// PC GAMER — GAMING
Star Wars: Galactic Racer's multiplayer 'tour' mode is a chaotic arcade racer spliced with a MOBA, and that somehow works brilliantly
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I had the pleasure of playing Star Wars: Galactic Racer recently—it's an upcoming racing game by Fuse Games, a studio filled with Burnout alumni, and while I was intrigued by the roguelike elements of its singleplayer campaign, the real standout to me is its online multiplayer, which is doing something that I would otherwise call ill-advised: Making it a MOBA. Sort of.
When I say the mode's been spliced with a MOBA, I mean that a ton of elements—buildcrafting, match-specific progression, and personal player economy (the more credits you get, the faster you'll scale over the competition)—are similar. It's a little like Overwatch's Stadium mode, which used a lot of familiar MOBA itemisation without the inclusion of lanes or towers.
Now, to be clear, there will be online modes without any of these elements—but given it was the mode Fuse had me playing, the "tour" mode was clearly the one Fuse Games is the most eager to show off. And I can see why, it's genuinely unique.
Here's how it works: 12 players (or eight, if you're doing podracing) fight across six planets. The comparisons start in the character select screen—the racers. These are starting kits that have different loadouts. For instance, characters with a Survivor loadout start with a shield, a bonus to their speed that gets lost the first time you crash in a race, and a boost whenever that shield breaks.
But it filters into the actual round-by-round structure, too. After the end of each race in the tour, players get to upgrade their ride's base stats, as well as choose from a selection of parts—borrowed from the roguelike nature of the singleplayer campaign—that can let them cobble together a build throughout a race.
For instance, I had a decent amount of luck speccing into a ramjet (a long-lasting boost that makes your ride hard to control) build with abilities that synergised with each other. In one race, I had one ability where my ramjet's cooldown was significantly reduced, and another where my non-ramjet boost was instantly refilled whenever I spent it, allowing me to bounce back and forth.
You can also snag abilities, like the aforementioned shield, on this screen. These really vary, from torpedoes to flamethrowers—as well as parts that give you elemental resistances, which might factor in based on the planets you'll be visiting during the tour—more on those, later.
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To buy any of these, though, you need credits, which can be earned from one of two ways. Just placing in a race gets you a payout, but you can also snag them by betting on yourself—calling whether you'll place within one of three brackets. In a 12-person race, these are top nine, top six, and top three.