Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

RoadKill puts you behind the wheel of a weaponized ride in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where survival hinges on how well you can outmaneuver and outgun your rivals. From the moment you receive your first mission—whether it’s annihilating a rival clan convoy or rescuing stranded allies—you’ll find that the controls strike a solid balance between arcade-style thrills and satisfying weightiness. Turning, drifting, and boosting feel responsive, and each upgrade you install—be it a nitrous injector or a reinforced bumper—translates into a palpable improvement on the road.

With 30 distinct missions to tackle, variety remains one of RoadKill’s prime draws. One assignment might have you raiding an enemy stronghold to steal blueprints for a devastating new weapon, while the next could involve high-speed convoy assaults or escorting convoys through narrow urban canyons. The mission design encourages you to experiment: you might approach a target head-on with a fully armed juggernaut or sneak through backstreets with stealth upgrades, proving there’s more than one way to earn your reputation.

Part of the thrill is scavenger hunting for parts scattered across Hell County’s burned-out cityscape. Blueprints hidden in abandoned factories unlock new weapons and defensive modules, rewarding exploration and risk-taking. This layer of resource management—deciding which systems to upgrade first—adds depth, making each drive feel meaningful. Over time, balancing speed, armor, and firepower becomes an addictive puzzle, ensuring you’re always plotting your next modification.

Graphics

Visually, RoadKill delivers a gritty, immersive interpretation of a world on its last legs. Rusted skyscrapers loom in the distance, their broken windows aglow with the fires of makeshift refugee camps. The texture work on buildings and vehicles is impressively detailed: chipped paint, scorched metal, and caked-on grime all contribute to the sense of decay. When your car’s armor plate buckles under fire, you can almost feel the impact thanks to convincing dents and sparks.

Lighting in RoadKill is used to great effect, with dusty sunlight filtering through swirling smog, creating stark contrasts between bright highways and shadowy, rubble-strewn alleyways. Explosions and muzzle flashes light up the environment in quick bursts, heightening the chaos of roadside skirmishes. Reflections on puddles of oily water add another layer of realism, even if frame rates occasionally dip during the most demanding firefights.

While the overall aesthetic is striking, some texture pop-in and repetitive environmental assets can pull you out of the immersion on longer play sessions. That said, the game’s art direction and color palette—dominated by rust, ash, and neon hazard stripes—ensure Hell County feels like a living, breathing ruin rather than a sterile open world. For fans of dystopian visuals, RoadKill’s landscapes will keep you glued to the viewport.

Story

Set “long into the future, where the world is a wasteland full of crime and filth,” RoadKill’s narrative thrust is straightforward but effective: you must rise through the ranks of vehicular warlords to become the most feared leader in Hell County. The story unfolds across your 30 missions, each punctuating key moments in your ascent from lone scavenger to clan commander. Dialogue is delivered through gritty radio monologues and brief in-engine cutscenes that convey the dire stakes of your campaign.

Character development is surprisingly robust for a driving game. You’ll forge uneasy alliances with quasi-mythical clan leaders, negotiate alliances in ramshackle roadside taverns, and even face betrayals that force you to re-evaluate which factions to trust. These narrative beats give weight to your actions: a mission to rescue a betrayed ally takes on extra urgency when you’ve seen their bartered betrayal firsthand.

While the overarching plot may feel familiar—power struggles in a post-apocalyptic hellscape—the writing leans into dark humor and hard-boiled one-liners that keep the pace brisk. Subplots involving rival gangs’ power plays and internal betrayals add texture, ensuring the world feels dynamic. By the time you’re vying to challenge the reigning “Iron Butcher” for control of Hell County, you’ll be genuinely invested in the outcome.

Overall Experience

RoadKill’s blend of high-octane driving and vehicular combat creates an adrenaline-fueled journey that’s hard to put down. The steady progression of upgrades, coupled with diversely structured missions, ensures that the gameplay loop continually rewards both skillful driving and strategic planning. Whether you’re laying down suppressive fire while drifting around a corner or racing to an extraction point under relentless pursuit, the game delivers relentless excitement.

Replayability is bolstered by the pursuit of 100% completion: hunting down every blueprint, unlocking every weapon mod, and forging all possible alliances. Side activities, like time trials and hidden monster-truck arenas, provide tasty breaks from the main story. Even after finishing the primary campaign, the temptation to return and tweak your ultimate vehicle setup remains strong.

Although occasional performance hitches and some environmental repetition hold it back from perfection, RoadKill stands out as one of the more engaging entries in the vehicular combat genre. Its immersive world-building, compelling mission variety, and deep customization systems make it a must-play for fans of Mad Max–style mayhem. Strap in, rev your engine, and prepare to carve your name into the scorched highways of Hell County.

Retro Replay Score

7.1/10