Quantum Redshift
Quantum Redshiftby Microsoft
Platform: Xbox
ESRB Rating: Teen
ASIN: B00006IJIT
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Features:
• High speed futuristic combat racing with colorful characters
• More than 100 weapons effects, enabling characters to attack with everything from plasma bolts to tidal waves
• 16 drivers, each with a unique ship, home circuit, weapons, and an inter-driver storyline
• Soundtrack by Junie XL, the musician behind the hit re-mix A Little Less Conversation
• For 1-4 players
Product Description: Quantum Redshift has the speed of Wipeout 2097, the personalities and crazy tracks of SSX, and the power-up strategy of Mario Kart. Set 100 years in the future, Quantum Redshift features a new racing tournament of speed and daring that has become an organized sport on tracks all over the world. The 16 drivers all have their own unique ship, home circuit, weapons, and nemesis. Intense storylines, developed throughout the game via cut scenes and animation, range from political adversaries to estranged lovers.
Customer Reviews:
The best!, November 8, 2002
Reviewer: blinx17
This game is the best futuristic racer out there, nothing on the other systems even comes close to it. The Zenith of all racing games.
Engrossing, challenging game, November 1, 2002
Reviewer: Steven Myers from SF Bay Area
Quantum Redshift starts off hard--almost frustratingly so. It took me nine or ten races to even get out of last place (although I started at the second difficulty level, not the lowest). Once you get a feeling for the speed of the game, which is almost dizzying at first, you improve rapidly, but I've never found myself dominating a race as I can in so many other racing games (where you eventually get so good, you lap the other cars five times before the race ends). QR also keeps a carrot dangling in front of you--as you win, you get money to upgrade your car, and you unlock other pilots/cars (you can't mix and match different pilots with different cars, though), new difficulty levels, and new tracks. Also, a selection of easter eggs opens up as you win, including my favorite, which turns off the weapons and forces you to win a race on your driving skill alone. You can pick and choose among these easter eggs at any time other than during a specific race (so even between races in the tournament mode).
Contrary to some of the other reviews here, this is a very pretty game, which uses the power of the Xbox quite well. The tracks are varied--some are fairly level, high speed tracks, others are bumpy and set your car bouncing up and down until you learn to control and take advantage of the bumps and jumps. The cars also have a very different feel to them: some are nimble and agile, but not speed burners, others are fast but difficult to handle, others are ponderous but powerful, and others are a mix. I believe I have unlocked all the cars, and have a choice between 16 of them.
There are some problems, but these are manageable. Loading times for the tracks are too long, and compounded by the fact that a cut-scene featuring your character and the home pilot of the track you're on always comes up first (and takes a while to load itself). The music is also bland, uninspired techno, but QR does support the Xbox's custom soundtrack feature, so you can use your own music if you want.
Quite simply, this is a wonderful game that hasn't gotten a lot of attention. Once you push through to your first victory, you'll be hooked.
Curb Appeal, but nothing else, October 28, 2002
Reviewer: A gamer from Felton, CA USA
This game is like Budweiser - very well produced product but bland and tasteless. The racing isn't challenging and the gameplay is boring. We tried about 10 races before giving up. It's pretty, and the concept is good, it's just missing something.
Good but not great., October 16, 2002
Reviewer: Gabriel Perdue from Chicago, IL United States
Quantum Redshift is a passable racing game that really needs more tracks to work. In QR, you begin with access to seven different racers, each with a unique vehicle (although each is only subtly different from the others) and the home track of each racer. You also begin with access to only the first of five tiers of speed. Speed is what QR does well. The graphics engine is incredible, and the lanscape will blur in amazing and truly convincing ways as you blast around at speeds that approach 1000 mph on the highest difficulty levels. While you are racing, you can pick up power ups that let you attack other racers and shield yourself from their attacks. Just to keep things violent, one of the opponents you race against when racing the computer will always be your nemesis...a racer who would rather see you lose than win himself. Supposedly you interact with your nemesis during cutscenes between races, but the relationships are pretty ignorable. The weapons are all pretty cool and while sometimes you wish your nemesis weren't there mucking things up, it isn't so hard to just accept him as part of the challenge of the game. QR has great music and sound effects and if you happen to not like techno music yourself, you can play custom tracks off the hard drive (although the game will play the tracks you picked in a random order, which is kind of annoying and should have been made optional). Winning tournaments unlocks new characters and speed levels and you can win cash to upgrade your vehicle (more turbo, better shields and weapons).
So far so good and all of the above is enough to keep you interested in the game, but two major flaws bring it down from greatness. First, the racing itself is not very deep. You have a turbo meter you need to monitor and use wisely and you do of course need to worry about the people shooting at you (the attacks can be quite devastating and are capable of destroying ships once the weapons have been powered up, and will always cost you a lot of your momentum), but there are no gears to shift and there is not a lot of technique in the turns. The second, and by far larger, flaw,is the limited number of tracks, and the length of the tracks. Put simply, there just isn't a lot of game here. There are sixteen tracks, but none of them are very long, and while there are some pretty cool ones, they aren't that much different from each other. The tracks come in pairs, a racer and his nemsis forming a pair, and the two tracks are really quite similar. The tracks that are there are all fantastically detailed, but I for one would be happy to trade away a lot of the background detail for a wider variety of tracks.
In the end, QR is not a bad game by any means, but it could have really benefitted from a standard transmission and about twice as many unique tracks. I think a racing game junkie who just devours games and moves on could definitely have fun with this one for a couple of weeks, but if you aren't a giant fan of the genre and are really just looking for that one really good racing game to have in your library, I'd definitely reccomend renting this one first.
Avoid it like a bad sci-fi movie., October 12, 2002
Reviewer: metacortex from California USA
I was fairly excited for this game since it was developed by the same people who worked on Wipeout and Wipeout XL - two of my favorite futuristic racers along with Pod Racer. But after playing it for probably more than 50 hours and getting over the eye candy I must say those guys have lost their pizzazz.
What an utterly boring experience this was so far. Quantum Redshift is trying to be a cross between Wipeout and Pod Racer while poorly copying elements of both. Let's start with:
Design, Graphics, Sound and Style.
I don't know who artistically directs at Curly Monsters but it really feels like it's a programmer. This game is a smorgasbord of visual effects and detailed textures which are put together without any merit or visual sense.
The ships look like something out of Jetsons with bump-mapping that adds absolutely nothing but a tired effect seen so many times in bad 3d art. There really is nothing even remotely appealing about these bulbs with engines attached to them. Both Wipeout and Pod Racer put this to shame even though they are much older games.
All but one of the maps in this game are a terrible cacophony of colors neither of which leaves a distinct impression. I really can't remember what distinguished one from another. I was really surprised to find out once I got deeper in to the game that all the tracks are absolutely flat. Don't expect to find any head-spinning-hair-raising dives, jumps or loops you might have seen in Wipeout, Pod Racer or XG3- it's all straight-aways ending in sharp turns rarely going up or down.
Other elements which compose maps are nothing to be excited about either. You get your lifeless tracks, with no cheering crowds, and boring and unoriginal architecture which at most times makes no functional sense.
There is only one track that is really unique, moody and fun - the Yuri Galitz's track, but it too suffers from the same problems.
The visual effects here can be found aplenty. In fact it seems that the entire game is designed around the effects. You get your droplets, inversed color count downs, flashes, shaders, reflections, bump mapping, and so forth. Really makes for a great Xbox tech demo. This doesn't make the game unfortunately, just distracts long enough for you to buy it and then realize that besides a pretty coating you don't get much at all.
The now infamous droplet effect is so abused you get tired of it before you start to really appreciate it. There are more ponds, rivers and lakes for you to dip in here than weapon powerups. It also seems very odd that the ships don't make any splash effects on the water. You'd think something hitting water at 600mph would make one hell of a wave, bit it doesn't.
Powerups are also nothing but shapeless blobs with shader effects applied to them. A lot of things in QR feel like this - an afterthought.
As to the sound - there is really not much to say about it other than Curly Monsters shouldn't have wasted their time making it surround. The effects are so plain and boring it hurts. All you hear is your bumps on the walls, and the monotone sound of the engine.
Environment is also shallow - aside from the Galitz's track it really feels like some flashy futuristic nothing. There is no theme - nothing really looks 'post-apocalyptic' as the game was advertised as. Really no vision to appreciate here.
Gameplay
This is an area where this game out-does its style in bad. I remember reading a lot of previews before QR was released all of which hyped the depth, fun and fast racing it has to offer.
Well, the depth of this game is its mediocre vehicle upgrades which don't even deserve to be compared to Pod Racers upgrade system plus the short stories through dialogs/monologues of curvy babes in latex you witness before each race. One can only wish that Curly Monsters would spend as much time on design and gameplay as they did on the curly features of the character models.
You also get the 'cultural element' as all the characters speak in their native languages and the countdown before each race is also in the language native to the track. This is cool, but hardly worth it alone.
Like I said above all the tracks are a combination of long straight-aways ending in sharp turns. Every racer should have a couple but not like this - in QR you can never really appreciate the speed because you have to constantly brake before another 90d turn.
Handling is a little slidy too, but given the hovering nature of the game it's alright. I still don't think a ship traveling at 500-900mph could slide like this though.
Conclusion
I reserved my copy and got it the day it came out - and I am really disappointed. I don't think this is a fun game, and if you think it might be - rent it first and play it for at least 10 hours then ask yourself if you really got to have it.
Looks Great...Got no soul, October 12, 2002
Reviewer: last_bronx from College Park, MD USA
After the bad taste of Wipeout Fusion on the PS2, I was looking forward to this game, but it is only so-so. The visual effects are really amazing (the rain effects and water effects are most impressive) but the gameplay is weak. I find the ships are just too light for my taste (unlike wipeout, where you "felt" gravity in the steering), these ships seem just floating like a hockey puck and bounching along the side of the track. While the levels have alot of eye candy, many tracks (or large sections of tracks) are too twisty to actually get a good sense of speed while playing, and while the weapons effects are sharp, you're generally going to fast to actually see them (but it looks pretty in the replay mode). The storyback drop is uttery laughable and distracts from the game. So this is one I'm glad I rented first. Definate showcase of the X-Box's power but not a good example of what I would consider a good game.
extremely good and fast racer, October 11, 2002
Reviewer: camcbri from BLOOMINGTON, IL United States
most reviewers focus on the fact that this game is like wipeout... that's really too bad. when unreal tournament came out, people didn't say "it has great graphics, but it's really just another FPS like wolfenstein." technologically, this game crushes all versions of wipeout. the frame rate is fast and never drops. the graphics are amazing. the music sounds good, but may wear on people that are not techno fans... good news, though, as it does support custom soundtracks.
i agree that the cutscenes are useless and pointless. at least a story was attempted! most racers (re: ridge racer, rallisport challenge, Gran turismo, etc) don't try one at all.
i've spent about 8 hrs with the game so far and love it. i would recommend it to anyone who likes racing games. there is nothing else as good in the current generation of consoles (including wipeout fusion and extreme g3).
Pure fun!, October 11, 2002
Reviewer: smail1111 from Houston, Texas United States
I usually don't like "racing" games...I find them too stressful, but this one rocks!!!!
What great grapics and format. Easy stair-step levels. Never a dull moment.
Fast and Sloppy, October 11, 2002
Reviewer: W. Tarello from Germantown, Maryland United States
First off, I love racing games. I'll play almost any game w/ racing in it. This game is graphically beautiful, no slowdown, with some very cool small touches, (like the water droplets on your t.v. screen.) The only complaint I have is that like a lot of Xbox games, the curve from Easy to Hard doesn't exist. You race the Novice tracks, (easy,) you race the amateur tracks, (easy but faster, that's ok though, at this point you have the tracks memorized,) Then you get to the Expert track, (all concieted, thinking you got this game licked w/ all the tracks memorized.) And, BAM, it's hard all of a sudden. Suddenly instead of always coming in first your bouncing off of walls and getting passed like crazy. Alot of Xbox games seem like this. There is an immediate jump from easy and fun, to hard and frustrating. It's still a fun game, but now your doing the same track over and over to advance to the next track, (which you've already seen in the Novice and Amatuer circuits.) So you might even give up at that point thinking there is nothing really new to see. Also, the cutscenes supposed 'storyline' is laughable. If you really love racing games, rent it first.
This game is amazing...WIPEOUT FUSION, eat your heart out!!!, October 1, 2002
Reviewer: Gary and Sarah Fox from Broken Arrow, Ok United States
While games like WIPEOUT FUSION try to get it right, QUANTUM REDSHIFT nips it in the bud and nails WIPEOUT FUSION to the wall(in every aspect). The GRAPHICS, GAME PLAY, FRAME-RATE(not a lick of slow down @ 60 FRAMES PER SECOND), WEAPONS, CONTROL, TRACK DESIGN, are all better than WIPEOUT FUSION by a country mile. The graphics are simply amazing, the explosions have awesome shock waves(which don't create any slow down) and the buildings, water and surroundings are all beautiful. There is this amazing water effect when you're in 1st person mode that is darn near 'STATE OF THE ART'. There is a couple of games that come close to this 1st person-water effect, one is EXTREME-G3 on the PS2(it's a harder-later race at night and it is raining. Really cool water effect in 1st person mode)and the other is TEST DRIVE on the original playstation(I believe it is the 'Russia' track and it too is raining, again, really neat water effect in 1st person mode. BY THE WAY, that game has awesome crashes!) Other than that I haven't seen any really neat water effects in 1st person mode racer games like QUANTUM REDSHIFT has. You'll see what I'm talking about, it's AMAZING! There is also a really neat effect I noticed while watching my replays. Some of the stationary cameras shake violently as the racers are blazing by. I love that touch and this game is full of little things like that. I can't really say enough about how pleased I am with this game...HOWEVER, there is a couple of NEGATIVE's though, but really don't take away from the game play itself. One is that the tracks seem a little short for my liking. I wish I could adjust the number of laps in QUICK RACE mode to make up for that, but there is sadly no option.(but, in it's defense, the harder the race you choose the more laps there are, but I still have no control over that PRE-SET number). ALSO, I don't think that the track "IN REVERSE" should be counted as a "SEPERATE TRACK". It says there are 16 tracks, will really there are 8, in both directions(8X2=16, NOT! It's really 8 tracks FORWARD and REVERSE. But, in it's defense, I haven't completed the game and there may be surprise extra tracks, but that's not likely the case). ALSO the short skits when the rivals are squaring off with each other are, for the most part, pointless and a waiste of valuable storage space(perhaps more tracks could have been added?). Other than that I LOVE THIS GAME. Heck, I can't emagine any race fan NOT liking this game! But some people like to sleep during their racing experience and...that's okay, however, if you are into SNOOZER race games like PROJECT GOTHAM(which I actually like, it just gets boring, very fast), or SEGA GT(no comment) this game may be too exciting for you. But if you like FAST PACED, HIGH SPEED, SHOOT'em UP, FUTURISTIC, COOL WEAPONS, COOL EXPLOSIONS, FLASHY TRACKS, ANTI-GRAVITY-POD RACER TYPE racing games then this game is for you. To put it simply...THIS GAME IS A MUST!!!
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