Pacer Reviews
Pacer successfully fills a gap in the market for high speed, anti-gravity racers. Those who are wishing for an experience reminiscent of the Wipeout series will be pleased on how this project has turned out. Tight and precise controls, matched up with a large assortment of maps and customised crafts makes for a very fulfilling experience. Issues such as those posed by hard-to-reach weapons can be overcome by practising and improving knowledge of each turn in every track - alas the lacklustre sound effects from the crafts is seemingly all that is available. These tiny issues aside Pacer makes good on its promise, even if it took a long time to get there.
Overall Pacer is a good game. It stumbles from time to time with flaccid weapons and a lack of an active online community, but in just about every other category, it does a corker of a job. When compared to other games in the genre, it holds up favorably and if you are a fan of said genre, then, honestly, this is one worth checking out. Heck, this is a pretty damn solid starting point too.
Pacer is a good game on its own merits but it is nothing special, and when Wipeout HD Collection is still being sold for half the price of Pacer (and the other titles I mentioned at the beginning of this review are also less than Pacer) it is extremely hard to say this game that is just “good” is worth your money when competitors are out there for less. Pacer does not exist in a vacuum, and therefore I can not recommend it over other Wipeout inspired titles, which there is at least one on every current platform.
R8 Games tried to create a new WipEout and they succeeded. Well, partially. The game is fast and catchy but it's not as good ad original.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Pacer is a thrilling racing game with plenty of content, variety and customisation. A couple of rough edges and slightly disappointing combat keep it from reaching true greatness but it’s still a fun trip down memory lane, even when you’re going at 1,000 kilometres per hour.
Ships that literally defy gravity, speed, shooting and constant action are the condiments that make Pacer a worthy exponent of the futuristic driving genre.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
With many games trying to replicate the enthralling and addictive nature of WipEout, it’s understandable that many will fail miserably. Fortunately, Pacer isn’t one of these titles. With many well designed levels and modes, lots of weapons to choose, and 5 different vehicle types, there are plenty of options to make everyone happy. A fair but challenging difficulty curve will keep you interested from beginning to end, as does the wonderful graphical and audio presentation. I loved my time with this and recommend that you buy it here! Choose your ship, customise it to your liking, and make each of the sponsors happy. You must race for money, gold medals, but most importantly pride.
Fast, slick but with a few too many flaws, Pacer is nevertheless a fine futuristic racer.
I have always been a fan of zero-g racing games. Titles like Wipeout and Extreme-G were big players in my childhood, nothing else matched the neon rush or mind bending speed of the genre. Now R8 Games are getting into the race with PACER, but will it rise to the challenge or slide off the track?
Pacer's lacklustre career mode and some dodgy event types might be turn-offs, but the core racing gameplay makes up for it.
Despite some of these flaws, I still found myself coming back to the game again and again, trying to win the next event or beat my best times. The game is fun, beautiful, and unique enough to stand out. Fans of anti-gravity racers have been left starving lately and Pacer is definitely one title that can satisfy that hunger.
Pacer is a delightful racer, filled with plenty of action-packed moments. It also has some of the more glorious drifting mechanics that are hard to find in most car-racing games. For those looking for the spiritual successor to the WipeOut series, look no further. While the vehicles are quite limited, and some of the tracks don't truly compliment the high-speed racing that this wants to be known for, when the right ingredients are in play, then the experience becomes quite memorable. If only the online community had more going for it, or at least if the offline modes had the option to increase the difficulty of the AI. Despite some of the setbacks, overall this is a very good racer that is worth jumping into and getting lost in.
Ironically, the futuristic theme and the year in which it debuted, 2020, makes PACER a beautiful journey to the past we aspired at the end of the 90s.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Ultimately, PACER is an experience that gradually gets more and more frustrating due to its lack of speed, unbalance and the decline in the quality of the tracks. The beginning was promising, but that, unfortunately, was not maintained until the last moments.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
I wish that Pacer tried to forge its own identity instead of being another WipEout clone because it's simply not as good of a game.
Pacer ended up as a better game than I expected it to be. It has many good aspects, great tracks and the speed is insane. Motivation however never really takes off.
Review in German | Read full review
Though there are a lot of issues under the hood, Pacer is a decent anti-grav racer at heart. If R8 Games continue to tinker, tweak, support and add enough post-launch content - the potential is there for this series to become a serious contender.
Pacer is definitely a match for Wipeout in so many ways. The gameplay is fantastic and the sense of motion you get from the smooth anti-gravity racing feels very satisfying. The customisation options allow you to personalise your ships and create loadouts which are both the best and worst part of the game for me. I love the option to design the ship I want and being able to chop and change on the fly, but locking out all the upgrades makes the game too much of a grind for me. If you’re a fan of other high-speed racers I genuinely can’t recommend this enough. There’s enough content to keep you going for ages and it definitely lives up to the inspiration of Wipeout. If I had to call a winner, it’d be a photo finish, so just play both of them if you can.
PACER presents itself as a title that seeks to improve an experience based on a solidified formula. Still, it manages to introduce some new features that may please fans of the genre. Even so, we feel that there could be a greater willingness on behalf of producers to evolve or even reformulate this formula. With cutting edge graphics, great customization of our ships, great variety of tracks and a captivating soundtrack, it is certainly a good option for a wide range of players, from the most experienced to novices.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Pacer is a fun, difficult, and fast racing game that marries some sensible simplicities to an often overwhelming genre. That said, some little oversights can still hamper new players' experience.