Engine Evolution 2022 (2022) - Every PC F1 Game
5Engine Evolution 2022 by Petr Šimůnek, 2022.
The Engine Evolution series has been quietly appearing on Steam since 2020. Primarily a motorbike racing game, aiming to cover the entire history of bike racing, from 2022 onwards, the (near) solo developer decided to add Formula race cars to the mix. The game includes unlicensed renamed cars: 1951 Mercedes, 1968 generic Formula car, 1970 Ferrari, McLaren MP4-6, 1994 Williams, 2011 Lotus, 2017 Ferrari and 2022 Concept car.
Gameplay-wise it's really arcade, and quite grindy (took over 18hrs to unlock all the cars and make captures!), but there are microtransactions, if you want to speed things along. The game (as shown here) was still in Early Access, but the 2022 final version was released the day after I uploaded this!
As the game is bike-focused, the F1 cars feel somewhat tacked on, with a lot of understeer and easy-to-lock brakes (though you can spend more to upgrade everything), whilst skid marks are narrow (from bike wheels originally) and, when you crash, your driver is thrown, ragdoll-like, from the car, in a motorbike rider pose! What makes this more amusing is that you can't see the driver in the car until you crash!
It's pretty playable though, for a free game, with full online multiplayer. The audio could be a bit better though, with many cars sounding the same and several stuttering their engine as they drive. The game has mainly bike road-racing style tracks; there's at least one real-life track (Autodrom Most) and another that resembles the Nordschleife in several parts.
1. Race Start (Monza): 0:00 Here's the Autodrom Most track in-game. All tracks have rather over-the-top circuit-side plants! This is using the 1994 Williams F1 car.
2. Spray Effects (Silverstone): 0:33 Here's the Concept 2022 car, which I coloured slightly Red Bull like. This is one of the faster tracks. There's no rain in-game.
3. Tunnel & View (Monaco): 0:48 This is the Nordschleife-like track, though it goes through a town here. This is the MP4-6 car, but it's not possible to quite replicate the Marlboro colour-scheme.
4. Wet Track (Spa-Francorchamps): 1:12 Again, no rain here, but a bit of an up-and-down track, in the 2017 Ferrari.
5. Pitstop (Interlagos): 1:29 There's no point for pitstops. Going through this pitlane (the only track where you can get into the pitlane) just rewards you with a time penalty for cutting a corner on the track!
6. Huge Crash (Montreal): 1:51 This track is amusingly called Green Hell. Here you can see the drivers being ejected for the cars, followed by some synchronised balancing/crashing! Finally you can see the suspicious crash in full, complete with ejected driver and floating wheels!
This is part of the Every PC F1 Game playlist, which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYDobL0b26uiiYP8KdN3AwQmsu7ilzpxL