Bank Limit: Advanced Battle Racing Review – PC/VR

One of the first games we reviewed when we got our Oculus Rift was Radial-G: Racing Revolved, and it pretty much set the bar for all other VR racing games; at least futuristic hover and combat racing games.  Since then, other racers have come and gone but none have left an impression or even warranted replaying after our initial review, but I still go back to Radial-G at least once a week.  When I heard of Bank Limit: Advanced Battle Racing I was understandably curious and a bit skeptical, but after more than two weeks of struggling with this game prior to its release and a few days after, the only recommendation I can give is “don’t even bother”.

Bank Limit sounds impressive on paper, or at least when you read the hyperbole and view the trailer and screenshots on the Steam page.  I’ve got a brutally powerful PC and the game never came close to looking as good as it does in that trailer on Vive, Rift, or even a 4K monitor.  I like the idea of a magnetic racer.  It’s the same concept as Radial-G only in Bank Limit you can disengage the magnet and fly off the track adding tremendous excitement and even some strategy to the combat racing.

Billed as the “fastest game ever” you might hit speeds of 10,000 mph but who has any reference for what that might look like other than a few NASA astronauts.  In the game it seems you are barely moving and when you do start to build up speed you either hit another racer or grind against the wall slowing you right back down.  I’m still pretty sure Sony’s WipeOut franchise or maybe F-Zero is still the fastest combat racing game ever.  At least you can sustain your speeds in those hovercraft.

Bank Limit comes with 20 tracks, which is admittedly impressive assuming you can endure the lengthy process to unlock them all.  Three battle arenas are available for deathmatch but don’t expect to find any humans playing the game even three days after release – usually the surge period.  That leaves you to contend with the campaign mode which ladders you through various classes of races on all the tracks in increasing difficulty and frustration.

A single purchase gets you all possible versions including Vive, Rift, and non-VR modes.  Rift and non-VR make use of a gamepad to handling the hovercraft and combat controls.  There is no tutorial or in-game assistance, so you’ll want to visit the control scheme section of the options and make a mental snapshot of the controller layout.  The Vive makes use of the motion control wands, but only if you don’t have a controller plugged in prior to starting the game.  If it sees the gamepad, you’ll be using the gamepad, but not to worry because the Vive wands are pretty useless when it comes to trying to control your ship.

Visually, the game looks like the movie TRON – the 1982 original; not the cool remake.   The tracks scroll by smoothly enough but only because there is very little texture, detail, or background art.  This is what probably kills the sensation of speed.  There is so much detail in Radial-G it’s like you’re on a rollercoaster that’s out of control and you’re hanging on for life.  Bank Limit is like a rusty old mine car ride.    When you aren’t racing you are forced to navigate some truly horrible menus, and if you are playing in VR you must move your head to make selections that are always 2-3 inches from the crosshair on the display.  There is some sort of tracking racing tabletop game that I accidentally started once and couldn’t exit without exiting the entire game, which must be done with ALT-F4 since there is no exit button.

The music is forgettable, and the sound effects are minimal or entirely missing.  I did one race where I heard nothing but the hum of my engine.  No weapon fire or scraping noises when I rubbed the edge of the track, then all of the sudden another racer exploded and it about blew my headphones off.  The next race then had most of the sound effects restored, but the sound mix was always glitching on nearly every race.

When I started playing Bank Limit: Advanced Battle Racing it was well before release, so I cut it some slack, treating it like early access, but nothing has changed since it launched.  The game seems entirely unfinished and what is playable is often broken, displeasing to the eye, or just not fun to play.  If this had just released to Early Access for $10 it might be worth a look but asking $50 for this game is going to spark more refunds than Arkham Knight.   Avoid Bank Limit at all costs!

Screenshot Gallery

Author: Mark Smith
I've been an avid gamer since I stumbled upon ZORK running in my local Radio Shack in 1980. Ten years later I was working for Sierra Online. Since then I've owned nearly every game system and most of the games to go with them. Not sure if 40+ years of gaming qualifies me to write reviews, but I do it anyway.

1 thought on “Bank Limit: Advanced Battle Racing Review – PC/VR

  1. Within 24hrs of posting my review the developers dropped the price of Bank Limit to $25 on the Steam store and they are issuing refunds to anyone who paid the $50 launch price. I just wanted to acknowledge the new price in case you thought my review was in error. While I commend their actions on this matter I still stand by my closing statement. Avoid this game at all costs…even $25

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *