One Hell of a Ride Review

One Hell of a Ride is a combat racing game taking inspiration from the classic Twisted Metal and Carmaggedon series. The game features 25 events that increase in difficulty and require players to purchase a higher rank car in order to be “allowed” into the next event. The number of laps varies from race to race.

Players have access to firepower to take down other riders and some nitrous to get a boost in difficult situations. Every lap, your ammo, and boost are replenished. But that’s a bit problematic during races with a single lap. Once you’re out, you’re out. Each car has its own specific attack and cannot be changed. In order to unlock the next event, you need to finish in first place.

Your hard-earned money can be used in two ways: upgrade your current ride or buy a new, more powerful ride. Each car has six areas of upgrade: Nitro, Weapon, Engine, Armor, Absorber, and Tires. Upgrading your car’s specs will give you a slightly easier time in more difficult races, but it feels pointless (more on that below).

And nothing is perfect and boy. Where do I begin? First, the cars drive like septic trucks driving on ice. When you start the game, for the first race, you have a decent ride with average specs, but once you win first place, you unlock the next race… which requires you to buy a new car. But the worst car available, so basically the game forces you to downgrade your ride. Also after a jump, your car comes to a near stop; even when improving the suspension. Also, other riders seem to have unlimited ammo, which isn’t fair.

And while the game lets you upgrade your ride to increase its performance, there’s no point to it because once you buy a new car for the next higher rank, you lose your current car thus losing all the money you invested into it. But on the flip side, if you buy a better-performing car, you’ll use it in previous events, making things easier to replay previously completed races, but why would you make yourself suffer through that?

One Hell of a Ride looks like a late PS2/Xbox/Gamecube game. The tracks and environment have minimal detail; everything looks the same and has pretty generic visuals. The cars are ok looking, just enough to distinguish them. Don’t expect Forza level of car details here. Also, the camera is way too close to the vehicle and the only alternative is in first person as if you were driving from the front grill. So either way you can’t really see your surroundings and keep an eye on your opposition. The soundtrack is a generic, mind-numbing stock rock score that’ll make you want to mute the tv.

One Hell of a Ride isn’t worth the price of admission. For a game that takes inspiration from the classic combat car games mentioned earlier, it feels more like an insult than anything else. It offers mediocre fun for a few races, but it gets boring fast; unnecessary upgrades, horrendous controls, bland style, and overall presentation. This is the type of game you try when it’s on GamePass or when given to Gold subscribers with Games with Gold. Instead of this poorly executed clone of a combat racer, why not play the real thing: Carmageddon Max Damage.