Retronika is a journey full of highs and lows. It’s not plagued by bad design decisions, but as it stands in early access, it desperately needs tweaks in balance and tuning before it can be wholeheartedly recommended.
When I first saw the trailer, my excitement was palpable and carried over to the initial game launch some months later. The premise was captivating: a VR single-player racing action game where you control a hoverbike, ducking, weaving, and taking down enemies with laser guns. You’re an alien, marooned on Earth after tumbling through a wormhole, now trying to navigate a city teeming with futuristic flying cars in a bid to find your way home.
The game sets an ambitious stage, and the development team from 4Players-Studio in the Netherlands understands the importance of easing players into Retronika’s universe gradually. The controls are designed to emulate the real feel of motorcycle riding, but with the added twist of being airborne. Gripping virtual handlebars, pushing an analog stick forward accelerates the bike, while pulling it back slams the brakes.
If you steer with one hand on the handlebars, your movement is restricted to a horizontal plane. Keep both hands on, and you unlock vertical motion, allowing you to duck and weave past other flying vehicles by maneuvering the handlebars up or down. This control scheme takes some getting used to, but the early missions limit movements to just horizontal steering to help you acclimate before unleashing full freedom. Even then, the game waits through one more mission before equipping you with guns.
Your weaponry automatically equips to the free hand, letting you fire at pesky drones that try to obstruct your journey. At this point, your goal is to conquer linear challenges that have you racing through a 3×3 grid filled with other flying cars, often requiring you to obliterate numerous drones or race to the finish line within a set timeframe.
Retronika initially dazzles with its visuals. In VR, it’s a feast for the eyes, opting for simple cel-shaded models that infuse a city with life beyond your immediate racing circuit. The streets teem with cars, while elsewhere, trains zip by, skyscrapers pierce the clouds, and delivery speeders flit just out of sight. In those early tracks, with little opposition, you have the freedom to enjoy the controls, drink in the scenery, and imagine stories for unseen commuters on their daily grind.
Sadly, the joy dwindles after a few missions, giving way to frustration. Each level comes with a health bar that drains not only from drone attacks but also from collisions with other vehicles or even when you fire a shot. Stray beyond the confines of the narrow track grid, and your health plummets until you get back in bounds. Even if you recover, you’ll often find half your health is missing.
There is a glaring imbalance in Retronika. While populating the world with life is commendable, the sheer number of cars on your track is overkill. With each square of the 3×3 grid potentially packed with up to nine vehicles, it’s like rush hour chaos, where one lane might be your only open path. Theoretically, this should hone players’ focus, but vehicles often dart unpredictably across lanes. It’s frustrating to find a clear space only to be blindsided by an errant car that sends you flying or depletes precious health.
Then there are the drones. These nuisances will tail you and start firing before you even spot them, often landing one or two hits before you can retaliate. Their accuracy is uncanny, and despite swapping guns, your firing rate and power often fall short of swiftly dispatching them without health penalties. The only respite is halting your journey entirely, taking both hands off the bars to fire dual guns, leaving you vulnerable to everything else in the vicinity.
When several drones attack simultaneously, holding onto your original health becomes wishful thinking. The tougher white drones feel like a gamble between winning and losing, independent of skill. Levels can be lengthy, and constant failures force you to replay long sections, chipping away at your resolve.
There is potential for countering these challenges through bike and weapon upgrades. Completing tasks earns in-game currency to invest in new gear or enhance your hoverbike. However, the upgrade system is quirky. Enhancements don’t seem to translate into tangible improvements unless you apply several at once, and they fail to tackle core issues like health and defense. Even though a shield is teased in trailers, it’s tied to a specific weapon that unlocks only deeper into the game.
Moreover, upgrades come with hefty price tags. Without grinding through previous levels for currency, affording them is tough, which drains the fun out of gameplay. Soon, coming back to Retronika felt less like an adventure and more like ticking off chores, far from the excitement I once held.
Retronika has potential, though. With its core mechanics in place, it’s not beyond saving. The driving handles well, the visuals are sharp, and with 50 missions teeming with weaponry opportunities, variety is within grasp. However, the game can’t shine until the balance is overhauled. Introducing difficulty levels is a starting point, but more must be done about NPC car logic, drone accuracy, health recovery, and defense mechanics—irrespective of the chosen difficulty. Right now, Retronika tips from being enjoyable to frustrating not far into the journey.
The developers, active on their Discord server, hint that the game’s early access phase is nearing completion, which might mean these necessary balance shifts won’t happen before the official release. Hopefully, that isn’t set in stone. There’s an exciting game buried beneath these issues; it doesn’t need major mechanical reworks, just better balance to truly thrive. As of now, sadly, the exhilarating fantasy of dashing through a vibrant city on a hoverbike isn’t quite fun. And that’s truly disappointing.
