Star WarsGalactic Racer

The store pages went wild overnight. A racing game people have been talking about since the middle of the year finally hit the shelves, and it turned October into a pretty busy month for anyone who loves racing. This month we're going to review STAR WARS: GALACTIC RACER for you.

Let's start with the companies. The game was made by FUSE GAMES and published by SECRET MODE. Word is going around that the studio has programmers from the old BURNOUT team. There's no official statement confirming it, so for now treat it as gossip. But once you see what the game plays like, it isn't hard to guess where the rumour came from. Without further ado, let's get into it.

The game came out on 6 October 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam), all on the same day. The Empire has fallen and the Outer Rim is fending for itself. You are a pilot called SHADE, and you join the GALACTIC LEAGUE, an underground racing league nobody gave permission for. That's the whole story. Most of the people playing it have called the story "thin" anyway. Oh well, it's a racing game.

Monotony is a racing game's worst enemy, don't forget that.

The real point is the structure. The game is built as a "roguelite" (a kind of game where every attempt starts you from scratch, but you pick things up along the way and go into the next run a bit stronger). Don't expect a classic championship table. Races come in runs, and when you lose you go back to the start. For the first few hours the idea feels fresh. But this is also exactly what players and critics complain about most: after a while the campaign starts repeating itself. With so few tracks, you can't avoid taking the same corners over and over. Monotony is a racing game's worst enemy, don't forget that.

Now let's move on to the vehicles. There's the LANDSPEEDER, the SPEEDER BIKE, the SKIM SPEEDER and of course the PODRACER. The moment you see the podracer, 1999's EPISODE I: RACER springs to mind, right? Will people who loved that game get the thrill they want from the podracers here? Going by player reviews, mostly yes. The sense of speed is the one thing almost everybody praises. You can build vehicles around three different repulsorcraft (craft that float off the ground as they go) styles and swap them out part by part. People have found this customisation system pretty deep, and it's one of the plus points critics bring up again and again.

There's also combat racing. You can slam your rivals into the wall and knock them off the track (friends who remember the takedowns in BURNOUT know exactly what I mean). On top of that there's a boost system that is pretty much the game's backbone: the harder you lean on the throttle, the more you gain, and the more risk you take. This risk and reward balance is the most praised design decision. If you ask me, it's what holds the whole game up.

On to multiplayer. Online PvP races take 1 to 12 players and work cross-platform. But you can't split the screen and play with the friend sitting next to you. No split-screen! In a racing game, two-player is half the fun, and here that half is missing. Multiplayer is internet only.

PC owners, I've got some bad news for you. On day one, the positive rating on Steam dropped to around 69%. The reason is simple: keyboard controls felt too "floaty", and you can't remap the keys. The players' common advice is to get a gamepad. I'll say the same: don't go into this game on a keyboard, and if you don't have a gamepad, sort that out first. The rating recovered later, and today it sits at "Very Positive" with 86% positive across 5,759 English reviews. Critics are pretty generous too: on OpenCritic the top critic average is 87, and 96% of critics recommend it. On Metacritic the PS5 version is around 88, Xbox Series X around 86, and the PC version somewhere between 82 and 84. It's no accident that PC trails behind. The control problem shows up there too.

Also, the PC version has DENUVO copy protection, and it sets an activation limit of 5 machines. Friends who change computers often, or who are forever wiping their system and reinstalling, should know this. The system requirements are perfectly reasonable: at least Windows 10, an i5-8400 or Ryzen 5 2600, 12 GB RAM, an RTX 2060 and 50 GB of space on an SSD. The recommended system is an i7-10700 or Ryzen 7 3700X, 16 GB RAM and an RTX 3060 Ti. Don't even think about installing it on a hard drive. An SSD is a must.

Let's move on to prices. The standard edition is 59.99 dollars (59.99 euros in Europe). The Deluxe edition is 79.99 dollars. It comes with three extra vehicles, three Arcade events, livery and banner packs, and a digital art book. The Collector's Edition is 159.99 dollars. Out of the box come a physical model of the Darc X landspeeder, a champion's poster, two pilot patches, a printed art book and a steelbook. Hmmm. Is it worth paying 20 dollars more for the three vehicles in the Deluxe? I say no. The standard edition is plenty. The collector's edition is for people with a Star Wars shelf. And one more thing: on the publisher's page the age rating still says "Rating Pending".

Now for the verdict. The heart of the game is solid: the sense of speed, the gamble of the boost and the vehicle-building system are the plus points almost everyone agrees on. That's why I'm keeping the score high. But it can't get past 90, because a campaign that falls into repetition, a small number of tracks and no split-screen are not minor flaws in a racing game. No key remapping on PC doesn't suit a game made today either. I'm not going lower, though, because none of these flaws spoil that basic pleasure of being behind the wheel (sorry, the gamepad). On console, or on PC with a gamepad, it's a game to buy this month if you love fast, crash-heavy racing. If you want to share the screen and play side by side with a friend, wait. Maybe it'll come in a patch.

Don't forget to write to me with the shortcuts and vehicle setups you find for the game. Good luck...