Screamer Review (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, & PC)

Developer Milestone, back then known as Graffiti, had released Screamer way back in 1995 as an MS-DOS-exclusive arcade high-speed racer. Its 3D textured polygonal graphics and drift-focused mechanics were quite the blast, as anyone who played it can attest to. But now, we have a redesign that’s, frankly, a different ball game from the original. Still retains the same name, but otherwise, all else has changed, including a shift to an anime graphics style and storytelling.

You heard that right, Screamer does, in fact, tell a pretty lengthy chapter-driven narrative, hand in hand with a solo campaign. And then, an arcade mode that will have you, locally and globally, competing at the throttle. Four-player split-screen comes back to put more pressure on those steamy game nights, and an entirely well-packaged, well-designed arcade racer you’d be glad to have stumbled upon. We break down all of the goodies (and a few mishaps) on offer in our Screamer review.

Pass the Popcorn

Unconventional but Screamer decided to nestle its single-player campaign with a storytelling adventure. You’ll surely find way better expositions out there, in the RPG and adventure gaming genre. And some racing games sure have tried to add nifty characters and stories alongside their high-speed races. But something about Screamer’s makes you genuinely and truly invested. 

It’s definitely the stylish anime graphics that go beyond surface level into the dazzling, colorful designs and anime storytelling tropes. Some hi-tech device is in charge of a tournament, pitting wildly varied teams against one another. A group of skilled mercenaries, a girly pop group, corporate baddies not to be messed with, and two more. They go by Anaconda Corp, Green Reapers, Jupiter Stormers, Kagawa-Kai, and Strike Force Romanda. And their differences aren’t in name only, extending into their outfits, car types, background stories, and motivations. 

It’s in the backgrounds and motivations that Screamer squeezes surprisingly deep lore out of the campaign. You dig deeper into the sci-fi, near-future, dystopian future when the race tournament is held. Mature themes of ambition, revenge, and sweet, sweet drama rear their heads. Sure, some of it may be over-the-top, unnecessarily dramatic. But it does make for some welcome “pass the popcorn” distraction moments.

Notable mention of the anime cutscenes that immerse you in this chaotic world. They’re pretty salivating, so much so that you wish they were more than the visual novel sections of storytelling. Textual delivery will always have its weaknesses. Yet, it’s nice that all of it is fully voice-acted, and for good measure, every team speaks their own native language – Japanese, Italian, Spanish… the works. Apparently, the tech is so good that it automatically translates what everyone is saying. 

Stepping out in Style

And the cars, sweet Lord, the cars are absolutely rad. Perhaps it’s that none of them are licensed. And even though they may look familiar, they have little tweaks here and there that make them a surprise. All fictional models, then, that you’re free to further style up and make them your own. By mixing and matching different parts, you can come up with all sorts of unique cars that best show off your taste on the track.

While the campaign progresses, you unlock more circuits, mechanics, and cars. And soon, you’re looking at a content-packed solo campaign you spend quality hours in. Here’s where you might begin to have reservations with Screamer’s choices to be unique. The control system is twin-stick. And that means that the left analog stick controls steering, while the right controls drifting. Pros will know that one needs the other to effectively careen into corners and win races. Yet, even for pros, it may take a minute to grapple with the precise and skillful control of both sticks at the same time. 

Moving at such lightning speeds, even the slightest mistake will send your car bumping off-track. And you cannot have anything slow you down, with the computer-controlled rubberbanding a little unfairly balanced. It’s not surprising at all for you to lag behind, even after spending hours in the campaign, just because of Screamer’s twin-stick control system. Or perhaps because it may only be the tip of the iceberg of convoluted mechanics to remaster.

Master of the Game

As always, the triggers control the gas and break. But the gear shift is semi-automatic. And so, you want to keep an eye on the left, bottom side of the screen, for when it turns orange, it means pressing L1 on time to shift up, gain a speed boost, but also fill up a most important Sync gauge on the left, upper side of the screen. (The gauge also fills up from smooth drifting and passively, though more slowly.) Anyway, nothing complex to worry about here, as the Sync gauge acts like your speed boost, like in other racing games. 

It’s always about timing, knowing when to unleash a speed boost. But Screamer adds an extra layer, where you hold down the boost button and then release at a precise time to activate boost. Nail it perfectly, and you’ll enjoy a longer speed boost. 

But Screamer is also very much a combat game, where you can ram into opponents to knock them out of your way. (They can respawn, though.) On your end, you can use Sync to activate a shield that protects you from getting kicked around for a few seconds. Use Shield successfully, and your Sync gauge refills. 

Perhaps you’ve been getting away without boosting in racing games, which I find nigh impossible. But Screamer demands that you boost, because using the Sync gauge fills a secondary Entropy gauge. This is your offense strategy, where you can activate Strike to knock out opponents. Or you can wait it out until Entropy is maxed out and activate Overdrive, which both shields you from attacks while knocking out anyone you ram into. But it comes with a caveat that if you bump into walls, you, yourself, will be KO’d.

More Than Meets the Eye

And get this, use Entropy to successfully KO opponents, and you gain Sync. And it just creates this back-and-forth loop that gets addictive over time. You’re obviously the lucky one if you can master the art of balancing the risk versus reward of boosting and striking. And that entails self-mastery of the control system, but also surprising strategic depth against opponents.

You might hold down the Strike button, perhaps, and because opponents get an alert of imminent danger, they might activate Shield. But you might cancel the Strike at the last minute, forcing opponents to use up their Sync gauge. And well, without Sync and Entropy constantly feeding into each other, it’s game over for the poor souls.

You get crazy objectives to meet, like knocking out a certain number of opponents and still coming in first. And it obviously creates a splitting headache scenario, where you have to be behind opponents to ram into them, but also boost enough to get ahead. The arcade mode is a different ball game altogether, with its consistent stream of challenges. From time attacks to overdrive challenges and team races, the variety here is impressive. 

Make it even more competitive by hopping into team races. As many as 16 online players can compete at the same time, with everyone boosting and overdriving their way to victory. Perhaps the focus on boosting and combat can be a little distracting from the actual skillful driving and drifting, but who cares? It’s fun.  

Verdict 

It’s probably the perfect break we needed from the more hardcore racing sims that Milestone has invested in. The MotoGP and Ride series are all incredible in their own right. But sometimes, you want the chaos and arcade action of games like Hot Wheels Unleashed. And Screamer is just perfect for that uncaged feeling of speed, sprinkled with sweet doses of havoc. 

That’s not to say that Screamer is easy, not at all. In fact, its twin-stick control system for steering and drifting can take a bit to master. And as a result, wins may feel evasive in the campaign vis-à-vis a tutorial. At least you have a decent story to keep you distracted, alongside slick, polished visuals, and fascinating characters. The car roster, too, deserves recognition for its flair and spice. 

But it’s the races themselves that seal the deal, bringing you back again for fierce competition with unsuspecting frenemies. The loaded mechanics can be a double-edged sword, dishing out too much, but also providing lots of strategic depth. Optimize and maximize the back-and-forth between Sync and Entropy, and you’ll soon be boasting coveted wins on the global leaderboards.