Retronika presents itself as a challenging title, leaving players in a state of frustration rather than delivering a thrilling gaming experience. While it doesn’t suffer from inherently flawed design choices, its current phase in early access makes it difficult to recommend without major adjustments in balance and tuning.
The initial allure of Retronika was undeniable, sparking excitement right from its trailer and sustaining interest through the anticipation of its launch. The premise was straightforward yet captivating: a VR single-player racing action game where you pilot a hoverbike with full freedom of movement—ducking, weaving, and using laser guns to eliminate adversaries. As an alien stranded on Earth through a wormhole, your sole mission is to navigate this futuristic, flying car-laden world to find your way back home.
The game is ambitious, which 4Players-Studio, based in the Netherlands, acknowledges by introducing players to the world of Retronika gradually. The controls aim to replicate the feel of riding a real motorbike, albeit in the air. You’ll find yourself holding virtual handlebars, accelerating by pushing either analog stick forward, and braking by pulling them back.
Navigating with one hand on the handlebars limits your motion to horizontal steering, while keeping both hands engaged allows for full vertical movement. This lets you deftly dodge between flying cars by pulling up or pushing down on the handlebars. Initially, you’ll only concern yourself with horizontal steering, allowing for an easy acclimation before the game hands over full control and eventually introduces combat.
Weapons equip automatically to your free hand. Firing them requires squeezing the trigger to deal with drones trying to thwart your progress. This leads to linear challenges where you race through a 3×3 grid filled with cars, tasked with completing objectives like destroying drones or reaching a finish line within a certain time.
Retronika makes a captivating first impression. Visually stunning and deeply immersive in VR, it shifts away from realism in favor of cel-shaded, stylized cityscapes that pulse with life beyond what you can see from your racing viewpoint. Tracks teem with cars, while trains whiz past, skyscrapers pierce clouds, and delivery speeders skit off-camera. Early levels allow you to glide through these worlds without interruption, savoring the ambiance and imagining the lives unfolding around you.
Yet, the joy dissipates quickly as frustration takes hold. Each level harbors a health bar that dwindles not only from attacks by drones but also from colliding with vehicles or even discharging a weapon. Stray outside the grid and health depletes furiously until you regain the track. Even salvaging a precarious situation usually leaves your health halved.
Where Retronika struggles most is in balance. Although the detailed environments are admirable, the saturation of vehicles in your path can be overwhelming. Traffic congests your way like a rush-hour jam, with scarce clear spaces. While encouraging player vigilance, these vehicles often move erratically, leaving you disadvantaged and irritated as they damage your ride or forcibly eject you from the racing area.
The burden grows heavier with enemy drones, which can shadow you, often landing damaging shots before you can retaliate. They seem nearly infallible, and switching guns seldom helps as their firing speed and power far outpace yours. To effectively counter, you must halt completely, dual-wielding your firearms, leaving yourself vulnerable to attacks.
Facing multiple drones almost ensures your health takes a hit, especially when confronting tougher drones. Victory feels dictated more by luck than skill. Given the extended length of many levels, any failure means redoing vast sections, draining hope and wearing down patience as you revisit the same stumbling blocks repeatedly.
Upgrading your bike and arsenal is intended to ease challenges. Completing levels grants you currency to purchase enhancements, from engines and brakes to steering improvements. Descriptions are sometimes bewildering, and tangible effects of upgrades demand substantial, simultaneous application to notice a difference. Crucially, vital improvements to health and defense seem absent, with shields teased but available too late in gameplay.
Upgrades are unreasonably costly and regular progression yields insufficient currency, compelling replay and grinding through early levels—a process that strips enjoyment from the game. The joy initially ignited has begun flickering from continually returning to Retronika for review.
But Retronika isn’t beyond saving. As an early access title, its core appeal lies in responsive driving, visually appealing content, and 50 missions offering diverse weaponry—provided the balance adjusts. Difficulty settings are a start, but NPC behavior refinement, drone precision alterations, and health and defense boosts are non-negotiable to elevate gameplay. Retronika transforms from an engaging ride to a harsh trial well before ten missions are up.
Can these be rectified? Though the developers hint at the completion of the early access phase, implying few changes ahead, there’s hope they’ll rethink this—underneath lies a gem of a game, not requiring a full remake to realize. Instead, substantial balance modifications stand between the game and its potential.
Right now, however, for those who dream of the exhilaration of riding a hoverbike through a vibrant cityscape, Retronika disappoints, overshadowing its wonders with wearisome challenges—a true pity.
