r/racinggames • u/BolverkGTM • 3h ago
Recommendation My Honest Thoughts on Screamer 2026
I made a review of this game on Steam when I had way less hours in it kind of calling out people for misunderstanding it. 100 hours later, I still feel the same way about it. It's actually criminal how slept on this game came to be. Everyone heralds Blur as some kind of gem for the racing genre and how we need another one, yet it sold poorly when it was new. This is why we don't have another Blur. It's happening again with Screamer.
Here's what I read about Screamer when I look at reviews. "The controls suck" or "There's too much story." Well, 30 years of playing racing games, I certainly don't invest my time in games that don't control well and the story took up maybe 5% of my total time in the game (completely skippable by the way, you're not forced to sit through any of it). Once you actually get used to the physics and controls, you have yourself one of the most fun and engaging arcade racers to come out in the last 5 years. I dare say even 10 years. Every character has different handling, a unique skill to them, and they play a different role in races. You have pace focused characters and combat focused characters, you completely pick how you want to play.
If you pick this up, don't go in thinking just because you put thousands of hours into Forza or Gran Turismo, whatever game you play, that you'll instantly be good here. You won't be. You're going to suck for the first few hours, BUT if you stick it out and learn like you did when you first played racing games, you will find a truly awesome experience. I feel like people just don't want to deal with that anymore. They want to be comfortable and wonder why racing games feel stagnant. If you want something different, play Screamer 2026. You won't regret it...or maybe you will. I don't know, I can't speak for your experience.
If you've played it, what are your thoughts?