Race N’ Survive Review

Never have I ever played a game as broken and unplayable as Race N’ Survive. I downloaded the game knowing how many negative reviews it got on the Play Store. I was concerned but not swayed. If I can handle a game with abysmal ratings, I can handle any game. The pictures given were less than optimal, but it looked to be a racing game made for fun. The character designs were a little creepy with a low-resolution take on a realistic person. The screenshots of the race showed a simple track, something I assumed would take maybe a few minutes to beat. That’s what I assumed this game was: just a nice diversion, only meant to be played a few minutes at a time. I will never trust a screenshot again because those screenshots were the closest I ever came to actual racing.

The Start Up

First thing that I see, after the company logos, is that there’s no start menu. It starts with a guy standing on a non-textured block, an option to disable vibrations, a money counter in the corner, and the words, “Day 1.” I immediately thought that this was supposed to be a racing campaign where every day you progress through the tracks and use the money you earn to upgrade your vehicle. There were no other options, so after turning off vibrations, I hit the big play button.

At least, I attempted to hit it. One thing I learned that let me know this game was not going to be good is that the hitbox for the play button is smaller than the button itself, so you have to be very precise with how you press it. Once I did, the game lagged for a few seconds before getting into the core gameplay I experienced for the next ten minutes. The man on the starting screen runs off, and the camera follows him down the track.

Endless Frustration

The man runs along a track where floating red and green wads of money await him. Behind that are two signs for the frame of the car, each with their own price tag and a “common” or “uncommon” rating. You have to build the car yourself by running through the green money to be able to afford the car part you want.

To pick the car part, you run through whichever option you want. If you have enough money, the number on the sign turns green, and you knock down the sign. The part then appears behind you as you run. The red money does nothing; it’s only a distraction. You pick up the frame, tires, chassis, spoiler, engine, and finally, your driver. If you run into a sign that you can’t afford, you are knocked back and given the cheaper option anyway. Getting the money is really only if you want the more expensive options.

However, that’s if you can even get the man to go where you want to. To control the man, you have to swipe the screen in the direction you want the man to go. For some reason though, the game sometimes doesn’t recognize when you swipe the screen. In the numerous times I started the run, I had to vigorously rub my phone screen just to get the man to move. Sometimes, it’s completely unresponsive, and you just hit everything in your path until the end of the track. Why am I describing literally every detail about this small section of the game?

For a while, it was the only section of Race N’ Survive that was playable.

Game and Phone Breaking

The worst part about this game is the amount of crashes before the game finally decided to work. One time, I turned my screen off while the game loaded. Once I turned the screen back on, the game severely glitched out as if I were playing an analog horror game. Throughout that time, the most fun and most animated section of the game was the company logos.

After, no joke, three days of trying to play the game, the game finally progressed past that track. Finally, I was allowed to race. The racing section is simultaneously the simplest and hardest way to play a racing game. It’s the simplest in that while your character races on their own, you have to react to turns and overtakes. How you do this is by tapping the screen when an arrow lines up with the green section of a bar. Then the game simulates how you did, the race ends after one lap, and then the next day starts. It’s the hardest in that it is sometimes impossible to line up the arrow with how fast it goes. Even when I know I lined it up perfectly, the game can still count it as bad timing.

The Bare Minimum

I realized how you make your car on the track section determines where you start in the race. Also, just because an item is listed as “rare”, it doesn’t mean it’s more expensive than a not-rare item. There’s no sound or music, so you’re just staring off into nothingness while you play. The game is bare bones in course and character design. It will only give you the option to customize the color of your vehicle after Day 2. After each race, the game gives you the option to claim a reward by watching an ad. Even if you say no, the game could still show an ad anyway. Given how glitchy the game is, once the ad starts, it could freeze and you’d have to restart the game. The one thing I’ll give Race N’ Survive is that it saves your progress day to day.

A Car Crash of a Game

This game is simple to the point of brainless at its best, and unplayable and unmanageable at its worst. You can find thousands of other racing games that are more stable, have better controls, engage with you more, and have more effort put into the main gameplay than the logo animation. In fact, I might even recommend playing the games in the ads instead of this one. Race N’ Survive doesn’t even survive being a game at all. I don’t even think Rollic Games trust the game since all their screenshots don’t go past Day 3. It is the definition of wasting your time.