Batman Dark Race

Let's take a closer look at Dark Race game. We will concentrate below on game graphic and sound details, user experience and game controls.

There are literally dozens of games like this one, all having almost the exact same game engine. Having said that, even in respect to 3D graphics, this game does not bring anything new. There are four Batmobile vehicles set on the start position, where one of them belongs to you. After the countdown finishes, you will receive the signal that the race began. To complete the level, you must finish 3 laps, each one lasting approximately 3 minutes. A player may step on a gas pedal to accelerate or hit on brakes to slow down and avoid collision with other vehicles or to avoid the obstacles ahead.

The game lacks in both. The only road obstacles are Joker's cards. If you drive over one, you will instantly loose control and the car might easily end up in a ditch beside the road. Getting back on a track is not a problem, except that you will most certainly loose some of the precious time and let other drivers catch up with you. Power up is represented as a bat sign. If you collect one, you will get tremendous increase in speed, which might even double from average 130 mph to 250 mph. Use this adventage smart, as it lasts only a few seconds. Sometimes obstacles and power-ups are positioned very close to one another, so the instant speed increase can lead you easily off the track right into the wall surrounding it. A great game disadvantage is that you can't damage the car. I bet a lot of players would like to see batmobile smashed into the wall, or crashed against the other batmobile. This is not going to happen, unfortunately. You won't see any fire or explosion, not even a smoke. So if smashing things or crashing cars is your thing, this game is not for you.

Controls are basic and easy to learn. All you need to use are keyboard arrow keys. To speed up use up arrow key and to break or to put the car in reverse use down arrow key. Left and right keys are used as usual to steer to the left and right.

Decent 3D graphic engine. Game creator paid a lot of attention to the car's details. Yet, the background is pretty much static and does not change significantly throughout the race. Level lasts way too long and the player could easily get bored especially if his car takes a lead at the start. The sound effects are minimal and almost not worth mentioning. All in all, this is an average quality batman racing game that will attract mostly younger or far less demanding players.