Road Warrior or Road Kill?

Ever wish you were Mel Gibson in one of those Road Warrior movies? It doesn't get a whole lot better than driving through barren wasteland in messed up looking cars armed to the teeth. Although the end of the Cold War has ceased the once never ending supply of post-apocalyptic settings in movies and books (like "the Road Warrior" and "On the Beach"), BeyondGames revisits the genre with Redline. Redline has gotten a considerable amount of press already. Partly the attention is because it adds a different twist to the first person genre - the driving element. You can get into and out of cars as you wish. Also, there's a single player and multiplayer demo out already (with GameSpy support), so we downloaded the big demo to give it a quick spin.

Shoot baddies from the convenience of your car

The story behind Redline isn't your usual, "nuclear war gets started and obliterates 98% of the population, leaving a handful of mutated and unmutated people to struggle for survival." You see, there are a few twists here. First off, it's greedy corporations who are detonating the nuclear bombs, and they're doing it on the moon (not the earth). The motivation? Citizens drove these corporations into exile during a revolution for cleaner fuels. The Insiders' (corporations') revenge was to detonate the nukes on the moon and create a deadly destruction over the Earth. The humans who aligned with the Insiders after the apocalypse get to live in domed cities protected from the polluted environment. Those outside are called, you guessed it, Outsiders, and they're ruled by violent, nomadic gangs.

The Insiders oppress the Outsiders by forcing them to play in violent, bloodthirsty arena combat. The reward for the Outsiders who participate in these brutal games is protection from the toxic pollution. You play the role of an up and coming member of a gang called "The Company." The Company's history in combat is legendary but other gangs are catching up quickly. Your goal is to become the leader of your gang and out gun the rival gangs.