Screamer review: Strong arcade racer that's not quite the winner

It's so incredibly refreshing to be in a mini-era of games releasing with fresh ideas instead of the same old cycle of remasters, remakes and sequels.

Think Bungie with its take on extraction shooters through Marathon, Pearl Abyss with its highly ambitious Crimson Desert and Capcom with its upcoming third-person sci-fi hacking shooter Pragmata.

Another one to add to that is Milestone with its reboot of Screamer. The only two things this release shares with its counterpart from more than 30 years ago is its name and genre.

Screamer is a high-speed arcade racer from the studio which develops the Hot Wheels Unleashed, Ride and MotoGP games and has previously worked on WRC titles. It's being published by PLAION.

Screamer's unique take is an in-depth story mode with full anime cutscenes and voice acting and while it might not quite land in all the areas it sets out to, there's still plenty to like about it.

A review code was provided by the publisher and I played Screamer on a base PS5.

Screamer has a lot to like even if it isn't perfect / Milestone & PLAION

Screamer is unique in a lot of ways. Starting on track, there's a twin stick controller scheme, meaning the left operates as you'd expect, controlling the steering input in a traditional manner, but the right-stick basically acts as a drift stick.

It takes a bit of getting used to at first - in the beginning, usual steering actually feels quite stiff and the right stick feels like it's too sensitive but once you get to grips with it, there's a deep level of control you can achieve.

And that's the same story with a number of other mechanics found in Screamer.

There's an ECHO system where Sync is the main resource that powers it. Sync is generated passively, usually by going as quickly as possible, and by shifting up gears when your RPM is in the perfect window, so looking for visual cues and listening to engine notes is key.

This builds the ability to perform a power boost or shield from those looking to attack you. That's because there are also fighting game mechanics where you can take out other racers using strike, which acts like a focused boost, when a separate gauge fills.

An Overdrive can be enacted which acts like a more permanent strike but if you hit a barrier before it runs out, you KO yourself and the Overdrive ends. When you're KOd, you respawn immediately though, helping to give that flow feeling.

While it's all very arcade-like on the surface, perfecting when to use these systems on higher difficulties and against strong online racers to gain that all important slight advantage at just the right moment is absolutely crucial.

Even using attack modes to gain speed boosts can give you the edge, forcing you to think outside the box a bit and plan when is best to deploy each system - while keeping in mind you don't want to get KO'd by anyone around you.

There's quite a lot to think about but when you get to grips with all the systems that are presented to you, there's a level of depth and nuance hardened racing game fans will appreciate.

These systems are introduced gradually in Screamer's story mode called The Tournament, which you're encouraged to play through first - and while it does a great job of steadily showing you each mechanic, this feels like one of the areas Screamer could be stronger.

The Tournament is told through full anime cutscenes and voice acted on-screen text / Milestone & PLAION

The Tournament sees different racing teams enter with a prize of $100bn up for grabs but instead of winning it, the majority of teams have ulterior motives as to why they've entered.

It deals with quite mature themes, such as grief, revenge and power struggles but also has some lighter and goofy moments too.

While it's interesting to see how this plays out and there are many twists and turns along the way, it does take away from some of the on-track action a bit in the sense that it feels as though the racing is just there instead of being fully incorporated.

There are moments where a story beat is playing out before the characters have to take to the track. You then have to complete objectives to progress for that story beat to play out but in some cases, what you've just played feels unrelated to what's going on.

The best moments where the story and gameplay do come together are in the Duels, which are high stakes races where the losing team gets eliminated from The Tournament.

These provide tense moments where it feels like what happens on track really has an impact on the narrative instead of completing objectives just to see what happens next.

I completely get Milestone has tried something different by incorporating a deep story mode into an arcade racing game, and yes it does all become much clearer as you go on, but for me there are too many moments where the storyline feels disconnected to the actual gameplay.

And with how good Screamer feels on track, that's a bit of a shame.

Some on track action feels shoehorned in The Tournament / Milestone & PLAION

During The Tournament, as well as getting to grips with the mechanics, you're also introduced to the game's different modes which you can play in Arcade and Multiplayer.

These include individual races, team races, score challenges, checkpoints, time attacks and more. In Arcade, you can create your own custom experiences with very granular settings and even take your creations online.

You're also encouraged to play through The Tournament first because this unlocks loads of characters, stages, customisation options and more you can play with in Arcade.

Each character has different skills, such as longer speed boosts, better perfect boost performance and stat increases for pulling off KOs.

It's fun playing around with these to find characters that fit your style to gain that edge but I quickly found that characters that offered better speed boosts were the way to go.

That way, you can steer clear of people trying to attack and control races to an extent from the front. This is amplified by nailing starts which can give you such a huge advantage.

Although different characters have different strengths which you'd expect in an arcade racer, the balance among some of them feels a little off.

In Multiplayer, you can play online or have split-screen of up to four people, the latter of which is something we don't always see enough of in modern day games and something Milestone should be commended for.

In Gage's Workshop, you can customise each character's car and there's a lot of different visual options to unlock by playing, such as options to manually tweak exhausts, lights, mirrors, splitters, spoilers and more.

In terms of performance and visuals, Screamer is stunning.

Its neon and anime design is nothing short of breathtaking and the anime cutscenes in The Tournament are great. It's an absolute feast for the eyes when you're out on track, whizzing around such diverse and varied landscapes against such great, usually vibrant, colour palettes.

I did find some texture pop-ins on introductory scenes on some of tracks but that was all I noted in terms of any hitches.

The sound in Screamer is superb too. The soundtrack is high-octane for the most part, with heavy metal and drum and bass tracks forming its majority, but there are also quieter and more serious moments in The Tournament which tracks scale down to very well.

This might sound like a small detail but one thing I absolutely love is The Announcer when navigating the main menu. She shouts 'The Tournament' or 'Arcade' when you select different modes and it just perfectly fits with feeling like you're playing an arcade racer.

Screamer is easily at its best out on track / Milestone & PLAION

Milestone has tried a lot of different things with an arcade racing game in Screamer and it's the on track action that stands out above all else, which is perhaps most crucial.

Mastering its handling and ECHO system offers such a deep racing experience but even a base knowledge of how it works gives a strong pick-up-and-play aspect where you'll actively want to improve.

Its flagship story mode The Tournament could integrate the on track action much better and the skills of different characters do feel a bit uneven.

But while Screamer doesn't quite land in all the areas it intends to, there's no doubt it's a heck of a lot of fun when you've got the pedal to the metal.

7.5/10

Screamer releases on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on 26 March with Early Access starting on 23 March.

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