Many of us are big racing fans. I know I am … and my TV often times is tuned into Speedvision as I watch everything from Nascar to F1 races to the Gran Turismo tracks whenever I can. Well, honestly I can say that I’ve never really heard of aerial racing until I got the chance to play Redline: Xtreme Air Racing 2. Apparently, there is actually an air race that is held in Reno, Nevada each year that has pilots racing not automobiles … but planes in what would seem like a most dangerous but thrilling sport. Now, Encore has brought this racing style home to you for your PC.

Redline features over 70 different aircraft for you to race with, including such well known ones as the P-51 Mustang and P-38 Lightning. There are also a bunch of different fantasy tracks that you get to fly on in either single race, multiplayer, or championship season modes, and will have gamers flying their planes around course markers in such locales as Reno (of course), Asia, the Alps, or the British Isles. In addition, there is also an option ability to use .50 calibur machine guns, which of course adds some additional excitement to your standard racing format.

One thing that I was particularly impressed with in Redline was the fact that the game is a racing game with fantasy elements, but also is a good simulation title as well. The controls were the typical sim style controls, where gentle maneuvering of the flight stick is necessary in order to make proper adjustments versus slamming the stick around, as you would expect to find in arcade titles. This makes it even more enjoyable when going into a dogfight and whatnot, especially for you sim fans out there.

Along the same simulation lines, Redline also contains the ability to do different adjustments to your plane, and Encore was nice enough to explain them in the instruction manual for those of use who are not as airplane savvy as others may be. Before a race begins, you can go in and fine tune various things about your craft, such as changing engines, propeller size, fuel, nitrous load or wingspan, which helps you fix up your plane however you feel most comfortable with.

Finally, one of the coolest options in Redline was the ability to not only make your own course, but also to go in and decorate your own plane or even add your own face to the pilot. What’s more enjoyable than starring in your own video game? Not much really … and the ability to do all of this definitely helps in not only overall enjoyment, but also in the longevity department and helps to find reasons to pick it up and play some more.

While racing through the various canyons or over snowy islands, one thing that wasn’t there that I felt should have been in a racing title was an overall sense of speed. While zipping your plane around at a readout of 200 – 300 MPH, the game felt a heck of a lot slower than that which anyone can probably relate to if they’ve flown across a continent in a sim combat title or whatnot. A lot of the time I just felt like it was droning on around the simulated tracks and it didn’t really feel like racing … but more like sim flying around markers that I needed to do. To its credit, adding in weapons made it a lot more exciting though.

Graphically, Redline was decent. There were some really nice touches to the tracks like obstacles, clouds moving by, or things like ships in the water that you could fly around or try to pull some stunts like maneuvers off of. There is also a nifty replay mode so that you can go back and watch your flying skills (or lack thereof) in movie style format. The sound in Redline hit a little lower than the graphics though, and I felt that the planes sounded more like toy models than actual aircraft and the race announcer tended to sound canned and repetitive overall.

Overall, Redline: Xtreme Air Racing 2 is a fun and unique spin on your typical racing style game, even despite the fact that the simulation style gameplay will make the game seem a lot slower than it really should be. The addition of various creation modes adds to the enjoyment of the game, and the dogfighting and combat elements definitely make up for some lack of excitement in the actual racing speed of the game. Flight sim fans that also enjoy racing titles should definitely look into checking it out.  

Gameplay: 7.9
Anyone who has played a flight sim should be able to hop right in and figure out Redline. While the optimum option is to use a flight stick, a keyboard / mouse combo can be used as well. The combat style was a neat addition, as was the ability to customize many aspects of your plane including the looks, but overall the sim style of gameplay just made the actual racing piece feel a little too slow.

Graphics: 7.7
The graphics to Redline were pretty good, and there were some neat little add ins done like clouds breaking up and drifting by as you flew through them and a cool little replay mode that you could watch after you raced.

Sound: 7.0
I thought that the sound in Redline could have been done a little better, and couldn’t get by the fact that the planes themselves seemed to sound more like toy planes than actual planes. The announcer also seemed to feel like he was a little canned in his comments, and also tended to get repetitive in his comments throughout the game.

Difficulty: Medium
Due to the fact that this is a flight sim racing game, there are some things that you will have to learn and apply like how to pick up speed by diving versus just drafting like a standard car racing title. To make the plane adjustments easier, Encore did explain them in the instruction manual.

Concept: 7.9
This was a neat concept … and I wasn’t even aware that there was an actual air race until I played Redline. The addition of combat play was neat, and added a little exciting arcade touch to the standard racing style format.

Multiplayer: N/A

There is the ability to play Redline either on the internet or over a LAN with up to 7 other players, but it is through the use of IP addresses and I wasn’t able to try it out.

Overall: 7.8
While it felt a little slow to be a racing title, Encore did a good job in taking simulation style gameplay and offering up a new way to race against opponents. They also added in enough from a creativity standpoint to help gamers have fun long past the first play run, which will add to the replay value. If you are a fan of flight sims and racing titles, Redline is one that you might want to check out.