PlayStation 4 Critic Reviews

Without a doubt Pacer is a love letter to Wipeout. It successfully manages to evoke the thrill and fun of Psygnosis’ iconic racer while also injecting its own flavour to the mix. But importantly, where other Wipeout wannabes have failed to me hooked, Pacer keeps me coming back for more instead of making me want to go play Wipeout.

It all ends up coming across as an ‘almost’ experience. Pacer is almost a successor to Wipeout, but poor track design, a lack of strong audio design, and lackluster weapons all add up to a ho-hum experience that leaves you wanting for the early Wipeout days. If you really need something to scratch that old itch, then give Pacer a whirl. If you’re looking for the next S-Class zero-g racer, you’ll likely want to dust off an older PlayStation.

Pacer is an amazing title that reminds players what fun hovercraft racing once was, and adds things to the genre that make it entertaining without adding too much seriousness. Pacer definitely has a chance to challenge Wipeout's domination of the genre up to this point, and is worth a look for those interested in fast-paced thrills.

We’ve been waiting for too long for a new antigravity racer, and Pacer delivers exactly what we wanted. Yes, it’s not the most original game, but the genre has been abandoned for so long that it’s great to have a new title like this one.

Overall, PACER is fast, addicting and fun with enough strategy involved to enjoy the single player aspect of the game.

Pacer, aka WipEout: Pacer, is the closest thing to Psygnosis games we've played in recent years. It has evolved a lot since Formula Fusion and although it can improve more, it's a must have for fans of the genre and WipEout fans.

Taking us back to the ’90s in a mostly good way, Pacer is a solid WipEout clone with enough new ideas to slowly reveal its own personality. [Issue#182, p.161]

Ironically, the futuristic theme and the year in which it debuted, 2020, makes PACER a beautiful journey to the past we aspired at the end of the 90s.

If you're tired of going around in circles on the twelve tracks of WipEout HD and its Fury expansion or if you're just a thrill-seeker, Pacer is for you. Even if it does not manage to overtake the master, it will charm you with its inspired artistic direction, its substantial content or its sensations of speed. But you have been warned, while R8 Games' production has many qualities, the title also delivers many shortcomings. The handling of the game lacks precision, especially in the highest difficulties where it will necessarily be necessary to play double airbrakes to hope to escape unscathed, the HUD is particularly intrusive and the menus are not very ergonomic.

I'm not exactly a Wipeout fan, but I made some friends with Pacer.