Wreckreation

For me, Burnout Paradise was — and still is — the epitome of arcade racing. The open map, the volume of content and activities, and the balance of challenge and accessibility had me throwing away more than 300 hours of my life; I loved every minute of it. Since then, I’ve yearned for a sequel, or at least something that comes close.

Wreckreation feels like a breath of fresh air, or rather, exhaust in a world of overly serious racers, giving player agency and fun the top priority with its robust set of tools and activities that let you tailor how you play the game.

Suffering from Burnout

With a vast, open landscape full of creative potential, Wreckreation will unleash your inner child, looping custom courses throughout the world like digital Hot Wheels tracks.

Wreckreation takes a very specific direction. For what it’s worth, it’s still a fun time. Regardless, it still feels more like a reimagining of Need for Speed Most Wanted with elements of Burnout and Hot Wheels rather than a full-on open-world Burnout game. The game includes its fair share of issues, such as pacing, rules around crashing, and general oddities when interacting with objects in the world. Having said that, there's definitely fun to be had here; it perhaps just needs some extra attention that a ten-person development team may not have the resources to apply. $40 is a bit of a hard...

Wreckreation might have its issues, but at the same time, it’s so much fun that you won’t care.

Think of Wreckreation as a spiritual sequel to Burnout Paradise, only not as polished and with the addition of creation elements. It has some issues, but it's been much improved since launch thanks to numerous patches. If you want to race at insane speeds and take down opponents, it's well worth a try.

There's a lot to love about Wreckreation but its issues, both major and minor, hold it back from being a brilliant sandbox that has you spending hours of unadulterated fun on its streets. Yet, there's something about the experience that is sure to keep you coming back for more.

Wreckreation is a game made by Three Fields Entertainment, a small studio led by Criterion Games alumni Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry. With their combined experience on the Burnout series, fans have been hopeful for a spiritual successor that can live up to one of the kings of arcade racing.

Wreckreation, a game with a vision beyond the developer’s abilities, serves as a prime example of a game released too early. This feels very much like a beta release. If fundamental aspects of the game don’t work properly, players cannot enjoy ambitious world-building features like Live Mix. To their credit, the developer is engaged in bug fixes and has published a roadmap of upcoming patches. However, these fixes may come too late to keep players engaged. For Burnout fans, wait for the next game, or until they fix the bugs in this one.

Overflowing with ambition but ultimately plain and with no style to call its own, Wreckreation feels like a supermarket brand homage to a series of better arcade racers.

"I can't deny that I liked my time spent playing Wreckreation. The high-octane action, the blistering speeds, and the open-world freedom all come together to offer a format that I adore. However, I can't in good conscience attribute much of this to this game, as it's about as blatant a copy I have ever seen, lifting Burnout Paradise's mechanics, UI, race types, and progression almost note for note. Yet, in many ways, the game fails to capture that same lightning in a bottle, with shoddy recreations of many aspects of its inspiration. The only unique thing this game has to offer lies within the...