Trail Out review: The FlatOut 3 we never had?

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Things get explosive in my Trail Out review, as I play the unofficial FlatOut series successor to see whether it does the car carnage genre proud.

If FlatOut, Destruction Derby, Need for Speed and WreckFest were left on a dashboard in a hot car and melted together, you would have Trail Out. An arcade racer with a thirst for speed, explosions, destructive scenery, car damage and split-screen stupidity.

And that makes sense because Trail Out openly borrows from the fondly remembered FlatOut and FlatOut 2 – and not just the similar name. Not to mention WreckFest, which makes sense as Bugbear Entertainment developed them all.

But unfortunately Bugbear did not develop the follow-ups including FlatOut 3, a pile of scrap so rusty it was described by a gaming journalist as one of the worst games of all time. A big claim if you are old enough to have played Rise of the Robots. You could say, then, that Trail Out has the potential to be the sequel we wanted but never got.

And so here we are at the start of the tale (yes, there is one), which begins with protagonist Mihalych suffering a comical accident caused by a combination of the world’s deadliest manhole cover and the world’s most fragile car.

Fortunately for Mihalych, he is rescued by his dog. A not-so-subtle nod to the Good Boys development studio behind Trail Out. After his recovery he finds himself watching an advert of a festival of the same name and the rest, as they say, is history.

Please note: This is the script from my YouTube video, click play above to watch or go here.

Trail Out review: A Tale of Destruction

So begins your fender bender journey. One that involves building up your fanbase through winning, stunts and carnage, your money through successful events and your ranking through bettering the seven other brave or perhaps unhinged racers above you on the leaderboard.

You can also undertake various challenges for more rewards, receive donations from fans (named after early investors in the game, apparently) and even do a livestream to your audience for extra love.

While destruction is usually a big enough draw for getting players hooked, Trail Out has cut-scenes that clearly do not take themselves seriously. The voice acting, if you can call it that, is mostly a pile-up of bad delivery, cringe, awkwardness and even creepiness. Disparity between what is said and what is written in the subtitles can be just as jarring.

But then it feels as if Trail Out does not want you to take it seriously and I rather like that. It is the antithesis of the serious sim racer, harkening back to a simpler time when gaming helped you avoid the chores of life – not act as another one.

Okay, so Trail Out is unlikely to win any awards for its services to literature. But for fun, it hits harder than a freight train – one of many obstacles you get to dodge. Or not and enjoy those beautiful explosions, the ensuing disintegration of metalwork and the hilarious ragdoll physics as you go full send through the windscreen.

Suffice to say, health and safety organisations would be frothing at the mouth if they saw all the unattended propane tanks, oil tankers, petrol station forecourts and other flammables, explosives and hazardous objects strewn across each race.

And that is partly what makes Flat Out so fun. Eight racers smashing their way through the scenery and each other looks and feels immensely satisfying. Especially with all the RTX options, 4K and other visual trickery, in part thanks to the Unreal 4 engine, giving it a triple-A studio sheen.

Smashing handling

Okay, so the arcadey handling is not going to be everyone’s cup of leaking oil. However, swerving round each well-designed and busy environment, home to 45 circuits, is delivered in a way that rewards consistency and skill yet it is easy to pick-up and play.

What you notice fast about Trail Out, once the laughs at the dialogue subside, is how much it tries to keep you busy. The career mode may not be the longest, but even at the halfway mark it keeps chucking new scenarios at you.

Yes, you get standard races and Destruction Derby-style domination arenas as seen in other games. However, the circuits all offer stimulating challenges such as huge jumps, cliff drops, tunnels, drive-by shootings, railroad crossings, sneaky shortcuts and more.

Not only that, some modes offer a twist on the norm. One, for example, eliminates anyone last in the race after each countdown. But rather than drop out gracefully, Trail Out blows them to smithereens with a huge missile fired from a military plane.

There is even a race with electric golf karts and bowling, not at the same time, where you drive very fast into a wall and use Mihalych ejected through the windscreen to knock over the pins – something seen before in FlatOut.

And, check this, there are boss battles, where you take on each of the seven competitors in specific challenges. Such as a fight against Yuji Than on a filmic rooftop John Wu would be proud of, complete with exploding cars. Or in a dodgy LA neighbourhood with bodyguards shooting at you. Win and you move up the ranking leaderboard.

Scrapheap challenge

When you choose your first car out of three, it is dropped from the sky as a pile of scrap. You then get to upgrade its various parts, some of which come in multiple levels of performance and price.

These include the body to make it better at coping with damage, increase the top speed or both, the gearbox for improved acceleration, the paintjob for variety and even nitrous oxide – Fast & Furious style – for temporary speed boosts.

The vehicles are clearly based on real life but without the licensing. Hence some funny names. As a SnowRunner fan, I just had to save-up 10,000 credits so I could unlock the Khan L04F, known in this game as the Bread Model B and in real life as the UAZ 452.

Your total bank balance and fanbase are used to unlock new vehicles, new upgrades and upgrade the garage so you can scrap cars and increase the number of cars you can own at once.

Even clothing can even be purchased if you like any of the surprisingly tame preset outfits. Think an old-style racing suit and a climber, a reference to Good Boys’ first game.

Not-so-tame is the humour that will either upset or delight, depending on where you feature on the woke snowflake sensitivity scale. The Walker GT you get to drive, for instance, is obviously a Nissan Skyline and therefore a nod to Paul Walker from the Fast & Furious. And the car he died in.

It is also probably not a coincidence you sometimes get paid 420 for quitting a race, hinting at a certain internet favourite number. Second only to 69.

Nein, das ist bad, you might say if you speak German badly. But then there is nothing quite like some particularly silly escapism to take you away from all the crazy stuff going on right now. Ya know, inflation, interest rates, wars, post-pandemic recovery, oil pricing, cost of living and more.

Hitting a wall

If you are getting the impression I like FlatOut 3, sorry Trail Out, it is because I really do. However, it is not without its criticisms such as the fact not all engine noises seem to line-up with the rev counter and speed on screen.

I also noticed a few race starts would drop my frame-rate to a stuttery mess. The issue is resolved seconds later as you leave the start line, but it did undo some of the immersion. More annoying is when pausing Trail Out, sometimes it results in no audio and you have to restart the game.

Some have also complained about the difficulty level. It certainly varies between razor sharp and non-existent. I can usually beat the AI without too many restarts, sometimes none at all. However, there are times when one or two racers can blast ahead with an unassailable lead.

Because the races are fun enough though, you rarely begrudge a restart or few. More troubling is the fact the AI sometimes gets stuck and never resets or drives into walls but not other racers – as if unaware of its surroundings. Or dangerously inebriated.

At least in these cases the AI turned up. One bizarre bug sees Trail Out load only you and nobody else, making it rather easy to win seeing as you are automatically allocated first place. Given that this is game-breaking, I hope it gets fixed fast.

And it should do as I have already seen two updates to Trail Out while writing these very words. So I have no doubt the game will progress as upwardly as Mihalych’s insurance premium. As for added content, I would love to see more in addition to the standard 40 cars.

Rumblings of a virtual reality (VR) mode have been heard, which would only add to the incentive to buy. Until then, I want to commend the developers for offering actual up-to-four-player split-screen multiplayer. A fond memory for those who are old enough to remember pre-internet gaming. The frame-rate in two-player seems solid enough, but I did not test with four.

As for consoles, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and Xbox versions are expected in 2023. Unfortunately that is as specific as I can be right now, but it does hopefully mean that those without a gaming PC can get involved.

Trail Out review: Worth the money?

And based on what I have seen so far, those wanting a balls-to-the-wall racer that puts driving intensity and amusement on a pedestal should give it a go. I have had more fun in Trail Out than some full price games made by a triple-A studio – let alone one priced at £15.49, US$19.99 or equivalent from a small team.

In conclusion, Trail Out may not be outwardly original and there are some issues to be hammered out like the panels of your vehicle after a race. But it is a solid FlatOut tribute with lovably shallow thrills underpinned by first-rate presentation and a surprising amount of depth and longevity.

And that is it for my Trail Out review. Like, subscribe and maybe even become a Tribe member on YouTube to see your name in shining lights on the channel. Take care, bye.

Flat Out screenshots

Trail Out review: The FlatOut 3 we never had?

Verdict

Despite some imperfections on an otherwise shiny finish, Trail Out is a Destruction Derby, Flat Out and Wreckfest lovechild that makes car-based carnage fun.

Positives

Carnage aplenty

Visually impressive

Varied & stylistic

Negatives

Performance issues

AI inconsistencies

A few other bugs

85

The Score