This banger, demolition racing game is from Bugbear, the studio responsible for Flatout. They also made Ridge Racer Unbounded and Sega Rally which were racing games I held in high regard.
This game had an interesting time in development. They released in Early Access on Steam under the name “Next Car Game”, and after a certain period of time, the game seemed abandoned or at least in development limbo. I remember it being on sale for £10 whilst still in early access and people were moaning that they had paid significantly more than that to fund the game. They also confirmed it hadn't had any updates for several months. A few years later, to my surprise, Wreckfest finally released.
The two main event types are racing and destruction derby.
There are two types of destruction derby events, one where you win by Last Man Standing, and one where you win by achieving the most points (and can respwan with a new car if you destroy your car). In Last Man Standing , there's not much punishment from hiding, you just have to collide with an opponent once per minute. I ended up circling the perimeter, then driving in occasionally.
Some events give you a set car, whereas others you are required to bring your own from a restricted criteria. Examples of this criteria are Japan A-class cars, or American small cars etc.
Some events have hilarious gimmicks such as a motorised sofa, lawnmowers vs combine harvesters, cars vs buses.
Whatever the race, there are bonus objectives to complete. These are usually to Spin/Crash Out/Destroy X amount of opponents. You can always gain bonus experience for offensive manoeuvrers such as ramming, rear-ending, t-boning, in addition to the aforementioned attacks. Being crashed into makes the offender be assigned as a Rival, and hitting them back gains larger experience bonuses.
As you level up, you unlock cars and new car parts. I bought new cars and parts only when required. It's a good idea to kit a car out with armour upgrades for the destruction derby, but the extra weight will negatively affect speed and handling. There are a few comedic accessories like an inflatable shark for the roof. You can also customise paint colour and decals.
The damage model in the game is impressive. At first, it will be cosmetic, but taking damage to a certain part of the car will affect the performance. Cars can end up looking like they have been crushed by a compactor. The amount of debris that litters the course is great, and in some races, the majority of opponents will be wrecked. I even saw an instance where only two survived the race! There's plenty of objects like tires and crates lining the track which can be ploughed into. You have to be careful of the solid barriers that can do massive damage if you hit them head on.
There's a lot of tracks that end up looping back which is just carnage when you have to avoid other opponents who are lagging behind. I think some of the enjoyment is the "emergent" gameplay. If you happen to see pileups, cars spinning out etc. then it's hilarious.
There's a good variety of courses, from windy tracks with a variety of elevation, to simple stadium tracks. “The Death Loop” actually has a loop-the-loop which you need to take at speed. If you aren't feeling confident, there is an alternative route around it.
You can reset your car by pressing X which the only restriction is that you are travelling at slow speeds. It is easy to abuse this mechanic. You spin out down a ditch – quickly reset. Plough into a wall and think it's a chore to reverse out? Quickly reset. Playing destruction derby and are about to be sandwiched between two opponents - quickly reset. When you do reset, you are placed on the track, facing forwards and are invulnerable for a few seconds. Maybe it is my fault for abusing this feature so much, but it should be more restrictive.
I'd imagine the soundtrack won't appeal to everyone with a hard rock/alternative metal/metalcore soundtrack. I encountered one hard crash, some minor frame-rate drops, and one occasion where the frame-rate was insanely low, so I quit the game and reloaded to fix it. Sometimes debris floats above the track.
I had a lot of fun with Wreckfest and it reminded me of my time playing Destruction Derby 2 on the original PlayStation. Not many racing games have come anywhere near making something as entertaining as this.