Prior to release, the game was known as “Ghost Bike”, which was actually a more apt title than what we got with Wheel World. This is a game that goes at the pace that you set, but as you try to make your way to the finish, it gets gassed out. There’s a lot of missed opportunities with nearly every aspect of the game as none of them feels as fleshed out as they should be. Wheel World is a game that makes a great first impression, but doesn’t ever form a meaningful relationship.
With very little setup, you are playing as Kat who comes across an ethereal temple glowing. She’s down on her luck, and decides to explore it and finds a friend with this ghost bike. He’s also down on his luck, all his parts have been lost, and in order to prevent a cataclysmic event, he needs to be reassembled in order to take down the CEO that did this. I can get behind an anti-corporation plot, but this feels a bit thin. So the main motivation, at least in the first half of the game is seeking out the legendary parts that have been scattered across the world for this six or so hour journey.
From the outset, this is an open-world you can roam freely in any way you see fit. In order to progress, you have to take place in races. There will be NPCs you can talk to that will point you to parts you can unlock and swap out for your bike. To actually be able to talk to them, you have to dismount from your bike. I really like the animation and attention to detail of getting off your bike and walking it around. There are shrines that can be found that will reveal the map of the sector you’re in. And in return, your stamina bar will extend each time. There’s five areas to explore in Tramonto, a gorgeous European / Italian-styled countryside. This is a bit of a spoiler, but there’s actually three maps or biomes in the game, the second one is the Wasteland and it has a cool aesthetic, but it’s by this point you’re pretty exhausted by what the game has on offer and it feels like it climaxed early.
Racing is the crux of the game. You’ll learn how to draft and boost effective. The boost bar, powered by Kat’s stamina gets filled over time from close calls or the aforementioned drafting of other racers. Through careful control of boosting on straights and conserving on corners, will make you victorious. Each race has a rating of easy, medium, or hard. I found that even on hard, races were not difficult to win. The other racers are not pushovers, in fact they are infallible from any kind of unsportsmanlike conduct or interference. They can slam into you and prevent you from turning or send you off the road, the same cannot be done to them and their seemingly two ton weight. Races are generally lap races, unless they are boss battles where they will be point-to-point. There’s not much in the way of variation, leaving them feeling rather shallow.
There are so many bike parts in this game, way more than I would have guessed. The level of customization in the game lets you cater to your play style or towards a particular type of race that maybe is mainly off-road. Catering your bike to any style of race is normally not needed, but it’s nice it allows for that. Each bike part you unlock has pros and cons, and you have to determine what you want to sacrifice. There’s no set bonuses for using all of the same type of bike part, but they do balance the bike out. Since you reach the mid-game with the legendary bike assembled, I never felt like seeking out more parts or trying to equip anything different than the legendary parts. These are the best parts with no downsides and a lot of perks. Late in the game you’ll find a bike part that introduces you to multi-gear bikes. This equates to automatic vs manual transmission in car games, and so you’ll have to manually shift bike gears. This gives you granular control of riding, but it feels superfluous to how much you’ve gotten used to single-gear bikes and lean difficulty that it doesn’t feel worth the effort.
The majority of progression in Wheel World revolves around reputation, or rep. Each race has four objectives you can complete, which allows you to earn four points of rep upon completion. There’s even some races locked to a rep total you have to attain. This is especially true for the final race which requires 100 rep. This isn’t a whole lot, because when you join the second biome, all rep earned is multiplied by three, which accelerates the process.
Aside from the races, there are sidegigs, which are essentially challenges you will naturally or passively accomplish. Completing these requires you to visit a bot to hand these in, and you’ll receive coupons. This is a currency that can be spent at the gear shops scattered across the world. They range from the mundane to the absurd, with the latter being a hot dog and bun-shaped bike frame that you can equip.
The soundtrack is good, but can be repetitive due to the limit tracks and how often you’re entering races. And the songs chosen don’t often line-up with the gravity of the given situation, and never really lands the emotion that goes with that. Conversely, Wheel World is good at just letting the ambience win over, wherein the open-world things are just quiet and all you hear is the tires and the sound of the gear chain.
Upon completing races, there’s some slight competition as you see friends’ times and where you rank against them. This did motivate me several times to replay a race to rub it in for a friend. Though I wish I could race against ghosts of my friends, as that would be very fitting for this game. Again, this is a game that doesn’t take its ideas all the way.
Performance in this game is all over the place on PC. I can average 90-100fps in the countryside, but riding in cities or populated areas tanks the framerate to 50fps. This is with everything set to the maximum, and without DLSS, FSR, or XeSS, you do have to make other consolations in order to get a consistent experience.
My PC Specs:
– Linux (6.15.6-2-cachyos)
– 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)
In the real world, Wheel World is a repetitive and monotonous game. It’s good in a lot of areas like world building and strong controls, but variety isn’t one of them. At points where it should be celebrating your successes, just falls flat and misses the moment. Wheel World is worth playing, but it’s not something that’ll stick with you after the credits roll.
A Steam code was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes
