll

explode. So, it's really fun to use this at certain times, at specific moments to really push it to the limit. Along with

that, it also gets more complex uh with abilities and stuff you can equip, which I'll get to all that in a bit. But

that's the racing here. It is very simple, but it's all about navigating very fast, very quick turns, threading

needles, banking around corners where just a very slight slip up can totally screw you up. I got to admit, it did

take a while to get used to. Just the amount of like visual noise on screen, the amount going on, like you know, all

these environments are incredibly detailed and they're all zipping by at a million miles an hour. It can kind of

take a little while for your brain to get used to processing some of this. Sometimes I'd be looking straight ahead

and my brain and my eyes couldn't identify where to turn immediately just because the game is really fast. I did

find myself kind of going, "Oh man, am I starting to lose it, man? Am I getting older?" But after a while, you get used

to that sense of speed and then once you really lock in, uh, it can feel great. Races, like I said, can flip very, very

quickly thanks to some crashes, but also maybe you'll hit a jump or take a lastm minute very risky shortcut to pull ahead

all as the music swells. Uh, the races have that Star Wars feel, that cinematic feel, and a lot of that comes down to

the sound design I mentioned, but also uh the music itself uh where it actually changes at points during the race, which

helps it feel kind of cinematic. Crashes too also really help give the game a little bit more oomph. They've got an

almost kind of burnout style kill crash cam uh where it shows your vehicle shattering into a bunch of pieces. So

even when you crash into a wall in a split second, like it it's going to happen a lot, but crashing always just

looks cool. It's always entertaining, and it's really fun uh to crash into other players and screw them over. Most

of the time, the game's camera will cleverly pan very briefly to show your enemy racer getting crashed into bits.

And I love that a lot, except that my only issue is that every once in a while when the camera pans away to show the

crash, like it it's keeping you controlled safely. But when the camera goes back to you and you resume control,

nine times out of 10, you're good. But every once in a while, it's going to set you up for a really tricky spot. You

might crash. The same goes for when you crash and respawn. Unfortunately, I did have a few issues where I I crashed and

then I very quickly respawned and I was still in a bad spot and then ended up taking another wrong turn and then ended

up getting two crashes under my belt. Little frustrating things here and there. Uh but that was really the early

game. After a while, I I got kind of used to it. Still little issues like that don't get really get in the way too

much of this racing feeling really good. Now, it's good that this all feels good and thankfully there is a good amount of

stuff uh for you to do with this racing. For me, so far at least, it's felt like a pretty well-rounded package because

the main campaign mode is almost like a runbased mode, maybe like a rogue light mode where essentially uh you're trying

to play and race through tournaments. Uh, and there's no takebacks. You can't quit and restart a race or do anything

like that. And if you lose, you lose race tokens, which eventually means you have to start back from the beginning

and start a new competition from the ground up. Thankfully, when this does inevitably happen, if you've been doing

okay and you've been racing, okay, uh you will earn uh all these different things, and some of them are permanent

upgrades, so you can come back a little better with how you modify your ship. Your vehicle's build is significant

because you have uh upgrades, which essentially increase your vehicle's stats. So you have all these different

stats like you know how accurate your drift is, how fast or how, you know, efficiently your vehicle can corner, how

much damage it can sustain, uh how fast your boost recharges and stuff like that. Then you can also earn parts uh

which will change your vehicle's behavior. These are mostly more of like a passive thing. Uh then you also have

different abilities. Uh these can be activated uh while you're racing and they have like a bit of a cool down. And

what's nice is that you can have them all kind of mapped and ready to go. If you're playing on controller, uh they

correspond, you can swap them with the D-pad and then the tap of a button, like say a shield, uh a temporary extra speed

boost, shooting out flames, uh dropping little mines that will mess with other players, stuff like that. But I think

the most important thing is the upgrades, which make it nice. It's like it kind of like escalates as you rise

through the ranks and you essentially race through these brackets because your vehicle gets much better and also all

the upgrades you get uh contribute to the vehicle's like top speed number. So, you're essentially just getting better

and faster the further in you progress. And that just kind of helps these races keep a good pace. And what is nice is

that through this campaign when you are choosing these modes, you're essentially going from planet to planet. So, you're

going to be doing a handful of races on say Jaku or like a swamp planet or crate or whatever, but uh they keep it

interesting because you have a branching tournament course. So, you can choose which races you want to do. Maybe you

don't want to do an elimination style match and you want to do a kind of time trial match. You usually have the option

to choose your own path a little bit. Along with that, uh the maps do change significantly. So, one planet means

there's tons of courses for each one and different times of day and rain and whatever. The main goal of the campaign

is to slowly progress through these races or or these events, work your way to the top, get your vehicle stronger

and stronger, and eventually beat your rival at the main championship race. It's this guy Kar Bull, and he's

basically a douchebag. The rivalry is established early on, and it's really good. The story stuff is really simple.

There's not really much to it. You create your own character who's kind of like got a bounty hunter look. And the

game keeps it simple. You know, there's just enough story, just a little bit something interesting to chew on. Some

cool characters do show up. It's really just to keep you playing and keep you racing. But I do think it's good enough

and it keeps things moving nicely. Oh, one thing I did forget is that you're also uh essentially choosing racer

styles. Racer styles you select have their own special traits and abilities that uh also kind of can like alter how

you play a little bit. Like say you play defensively, you don't play too aggressive. You can lean into that with

a racer style that essentially encourages uh shield power and you know driving and not damaging your vehicle

for added bonuses. All these things add up to making what are very simple races uh feel a little bit more complex. Uh

you're dealing with some elements. You're dealing with uh acid burning your vehicles and heat burning your vehicles

and then you're dealing with other racers on the field that have their own little special abilities and vehicle

upgrades. So, while yes, at its core it's essentially boost and drift and jump and that's really it, the game does

a good job of consistently keeping you on your toes despite its, you know, somewhat simple premise. Along with that

campaign mode, which, you know, for me personally, that's quite a bit to chew on. But there is some other stuff. Uh,

especially if you're starting to get a little tired, you know, if you are in a in a rut and you're not progressing much

and you are feeling a little repetition, uh, there are scenarios and arcade mode. So scenarios essentially are things you

can unlock in campaign mode that will then allow you to go back into the main menu and play all these separate little

uh character races with their own separate string of races. Uh then there's arcade mode which is basically

what you'd expect. You have all different types of missions uh that you can choose and just play and have some

fun just jumping into races. very quick, very short races like, you know, like where the laps are like 30 seconds, but

they're super brutal or maybe a time trial race or elimination or pod racing. There's a whole playlist you can jump in

and just do pod racing. And as a Star Wars fan, I was very happy to do that. I was able to kick Sabala's ass. I was

able to play as Ben Cuadinaros. Like stuff like that makes me happy. that also carries on into a multiplayer mode

which you know has a good selection of modes but it also just has a quick race option if you want to jump in which

that's what I've been taking advantage of and so far on launch I haven't had any server issues or any problems

finding a match and the connections were good you know at least from you know day one experience uh but also not only is

there a quick match option there's also quick pod race so if you just want to hop online and do some pod racing

against some people you could do that the game knows what's up it knows what you come for and I I appreciate that.

Oh, and one thing I did forget to mention, uh, there is some customization. Uh, you know, you earn

credits so you can buy different paint jobs and, you know, paint decal styles. Uh, there are different like engines you

can equip on your vehicles and stuff like that. This stuff didn't blow me away. It is cool like, and it was fun to

make a kind of like weird asymmetrical jacked up landspeeder that was all rusty. I appreciate that there's the

option to choose the metal patina like and you know just how decrepit and Star Warsy you want your vehicle to be. But

for me a lot of like the decal and paint job styles didn't really blow me away. It wasn't really anything I was like

motivated to pursue. Like I just like the game for the gameplay. The customization stuff seems all right. But

at the very least I'm glad it's there. I'd say my only like other real issue with the game, you know, other than

maybe some repetition that might set in eventually uh is there's no split screen. No, split screen racing is a

bummer because I feel like it would be perfect for this type of g like I would love to play this on the couch with

someone else. I would have an absolute hoot and I think Star Wars like you know it's like all ages you can play with

your friends, play with your younger siblings, kids. I think that would really win here. So for that to not be

here, it is a shame. But otherwise, I have already been pretty satisfied with Star Wars Galactic Racer, man. Now, you

know, I always put my biases up front. I've said it a million times in other videos. I am the Star Wars guy. you

know, for for good and bad. We complain about Star Wars, but I I just really genuinely like Star Wars, and I like the

video games a lot. I think they've been doing a good job, and I'm happy to say that Star Wars Galactic Racers seems

like it's uh continuing on that winning streak. Just solid Star Wars stuff where the movies and TV shows may not cut it.

I think the video games have been doing a great job. But hey, that's a before you buy. You know how this goes by now.

I give you some pros, some cons, and some personal opinion. And now I want to hear yours down in the comments. Like I

said, this is a very simple, straightforward game. If you like Star Wars, play it at some point. I'm glad

it's not, you know, $70 for base price. At least it's 60 at the very least. But whether you play it right away or you

wait for sale, I think you might be satisfied. I just really like to know what you think, though, in terms of this

game and also other Star Wars racing games. Also, hell, I can't help but think of Star Wars Demolition. But, uh,

that's just me. Anyway, uh, I could talk all day. Thank you very much for listening. We'd love to hear what you

think in the comments. Clicking the like button helps us out. We appreciate it. But, uh, that's it. I'm Jake Baldino.

Thanks for watching. We'll see you guys next time. Come on. G.

Oh, this suckable. Heat. Heat.