****Let me start off by saying this: I did not play the early access version and I've missed out on the first three seasons of the game.****
After spending a good part of my weekend playing Disney Speedstorm, the free-to-play racing game from Gameloft, I wanted to give my thoughts on it.
This was a game that I had my eye on after I saw the trailer for it during one of those game shows... I can't remember which one it was whether it was a Sony State of Play or Nintendo Direct or another, but I saw the preview and felt like this was something that I was going to check out. Now, I did miss the early access portion of the game, which reminded me about what Multiversus did, but, after seeing someone actually play it on Twitch, I was reminded to check out the game itself.
Game: Disney Speedstorm
Platforms played on: Steam, PS5, Nintendo Switch
Developer: Gameloft
After installing and booting up, I was greeted to a pretty cool cinematic that looked like something out a Disney/Pixar movie. It contained four characters -Mickey Mouse, Mulan, Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean), and Sulley (Monsters Inc.) - racing through a Pirates of the Caribbean themed track before transitioning to a Monsters Inc. themed track.
If you want to check out the intro yourself, here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwmYq8Cc26I
Once in, you are offered to set up a Gameloft (the developer) account. I HIGHLY recommend doing so if you are planning on playing this on more than one version as the game supports cross play AND cross progression. Afterwards, you are taken to the a three chapter single player mode, called Starter Circuit, which serves as an extensive tutorial. It took me about an hour and fifteen minutes for me to complete this (including setting up my Gameloft account), so it's not overly lengthy.
In true free-to-play fashion, this also served as the way to unlocking Donald Duck and Goofy as playable (the game gives you Mickey Mouse to start) as they are needed to complete some of the missions in each of the chapters.
From there, it's up to you on what you do. I'm sure everyone else's experience (and luck) will be different but, after doing the Starter Circuit, I decided to share this with my Twitch community and stream my gameplay online. (Check me out on Twitch: twitch.tv/supernerdyguy)
While streaming, I tried the rest of the rather limited single player options.
I first went into the Season Tour and, being that I missed the previous three seasons, was greeted with a screen that showed that this season was based off of Aladdin.
All of chapters were not accessible yet, as there are only five chapters that I was able to play through (as of this writing). They have to be done in order and each challenge race in a chapter has multiple requirements to obtain the most rewards.
In the picture above, I was able to play as the Genie to complete the challenges for that mission.
Each challenge has specific requirements, which can be for you to play under specific requirements. For example, you to play as either a specific character, a specific character from a series, or be at a certain level, sometimes both. The requirements aren't TOO bad as many of the challenges to start have you play as the three characters (Mickey, Donald, Goofy) that you unlocked during the Starter Circuit. Being that this is an Aladdin themed event, I was able to unlock Princess Jasmine (a pretty popular character online) along the way. The chapters also have treasure boxes that have a gacha aspect to it where there are many different rewards of varying rarity.
The later chapters, especially chapter five, started to include other franchises (Hercules, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Jungle Book, Toy Story, Mulan) that I had not unlocked yet, which impeded my progress.
After doing as much as I could, I turned to the Limited Events in single player.
At the time that I started playing, I was nearing the end of certain events. I was able to participate in a few of the events (given that I met any requirements that the event may have had - character, level, difficulty) and do what I can to earn the rewards or place well enough on the leaderboard to gain a specific amount of rewards.
I thought I did pretty well.
Before going online to race against others, which is in Multiplayer Mode, I checked out the shop, daily missions, and seasonal missions.
The shop is what you'd expect in a free-to-play game with gacha elements. Outside of the daily offers and daily free box/rewards, there are multiple currencies, one of them being premium, another being season currency that expires after the season is up, and specific currency is required to purchase something. As someone that does not like to spend money on free-to-play games, I wanted to see how much of the currency I could earn in-game.
The challenges in game, especially in the limited events, allow you to earn seasonal currency while earning the premium (called tokens) currency can be earned online. Multiplayer currency must also be earned online while the unique tokens can be earned through completing sections of the battle pass (which has a premium option) through daily and seasonal missions. All of the currency is used in the shop to purchase something towards a character or cosmetic. Most of it is gacha related.
This is where your individual luck comes in. I feel like that I am about as lucky as the average person and, in my time with the game, I was able to unlock Meg (Hercules), Mulan, Aladdin, and Jafar (Aladdin).
Multiplayer has a few options in it.
Ranked Multiplayer is where you will be online with others with the characters you have unlocked at the levels and equipment that you have on them (more on that later). I feel it's a bit uneven, at times, as I found myself matched up with players that may have been leveling their characters more and had a distinct advantage due the large statistical difference. It normally took me no more than thirty seconds of waiting to be connected to a race.
However, since there are tiers in this mode, players, more often that not, will be linked with other players in the same tier as themselves. I say more often that not because there are times that I was matched with players outside of my tier - both above and below - and also matched with bots - bots appeared more frequently in the lower two tiers, Rookie and Bronze while higher tiers would just have under the max of eight players in a race. Obviously, winning or placing well in races will help you grow your ranking, with it getting harder the higher you get. In addition to ranking up, you can rank down (starting from Platinum tier - Rank 16) if you don't place well. However, you will not TIER down once you've achieved a specific tier. Achieving a tier and/or rank nets awards specific to the character you are playing as. So, that means that you have to rank up each character individually. I personally like this as it allows for you earn more rewards per character and also be matched with players within your skill group as you learn a new character. Just because you're good with Mickey Mouse, for example, doesn't mean you'll have the same success with Goofy. But, you can play with Goofy and learn him to get better while facing players of a similar skill online if you so choose.
As for me, most of my success was found with Meg.
The game keeps track of all your characters. You'll be able to check this at any time while in the menu.
Regulated Multiplayer is what I wish Ranked Multiplayer is. You can play as any character you have unlocked or one of the guest characters that are available for that season (which seems to last a week).
This screenshot was taken at the start of the current season as last season, when I played, had different characters available as guests. In this mode, I feel that it's more balanced out as ALL players will have their characters set to a specific level with no additional bonuses added to them. It allows for more skill based racing which, to me, was a lot more fun. The waiting time for this mode was significantly shorter (by about half) which suggests that there are more players playing this mode. The rewards are a bit underwhelming as you earn rewards specific to that season until you reach the cap. This can be done in a matter of races (especially if you are winning a lot) and then, after that, you are just racing just to race. While that is indeed fun, I wish that the there were more rewards to earn in this mode, as it seems to be the better mode and more people play it.
As you can also see in the screenshot, you can also team up with others online, too. You can make a group of up to three players, in ranked or regulated, and play together. This will at least guarantee that you'll have three racers in a race - though I was unable to try this myself.
Private Track mode allows for casual private lobbies with friends as all you need is to create a lobby or join someone else's. If creating a lobby, you can set all the settings as you wish and then give out the code for others to join you. If joining a lobby, you just need that person's code
Local Freeplay is pretty much like an arcade mode or single race mode. There are a bunch of options to customize the race to your liking - and all characters are at the same level, just like Regulated Multiplayer. The game supports local multiplayer split screen, so you can team up with others on the same system if you like.
You can also treat this at a time trial mode being that you can set it to race without CPU characters in 1 player mode, which is fantastic.
With all that said, how does it actually PLAY? I've gone through the details about things but I probably went backwards and didn't discuss my actual experience in game. Well, it has all the makings of a solid racer. On the Steam and PS5 versions, it runs at 60fps while the Switch version was at 30. Visually, the game looks great (though I have issue with Mickey's ears not being perfectly round) as the environments are colorful and capture the look of each universe that is included in game.
There is a good sense of speed in the game so, if you are going fast, it will feel like you are going fast. The controls are simple enough (I used a PS5 controller when playing on Steam in addition to playing the PS5 version) with using R2 (or your controller's equivalent) as your acceleration, L2 as your drift, triangle to use your item (called skills) when picked up - or hold it to use a charged version of it with different effects, square to "jump", and X to use your boost when available. The right thumbstick can be used to slam your car into someone else's as an attack (it didn't work so well for me but I was hit by others A LOT) by flicking it left or right as needed. Pressing down on it will let you see behind you. You can use the d-pad or left thumbstick to steer. Pulling down on the left thumbstick will allow you to throw certain skills behind you a-la Mario Kart.
When it comes to the characters the game currently has characters from the following universes:
Mickey and Friends
Mulan
Hercules
Beauty and the Beast
Monsters Inc.
Pirates of the Caribbean
The Jungle Book
Toy Story
Lilo & Stitch
Walt Disney World
I did a little research at it seems that characters from Frozen are on the horizon, which would be welcome, too. I'm still holding out hope that, as long as I continue to play, that the Wreck It Ralph series is added and that I can play as Vanellope von Schweetz and Shank (and that Sarah Silverman and Gal Gadot respectively voices them). It doesn't make sense if neither of these leading ladies aren't added eventually given their racing background from the movies.
Speaking of the voices, it's very well done as just about EVERY character in the game currently is voiced by their original voice actor. One notable exception is Woody from Toy Story is he is not voiced by Tom Hanks but instead voiced by his brother.
Not every character that you see in each universe is actually a racer, though there are racers in each universe. Some of the characters in the universe are crew members that allow you to "equip" the character with these crew members to boost their stats. Each crew member has their own boost that they provide.
No two racer characters are the same in the game and each racer is assigned to one of four classes: Speedster, Brawler, Trickster, Defender. Even two characters in the same class have widely different stats. Also, each character has access to a unique skill and certain skills - meaning that one character cannot do the same thing as another character, making each character feel different - even though certain skills are better than others which causes imbalance at times.
Here are Mickey Mouse's stats. He is in the speedster class. And below are Princess Jasmine's stats, who is also a speedster (in the same rarity, too).
As you see, with the exact same level, Mickey Mouse and Princess Jasmine have widely different stats and access to slightly different skills outside of their unique skill. While this could potentially cause issues in the "meta" of "who's the best character" online (I researched this and saw that it is commonly online said that Mike Wazowski from Monster's Inc. is the best character in the game - he is ALSO a Speedster), for what it's worth, I've seen a wide variety of characters used online with Jasmine and Donald being the most popular from my races. My favorite character, Meg (a trickster) doesn't seem very popular at all online as I have only seen an additional Meg player in my races a handful of times.
Other things I noticed about the game is that the game does seem to let you try out guest characters in specific game modes for free without the need to use the gacha and/or spend money. Which is nice.
The progression itself is VERY grindy and you can find yourself hitting a wall quickly depending on how much you play and/or how skilled you are in completing the challenges in game. I, personally, found myself done with many of the tasks in the nearly three days I played. Leveling up your characters, which increases their stats, are done with materials earned while playing. But, how much you can earn seems to be finite and I wish there were more ways to earn. Perhaps a future update will allow Regulated Multiplayer to remedy this by letting you earn items based on the character you play as. Would be nice. Also, you can rank up your characters, allowing them access to stronger skills as well as allowing them to equip more crew members to boost their stats further. Crew members can also be ranked up to have them provide a bigger boost. I also wish the rewards were given out a bit more in Ranked Multiplayer. It gets harder to rank up as you get higher, as expected, but the difficulty could shy away lesser skilled and/or more casual players and prevent them from earning anything. I feel as if you could earn something PER RACE - with rewards varying based on how you place - and not PER RANK UP could fix that issue. Even better would be to have rewards given per rank up in addition to the set rewards already given per rank up. But, that's my opinion.
Online is a mixed bag. While Regulated Multiplayer is very good (outside of the lack of rewards), there are connection issues abound in the races, despite not taking more than thirty seconds to get matched up in one. Players seem to lag quite a bit which caused a lot of funky collisions (where I was hit from the side by someone behind me, for example). The skill gap between players in Ranked Multiplayer shows greatly once you get into higher tiers and, with no way to see how much a player put in to their character outside of their actual level once the race is over, players can be put at an advantage/disadvantage if there are characters that have been leveled and ranked up (which matchmaking I think should be adjusted for those that don't have characters ranked up as much as others) to have more benefits. Which takes me to the next thing.
The game does have pay-to-win issues. As a free-to-play player, I was able to rank up my Meg to two stars and level 24 through grinding Ranked Multiplayer and completing challenges to earn currency. As I said before, my luck is probably about as good as the next person so I was able to earn a few items to boost Meg from the items I got in the gacha using that currency I earned. I didn't always get what I wanted, which happens a lot in a gacha, but that was to be expected. But, to really get ahead and feel like you're getting anywhere, you will have to spend. Also, unlocking certain characters seem to be done much faster if you spend instead of waiting around for events and seasons to come. This is even more true if you have bad luck with the gacha parts of the game. My time with Tower of Fantasy was some of the worst luck I've ever had in a gacha game. There is also a battle pass (seems to be the standard nowadays) that has a premium option attached to it (also the standard nowadays) giving a paid option to each additional rewards.
From a presentation standpoint, I feel that the text is very generic looking and not good to look at and do wish a different font was used. The character models look great however, even though I wish there was mouth movement when they spoke. Load times on the Steam version were lightning quick, even on max graphical settings, but that may also be a product of my machine (Ryzen 9 5900, GeForce RTX 3070). The PS5 version looks very good as well and didn't have very long load times. The Switch version was noticeably slower in load times and has a slightly blurry look to the game in comparison to the other two I played.
The first screenshot below is from the Steam version.
While this second shot is from the Switch version.
While not terrible, it is a noticeable difference, especially after playing the other two versions.
One VERY disturbing thing about the game is that it crashes and closes the game window A LOT when playing the Steam version. It happened SEVERAL times while I streamed on Twitch and happened quite a few times when I wasn't streaming, too. So, I know it wasn't just a streaming issue or the game clashing with the streaming software. It normally didn't happen during a race but it would happen frequently when a race was over or right before a race started. This hurts when doing challenges, as some of the challenges have a limited number of attempts before you have to wait for the attempts to reset. This is a HUGE issue that needs addressing sooner rather than later.
The sounds in the game are probably my favorite parts. As mentioned before, the character voices are most authentic and the sounds of the cars really make it feel like you're going fast. Even the tires screeching, which seems to vary depending on the surface of the track - which is a nice touch, sounds good. When you get hit with a skill, the thump that plays really makes it seem like you got hit hard and the explosions from some of the skills really sound like an explosion. The sounds in some of the environments are great - whether it's lightning in Mount Olympus or cannonball fire from A Pirate's Life - it really feels like you are in the action. The music is good with many of the songs being remixed versions of songs heard from the Disney movies and shows. A personal favorite of mine is from the Mount Olympus tracks and the Kaua'i tracks.
Lastly, I want to mention the track selection. At first glance it doesn't seem like a lot when you look at the following list:
The Castle (Beauty and the Beast)
A Pirate's Life (Pirates of the Caribbean)
Agrabah (Aladdin)
The Silver Screen (Mickey and Friends - Steamboat)
Mount Olympus (Hercules)
The Great Wall (Mulan)
Jungle Ruins (The Jungle Book)
The Factory (Monster's Inc.)
Toon Village (Mickey and Friends)
Andy's Room (Toy Story)
Arbee's Arena (Seems to be an original track based on the NPC Arbee that navigates you through the game)
Kaua'i (Lilo & Stitch)
That's only twelve tracks and that's nowhere near enough for a racing game. But, looking at it again, the game adapted something similar to what I've seen in more recent Gran Tourismo games and put variants of tracks under each theme presented above:
The Castle: 4 variants
A Pirate's Life: 4
Agrabah: 8
The Silver Screen: 5
Mount Olympus: 8
The Great Wall: 6
Jungle Ruins: 4
The Factory: 4
Toon Village: 6
Andy's Room: 7
Arbee's Arena: 6
Kaua'i: 8
That takes the total up to 70 different tracks that you can race on which is huge. In my time online, it was very rare that I would race on the exact same track back to back. Now, I would like it if the same THEME wasn't used back to back but, I don't know how tracks are determined online.
In closing, I've had fun with the game to this point and I'm going to get a second opinion (my children) on this game to see how others think of it. It is grindy so, for those that are hardcore, or if you hit the wall of progression, you will need to put some money in it.
The racing is fantastic and the controls feel responsive enough. Some characters feel better than others and the skills that each character has, while great for individuality, causes some imbalance between characters. There are lag issues but they weren't extreme enough to the point where the game isn't enjoyable.
I love the sounds and music and the original voice actors for much of the cast is a nice touch.
The events and challenges are fun and great ways to use other characters and earn rewards but I do wish that getting other characters was more accessible to actually do the events (usually I couldn't do them due to either not having the character or not being at the level required with a character - the CPU in challenges is very cheap if you aren't at the required level, making it very difficult, or impossible, to finish the challenge).
The game is a visual joy and I loved the environments and colors. I look forward to seeing what else this game brings down the line as far as additional content goes - maybe Arendelle for Frozen content? And I am gonna hold out hope for Wreck-It Ralph content, too - along with other franchises: Tron, Tarzan, Nightmare Before Christmas, Snow White anyone?
I also hope that the single player options are expanded more to give those that aren't into racing online against others something else to do when they play.
So, I say, at the very least, if you are on the fence about it, give it a try, it's free and plays great. It has all the makings of a good racer. I just hope it isn't undermined by microtransactions and pay-to-win tendencies.