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Knowing that Xbox games had ground-breaking graphics and are really fun, especially the Microsoft ones, I had expected that kind of graphics when I inserted my disc- and I was right:

Quantum Redshift boasts excellent speed, graphics, and gameplay. The graphics, as I have said before, are excellent. The framerate is super- over 60 fps!! Also, the scenery and details are to die for. The water drop effect on the screen is also very realistic- you may find yourself reaching for a towel to dry the screen off after your vehicle plunges into a lake.

Of course, as most PS2 and Gamecube players' rebuttals against Xbox say, graphics aren't everything and gameplay is more important- and Quantum Redshift also rocks in that department. Yes, to say that this doesn't have themes from games like WipEout or F-Zero would be a lie, but the game is fun and replay value is high. Firing weapons and gaining a little revenge against racers is very fun- from firing missles to shooting lasers, this game never gets boring. On the hardest difficulty lever, the speed can go up to 800 mph!! Multiplayer is also fun: head-to-head racing is available for up to 4 players via split-screen.

The difficulty is very friendly also. It is never to hard or too easy, because there are 5 different speed and difficulty levels. As the difficulty increases, so does the maximum speed level, which renders the vehicle harder to control- but lots more fun.

The storyline is also fantastic. Like many fighting games, you have a nemesis that always is meaner to you- by firing missiles purposely at you. Also, each character has a home track- in which they have an advantage on.

In conclusion, this game is excellent. The racing is fast and frenetic and you'll never stop playing. Whether or not you like racing or just like playing fun video games, Quantum Redshift is worth the money and time. It's a shame that the price has to be lowered because not that many people know about this game.

Quantum Redshift is a passable racing game that really needs more tracks to work. In QR, you begin with access to seven different racers, each with a unique vehicle (although each is only subtly different from the others) and the home track of each racer. You also begin with access to only the first of five tiers of speed. Speed is what QR does well. The graphics engine is incredible, and the lanscape will blur in amazing and truly convincing ways as you blast around at speeds that approach 1000 mph on the highest difficulty levels. While you are racing, you can pick up power ups that let you attack other racers and shield yourself from their attacks. Just to keep things violent, one of the opponents you race against when racing the computer will always be your nemesis...a racer who would rather see you lose than win himself. Supposedly you interact with your nemesis during cutscenes between races, but the relationships are pretty ignorable. The weapons are all pretty cool and while sometimes you wish your nemesis weren't there mucking things up, it isn't so hard to just accept him as part of the challenge of the game. QR has great music and sound effects and if you happen to not like techno music yourself, you can play custom tracks off the hard drive (although the game will play the tracks you picked in a random order, which is kind of annoying and should have been made optional). Winning tournaments unlocks new characters and speed levels and you can win cash to upgrade your vehicle (more turbo, better shields and weapons).

So far so good and all of the above is enough to keep you interested in the game, but two major flaws bring it down from greatness. First, the racing itself is not very deep. You have a turbo meter you need to monitor and use wisely and you do of course need to worry about the people shooting at you (the attacks can be quite devastating and are capable of destroying ships once the weapons have been powered up, and will always cost you a lot of your momentum), but there are no gears to shift and there is not a lot of technique in the turns. The second, and by far larger, flaw,is the limited number of tracks, and the length of the tracks. Put simply, there just isn't a lot of game here. There are sixteen tracks, but none of them are very long, and while there are some pretty cool ones, they aren't that much different from each other. The tracks come in pairs, a racer and his nemsis forming a pair, and the two tracks are really quite similar. The tracks that are there are all fantastically detailed, but I for one would be happy to trade away a lot of the background detail for a wider variety of tracks.

In the end, QR is not a bad game by any means, but it could have really benefitted from a standard transmission and about twice as many unique tracks. I think a racing game junkie who just devours games and moves on could definitely have fun with this one for a couple of weeks, but if you aren't a giant fan of the genre and are really just looking for that one really good racing game to have in your library, I'd definitely reccomend renting this one first.

There are only a few games that suck, and this game is one of them. This game is not interesting and it gets very boring after a while. If you just read this review listen to my advice.