Summary
Gear.Club Unlimited 3 provides a solid racing experience with various challenges to keep you entertained. Buying different cars and upgrading them to their full potential is exciting. You need some racing background to play as the game assumes you know how to race. If you like standard racing games, this is worth a look but it might not interest other racing fans.
Developer – Eden Games
Publisher – Devolver Digital
Platforms – PC, Nintendo Switch 2 (reviewed)
Review copy given by publisher
Traveling across the world to race is a thrilling concept, especially when you are setting up a racing scene. After winning a series of races, you are traveling to Japan to help Gear Club set up a location there. Building your reputation isn’t easy and you don’t have access to amazing cars from the start. Upgrade your car and compete against the best of the best to slowly develop your reputation while establishing the Gear Club.
The focus on conventional racing is Gear.Club Unlimited 3’s greatest strength. Ensuring you race cleanly without bumping into walls or other drivers forces you to refine your driving skills. Working your way up is also a fun process that invests you in the journey. However, the emphasis on regular racing is also a drawback since it doesn’t deviate from that premise. Racing fans can enjoy the experience but it may get old quick for other players.
The premise of the game involves traveling to Japan to create a presence for the Gear Club there. After qualifying and winning in a local tournament, you are the representative chosen to make this happen. However, you have no reputation in Japan apart from one contact who helps you get set up. Everything else involves you putting your driving skills to the test against some of the best racers in Japan.
It’s your usual campaign experience of slowly working your way up the racing ladder. As an unknown, you aren’t going to make a big splash on Japan’s racing scene. Even the cars available to you are cheap entry-level racing vehicles. With time and effort, you upgrade your cars and purchase new ones to handle the level of competition you face. The focus is on a clean racing experience and your success depends on it.
Some racing games encourage pushing other racers out of the way or blocking them. Here, you are discouraged from doing that since contact lowers your points. Even hitting walls or going slightly off-track impacts your final reward. Gear.Club Unlimited 3 wants you to be a clean racer that doesn’t hurt anyone or goes off-track. Close calls are alright but you shouldn’t be hitting other racers or vehicles.
This raises the standard and focuses on refining your driving skills. While everyone is going to make mistakes in the beginning, practice ensures that you minimize them. Your reward is increased gains after every race, making it easier to purchase expensive cars or upgrade them. It also means you are likely to finish races faster, giving you a better incentive to race properly instead of being reckless.
However, this is a double-edged sword since racing smoothly is easier said than done. The game doesn’t mention its focus on smooth racing much. You find out when you crash into a wall or another vehicle with a brief tutorial about it in the beginning. There are also no tutorials for the basics of racing; you are expected to learn on your own or come with prior race experience. It’s difficult to become a racer that gets into few accidents and that means a heavy time investment.
There’s also not much gameplay aside from different variations of racing. You can “duel” other racers by maintaining a lead, beat a time challenge, or go through a traditional race. If you love the typical racing genre, then there isn’t much issue. But upgrading and purchasing cars for these races only partially mitigates the problem. Unless you love traditional racing games, gameplay quickly becomes stale with little variation to keep going.
Gear.Club Unlimited 3 delivers a solid racing experience if you want to stick to a game that sticks to realistic racing. You have a variety of cars to purchase and/or upgrade along with races to keep you occupied. If that interests you, there’s a lot of fun to be had during the story and free-play races. Unfortunately, you aren’t going to find much of anything else and it’s tough to recommend if your interest in traditional racing isn’t great.
