As huge fans of Mario Kart and the Wipe Out series, we’ve often lamented the conspicuous absence of decent racing titles on the Quest. So we were very excited to try out OZWE Games’ new combat racing title, Death Lap. Borrowing heavily from the Mario Kart series, Death Lap has you running into crates that will power up your vehicle, you drive over boost arrows and soar over ramps. And of course you can blast your competition off the tracks with a wide variety of weapons and, if you’re lucky, make it to the number one spot in (relatively) one piece.
The cars in Death Lap have a uniform design; all of them feature a front-mounted close range gun, a roof mounted long range weapon and a special weapon which is determined by the car you choose. There is no plot to speak of as this is a gameshow race (in Death Race fashion) hosted by a nefarious character called Nitro Saint Payne.
As this is a VR game, you get to sit in the driver seat or cockpit of your vehicle (think Wipe Out on the PSVR) and, while steering with your left hand, you aim your weapon with your right. While initially a little tricky to get your head around, the one hand steering and weapon aiming soon becomes intuitive and, after a while you forget about the control system and concentrate on the race itself. Death Lap has a fairly limited number of tracks: we counted five in total and small number of vehicles to choose from. We were disappointed to find that you can’t customise your car in any way – even if you finished first after completing your three laps around the track.
However, as mentioned, there are a wide variety of meaty weapons on offer ranging from a Gatling gun, a saw, a rocket launcher, drill and our personal favourite a mini missile launcher. But whichever tool of distraction you opt for, the goal is the same; to take out the competition and win the race.
Graphically Death Lap does a great job in creating colourful and very imaginative tracks ranging from a psychedelic desert, oil on fire in the desert, Las Vegas by night, an abandoned theme park and a giant pinball.
Despite The Quest’s limited processing power, Death Lap makes great use of shadow and smoke effects and the sight of a vehicle exploding after connecting with a carefully aimed rocket never gets old.
There is also a leader board on offer which should encourage players to revisit tracks time and time again for just the bragging rights alone.
For anyone craving a fast paced combat racer on the Quest, Death Lap is a great option. If OZWE Games were to consider increasing the amount of vehicles and tracks on offer and implement a customisation option, Death Lap could very well be the Wipe Out meets Twisted Metal on the Quest we’ve been waiting for.
