BeamNG First impressions

The BeamNG tech demo was released the other day and I wasted no time in downloading it. I then said "screw it" and just bought the alpha without ever even playing the tech demo. It was a cool $15 towards something I'd love to support. There are apparently four developers, so they can probably use the cash and this is obviously a labor of love. Good on them.

Of course BeamNG is still in its alpha stages so it would be unfair to really call this a review. There is currently no AI, and much like Kerbel Space Program, for now its just a sandbox. It also crashes pretty frequently and it took me roughly a day to figure out how to get my steering wheel to work. Some of the physics are wonky and content is still somewhat sparse.

That said BeamNG is pretty impressive at its core. Obviously the way cars crumple up when they have accidents is the highlight here. Seeing it happen in real time is pretty great. The aftermath of a big wreck looks excellent, with bent body panels and missing pieces. Even more impressive, to me at least is the way cars run with minor damage. Go over a pretty big jump and its possible to bend frames leaving cars juuust a little off. A large part of BeamNG at this point is simply hitting stuff and seeing what can be driven away from.

The rest of the physics simulation is actually a lot better than I'd been led to believe. The cars definitely still need a little work in the handling department, straight line stability in particular needs to be ironed out and cars feel unnecessarily floppy. The mid engined supercar is nearly impossible to drive, due to a total lack of stability. But the actual friction physics are quite good. Weight transfer effects handling in the proper way, and the limits of adhesion are extremely "soft" meaning small angle drifts are attainable and can be controlled with the throttle. This is extremely impressive stuff for a game that is primarily focused of driving offroad.

Leave the roads and things get even more interesting. Again, things need to be ironed out. Brakes are too weak and the trucks generally feature too long of a first gear to do any serious rock crawling. But much like the on road stuff, the potential is clearly there. Tires deform nicely and suspension movement is meticulously detailed. It's not as good as Off Road Drive in this regard, but it has potential to be in the same ball park.

And of course there are mods. One of the joys of PC gaming is installing mods and BeamNG appears to already have a somewhat strong community. Days after its alpha release, I already have a couple of new cars and a new course providing a cherry on top of what has so far been a great experience.

I'd encourage anyone interested in driving games to check out BeamNG. It's showing a ton of potential.

http://www.beamng.com/content/

Download the tech demo here

http://www.gamershell.com/download_102365.shtml