Redout 2

Before you consider, you need to understand a few things
UPDATE: I've updated this to reflect my growing thoughts on the netcode of this game if you intend to play at a high level in Multiplayer.
This game is DIFFICULT to get good at. If you had played Redout 1 and expect this to play exactly like it, you'll be very surprised. It took me over 50 hours after completing an already 30+ hour campaign to get where I am now to be considered "good". This game rewards track knowledge and snappy decisions/control that takes a lot of getting used to. If you step into the world of Multiplayer, this problem gets worse; as you're competing with a VERY strong suite of players who have a lot of experience with this game and will thrash you.
If you're willing to push through that skill barrier and want to race really fast in what I believe to be the most satisfying and rewarding racing game ever made, then keep reading. Otherwise, I might advise holding off if you're looking for a really fast multiplayer racer.
Tracks
The game has 10 primary environments you'll properly race in with 3 tracks each; that's 30 tracks which can go both Forwards and Reverse (except for VERTEX) for a total of 57 tracks. If you buy the summer/winter DLCs, that's an extra 3 reversible tracks each to bring the final total to 36 tracks (69 for reversible). Each track is gorgeous (and GPU intensive, mind you, this game is going to hit your PC HARD if you don't meet minimum specs) while incorporating crazy inversions, jumps, and track hazards that make it so no two tracks feel the same. I've enjoyed learning each one of these tracks (except Maidens of Karyai :P) and I'm still learning techniques and new racing lines even now. Each track is unique in what they try to show off, and each seems to have a "signature" section I'll call it that separates it from others, even if some tracks will share connecting sections back to the finish. Learning these tracks is half the fun of this game, and the makers have done an incredible job making tracks feel AMAZING.
Ships
There are 12 unique ship teams that you unlock by playing through the campaign. While each ship has a unique starting stat spread that changes how they feel on the track and what they can be good at, you typically won't be at a major disadvantage in a multiplayer setting based on ships (usually, Lunare still sucks and Buran/Koen are still busted). However, there are some exceptions. Ship have had their hitboxes standardized that makes it so no ship is limited (at least I can tell) by their shape, and it's purely determined by the stat spread and your skill. There's unfortunately some ships which aren't strong, but your skill can offset this in multiplayer and to an extent in time trials. Play what you like, the game doesn't require you to be hyper-meta :)
Loadouts
Instead of each ship being a static stat spread, you build off of a chassis using special parts you unlock during the campaign. While the community at large as already "optimized" the system, it provides some interesting control in making your ship feel how you want it to (floaty, stiff, ballistic missile, tank, glass cannon, literally undriveable, etc). However, some of the part choices are horribly balanced compared to others (i.e., the PSLN propulsor is no-question the best one in the game). Additionally, unlocking these parts takes a LOT of time in the campaign that I know some people disliked. You can import a 100%d save file, but then you don't get the learning experience offered by the campaign. I heavily recommend playing the campaign before trying to take on Multiplayer for that reason.
Game Feel
The game functions on a 3 axis control of steer, strafe, and pitch. Most game journalists probably didn't get the memo about pitching or strafing, but those are important control aspects to keep your speed in technical portions of the track. The game is incredibly fast, and knocking out corners and straights at Mach 2+ is an intoxicating experience that I keep coming back to. With the fixing of several horrid bugs and improvements to the engine, this game has never been faster than it is now. This is the best time to jump into Redout 2, and I promise you'll become just as addicted to going insanely fast as I have.
Community
This is an official plug for the official Redout 2 discord (discord.gg/redout). It's an incredibly welcome community that is more than happy to offer advice on getting good. Additionally, it keeps the game alive with frequent multiplayer lobbies set up at any time of day. I don't think I would be recommending the game if it had not been for the community's openness to help.
Negatives
This game suffers massively in its multiplayer functionality. In short, it's like there is the bare minimum on what is needed for a multiplayer functionality at times. With lack of dedicated servers or something akin to a rollback of sorts, constant desyncs between you and the host in a direct connection is not a matter of "if" but a matter of "how much". This is further confounded by the inconsistency of collisions in a multiplayer setting through both player-player collisions AND player-object collisions. You can and will simply be put into a state of irrelevancy in a race through no fault of your own because netcode has decided the player in front of you will be teleporting back and forth stealing your regenerating health. It's frankly horseshit how absurdly flawed the multiplayer is, especially as a good player and getting robbed. Even if you aren't in it for a competitive reason, you can hardly just sit back and enjoy going fast because of ubiquitous these desyncs are. Trying to play this game competitively, with how bad the netcode is, is a futile effort and is frankly the most abhorrent thing about this game.
The game could use a better tutorial system for teaching the player about the control of their ship. I played redout 1 previously and already had an idea of what to expect from Redout 2, but people jumping into AG racing for the first time might find the Pitch and Strafe axes weird. Additionally, the game doesn't convey enough practical information for how to race (i.e., avoid boosting in turns, boost stacking and when to do it, regeneration, speed retention, stability, thrust, etc.), leading to a really confusing learning experience without reaching out to the community for conceptual help.
Conclusion
I love this game. With the new patch that has resolved almost all of the active communities's previous gripes, this game is the definitive best racing game I have ever played. No game makes you feel this fast with such control, and no game has ever rewarded me for my time spent like Redout 2 has. The tracks are incredible, the ships feel fantastic, and the community is one of the most enjoyable I've interacted with. The online play still kind of sucks because the netcode is dogshit, but can sometimes work fine. The best time to play Redout 2 was in 2022. The next best time is now. I can't wait to see what this game develops into again. It's difficult, but rewards you for sticking through it. If you want a score:
9.8/10, incredibly challenging, incredibly rewarding, and at the level I consider almost perfect (fix the netcode i beg you). Good job 34BT.

34BT Finally managed to get the rights back to the game, and dropped an update with a bunch of QoL stuff. We are SO back. There really is no game like this, it's addictive as heck.

The developers somehow managed to get the rights to this game back from the publisher, so leaving a review. This is hands down the best "space racer" ever made. The caveat is that it makes the gamecube f-zero look easy and is half flight sim. You will start out thinking "hey this is pretty fast" but then it gets several times faster and requires you to land jumps while rotating on multiple axes around a black hole.
On the plus side, it gives you a bunch of tools to mitigate this on (most) tracks, including a time rewind, and the progression feels natural. It's also beautiful, and all of the courses are a delight, has the best audio design this side of Devil May Cry. Absolutely worth $10-$20. Snag it so that we can hopefully see more of it.

Good game, better focused than Redout 1, and the super boost is a nifty mechanic (and a good change over the first game where the speed powerup was the only viable option).
But this indie developer did the rookie mistake of selling their soul to a publisher and is now going to be abused until being fired and closed eventually, when costs need to be cut and CEO bonusses need to rise.
Never sellout. Crowd fund. Stay indie. Publishers aren't needed in an era without discs and distribution.

Yes, this is a clear recommendation for all those who like anti gravity racing games.
But: Since Redout one is (until today) one of my favourite games, this is going to be a comparison. And yes, Redout one clearly winns this race.
Why that?
- Redout has the more brilliant and clear looking (hence) better graphics. In comparison Redout 2 has much more detailed textures but it also looks somewhat washed out. The simpler graphics in Redout support a better orientation. And that's what we mainly need in a very fast-paced game.
- Redout has the more distinct steering. Controlling and timing are simply more precise.
- In direct comparison Redout feels a little bit like an anti gravity simulator while Redout 2 feels like a typical/pure acarde game.
Nonetheless Redout 2 is a very good video game. Which (not only in comparison) makes Redout simply a superb one!

Whatever your preferred flavor of going fast, this game has it in anti-grav fashion. Fly ships inspired by pod racers, muscle cars, exotics, starfighters, and more. And pretty much anywhere you'd want; mountains or beaches, the moon, Mars, the edge of a black hole, and more. It rewards clean lines and bold moves in the pursuit of speed. And to top it all off, the June 11th 2024 patch made the game even better by fixing bugs that would get in the way of said speed. The galaxy's the limit!

Is it good? Is it bad? Is it better or worse than its predecessor? I honestly can't answer the latter question. I liked Redout for the sense of speed, the absolute madness it represented. Without the magnetic mod, however, it was impossible for me to even keep myself away from the borders. Braking into corners always felt like a punishment. The mega boost was practically required as well, but could only be used when NOT using your regular boost at all. Enemies were punishing on some tracks, and got overlapped on others... even by me. I didn't feel a huge difference between the different vehicles on each tier.
In Redout 2 the handling is better from the start imho, even with the high tier vehicles, which are all unlocked in Arcade, as it should be. The boosts are no longer exclusive, on the contrary, they are supplementing each other. Banking and steering feels overall nicer. I'm never fearful of my durability bar though, because I haven't even come close to receiving enough damage to ever be close to death. More likely is death through overheating while boosting, but it also recovers very quickly. New in Redout 2 is that you not only have to control strafing and pitch, but you also need to roll frequently during jumps, which I'm not the biggest fan of. No matter which buttons I use for rolling, I always feel like I need 3 hands, instead of 2. Something is always out of reach. Having to boost, pitch and roll at the same time, while also trying to steer in some cases, is 2 things too much. Using the d-pad is not an option for me, just too impractical, so I use the shoulder buttons, but now I have to boost with the face buttons (A for me), which means I can't boost and strafe (right stick) at the same time. Frustrating.
The tracks in Redout 1 were all hand-crafted and unique. Every location was distinct, every track its own thing, and all of that culminated in the epic "boss" tracks, which combined all 5 tracks of a location into 1 giant challenge. A lap barely took more than 1 minute most of the time, a boss lap like 6 minutes. The tracks were re-arranged and put together with the help of portals. That always felt like a band-aid, like the tracks weren't really connected, a portal just bringing you from point A to point B at full speed, never knowing what's behind the portal, unless you already knew, of course. It was still good fun.
In Redout 2 there are only 3 tracks per region ... but they can be reversed. I honestly haven't tried that yet, but I'm wondering how it's supposed to work, when you're usually jumping DOWNWARDS... I'm also not really interested in it, because the tracks feel a bit soulless, to be honest. They definitely "look" nicer (better graphics), but somehow they all feel a bit ... samey, even if they strictly aren't? Hard to explain. In any case, the 3 tracks now share ONE space in a region, meaning they also share quite a bit of their identity with one another. You will recognize the same turns and objects on every track, especially during a boss run, which now just means racing the 3 tracks back to back, no more artificial jumps, you just do a lap, and then the track configuration shifts to the next one seamlessly. That might seem better, but I think it's worse, because it robs the tracks, especially the boss track, of their uniqueness.
Career mode is straight up better in my opinion. It's also grindy, though ... but Redout 1's "career" was simply a list of race events, one after another. This one has had a bit more thought put into it, where you unlock higher leagues and more parts for your fully customizable ship.
The game also has a rewind feature now, because every racing game needs those. Seeing as to how unfair many of the jumps are and how unforgiving the AI is even on the low setting, I don't really mind, but I wanted to mention it. A way to correct one mistake in a race that takes 10 minutes is always welcome.
Performance-wise the game has some inexplicable micro-stuttering at times. It's rare, but when it happens you will probably make use of that rewind feature.
All in all I don't think Redout 2 is a bad game, the question is just whether it's worth it if you're used to and having fun with Redout 1. It's definitely pricier, especially the DLC ... and technically, you could argue that it offers less content, but overall this game with both DLCs is comparable to the first game with all DLCs.