Funselektor teams up with Strelka Games with Golden Lap, a gorgeous and deep simulation of open-wheeled racing. All too often, games ask you to take control of a vehicle and drive it to victory. Here, you’re tasked with maintaining the financials and logistics of running a team, and seeing whether that leads to success or failure. While failure may be prevalent with your time here, it’s a relaxing yet demanding time. This genre, especially among the motorsport enthusiasts is not new, but how capricious any given race or team can be is where Golden Lap exceeds its contemporaries.
Like art of rally, Golden Lap is a minimalist game about racing. The difference here is that this game exists during the “golden era” of racing, mostly open-wheeled race cars which is essentially Formula One. When beginning a new career, you’ll select one of ten teams that are facsimiles to recognizable teams in F1. Each of the teams is like selecting a difficulty, as the predicted outcomes will determine how much money and challenge to reach the top to win it all. Starting in 1970, you’ll have ten season to cement a legacy, or be doomed to restart it.
After selecting a team, you’ll start assembling a team. You’re given a budget, and you’ll have to hire two drivers, an engineer, and a crew chief. How you allocate that money will have its own rewards and risks. The economy of Golden Lap is interesting. All the money you see is dollars, but it’s rare to see anything over three digits in length. Do you invest in good drivers in the hopes they have the uncanny ability to take a refrigerator to the podium? Or do you invest in an engineering team that can build and maintain a car that even Mr. Magoo could take home a trophy with? This and more await you in Golden Lap as every decision has an outcome, and whether it is going to be good or bad is up to chance.
When it’s race day, it’s time to put rubber to tarmac and have to qualify for position. You’ll send your drivers onto on the track with a set strategy. Your driver’s reactions to lights out is on them, as there’s nothing you can control. What you can control, is the decisions you make around their pit strategy, such as outfitting new tires to match conditions or wear & tear to get speed to finish the race in a good place. Lots of detail and news occurs during a race. While you can monitor the race in real-time, it makes sense to fast-forward until you’re needed again.
As you progress each week through the race calendar, the game will tell you the traits of track. This can be things like the track is bumpy, narrow, and a crown jewel (prestigious or historic). You’ll also be given information around how many laps the race is, what tires are available, and even the forecast of the entire weekend. Golden Lap will do its best to ensure you have all the necessary details to make informed details. One of the coolest elements of the game, is the unpredictable nature of how races unfold where anything can happen. If there’s a crash, either on your team or not, how you recover or react can make or break a race.
If the career mode is too overwhelming, there is a quick race option that lets you just pick the track and weather, and you go on your way. While the game has depth, you don’t have to treat it like a job or anything serious. This can be as casual as you allow it to be.
At any time, you view car info that shows the durability of the engine, transmission, and steering. This affects how reliable each component will be. And if there’s upgrade opportunities, you can take it (so long as there’s money to fund it). Like any good team, you will have an extra stockpile of parts that can be swapped out if anything cataclysmic happens. In the season overview, you can view the calendar, team, standings, and go to the garage to make adjustments.
Minimal is a recurring theme and design choice here. Even in a game that’s centered around motorsports, there are no cars besides the game’s logo. Every driver and car is represented by a large dot on the map. While the amount of options available to you can be a bit much, this is a game that’s focused on the right amount of management. You’re able to make decisions without underlying conditions not visible to the player, meaning there’s clarity in decision making.
Out of the box, Golden Lap supports mods. You can customize teams, drivers, and even the skills and traits of the crew. During the review period, I there was a mod to update the game’s roster of cars to 1984. Another mod essentially anachronistically placed the ever-dominant Red Bull into the 1970s, to see what would happen. When the game releases, we’re going to have endless possibilities realized that will send the game into the upper stratosphere of combinations.
I’m dismayed to report that Golden Lap lacks any ultrawide support. That said, the minimalist gameplay and UI means that everything is easily readable and intuitive. It also means that the game runs incredibly well and has no issues in terms of performance. 1970s colors name?
My PC Specs:
– Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
– Intel Core i9 13900K @ 5.8GHz
– ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 ARGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
– G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 6000MHZ 64GB (32×2) DDR5 RAM
– ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X
– WD_BLACK SN850X M.2 (4 TB)
– LG UltraGear 34GP950B-G (21:9 Ultrawide @ 3440×1440)
The minimalist nature of this management sim offers more depth than a game that’s maximalist. It’s a game that is mesmerizing and nail biting as you have to stand by and watch events unfold. Golden Lap is another special game from Funselektor, and one not to be missed. Golden Lap is infinitely replayable as you embark on a quest to beat the best, and to be the best.
A Steam code was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes
