One of the things you’ll have learned to be wary of since the Great Indie Boom is an ambitious game pitch that segues into the refrain: ‘…And it’s all one guy!’. You’re probably right in that: the stretch marks that come with overreaching can be seen right away in Ocean City Racing – in its textureless environments and overenthusiastic placement of identical flares.
Then again, the team do seem to have pooled their energy where it counts – in building a serviceable physics engine and proper handling – and have the tentative backing of Epic for their use of UDK. In any case, they’ve made a trailer.
Especially cute is the first-person waddling between vehicles. Look out for that:
Sorry, did I say serviceable physics? Ocean City is home to “the most advanced driving physics ever seen in an indie game”, ever ever and you can’t prove otherwise.
Those physics round off a feature list that offers traffic and pedestrian systems, a day and night cycle and varying weather conditions. The watery city itself contains a subway system you can bet is just-wide-enough to host two adjacent vehicles, and is connected to a nearby island via a great big bridge. Secret vehicles will be scattered between these locations, waiting to be discovered in Free Roam mode.
Ah, those vehicles: the developers have mustered over 20, covering the gamut from sports cars, muscle cars, and super cars to karts and quad bikes. All controllable via an Xbox 360 gamepad, should you have one.
Is it enough for us, though, with our tastebuds tuned to the Forza Horizons of this world? Even for $4.99? What do you reckon?