This is an Early Access Review and as such opinions and scores are based solely on the state of the game at the time of review and subject to change as development progresses leading up to final release.
While we all sit around waiting for the Crimson Skies sequel that is never going to arrive at least we can enjoy some fantastic air racing from developer, Gugila who is putting their final touches on Altitude0: Lower & Faster; a game that is going into its third (and hopefully final) year of Early Access. I’ve been playing the game off and on for the past year; usually checking it out each time a new patch is released, but after the most recent patch I saw no reason to withhold my review any longer.
If you love the thrill of Red Bull Air Racing then prepare to experience something even more dangerous when you take to the skies in this competitive plane racing game set in a variety of gorgeous environments loaded with challenging ring race gates or the more deadly trap gates threating to crush, chop, or torch your plane. Altitude0 offer exciting modes for a solo career and some impressive online multiplayer modes, as well as unparalleled freedom to customize your plane or even build your own race circuits using the intuitive track editor.
As the subtitle hints, the game encourages low altitude flight at extreme speeds. You might be flying through a series of rings in one race and then through a series of pole gates the next, or sometimes a mix of both. Other gates have fiendish traps built into them like crushers that you have to perfectly time to get through or giant blades or mines not to mention natural obstacles like trees, rocks, and narrow caves and winding canyons to fly through.
The game is decisively arcade in nature but does offer some surprisingly advanced controls allowing you full rudder control for almost sim-like maneuverability. You can choose between chase and nose camera (no cockpit view) and each offers their own pros and cons for playing the game. But most of all, Altitude0 is just a fun game to play, reminding me of a more advanced version of Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed – at least the parts where you were flying. There is an option to simplify the controls, but I encourage you to stick with the advanced controls if you want to win (or even complete) later races.
The game starts off easy enough but quickly gets very challenging, as you dive deeper into the solo career mode. The tracks get more treacherous as they wind through nature and pack in more deadly gate traps. There is no plane vs. plane combat, so the other racers, whether ghost or human are merely additional obstacles rather than real threats. The online community seems to be thriving and you should have no trouble finding or filling a race event. But even if you never go online and simply want to play around with the addictive solo races or tinker with the track creation toolbox you can still lose yourself in Altitude0 for countless hours.
Over the past year I’ve seen a very noticeable improvement in the visual fidelity of the game, both in textures and detail as well as draw distance and smooth framerate. I ran a couple of benchmarks at ultra-detail in 1080p and was averaging 224fps on a GTX980ti card. That’s just crazy. Sound effects are mostly plane engines and the occasional steel thump of a crusher gate, but the soundtrack really rocks thanks to some music courtesy of LastDayHere that totally energizes each race.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Altitude0: Lower & Faster is that it’s being developed by only two people, which might explain a three-year stint in Early Access, but even so they have been active with the community and regularly rolling out patches and improvements to the point where the game that you can play today is as close to release material as you could expect from an indie title. We’ll revisit the game when it officially launches but I can’t see it getting much better.
