Recycling is important, as we all know. So it’s heartening to think that, in 2066, when the climate wars have taken their toll and the surviving inhabitants of Earth been pushed into an ever-shrinking number of habitable cities, we might find a new use for the abandoned husks of our former metropoli, those empty sprawls of concrete and tarmac. Even if only as racetracks, spattered in blood.
“They should look like neon roller coasters that weave through these long-abandoned cities,” says DeathSprint 66 design director Andrew Willans, as if directing the construction crews of the future. He’s describing the speedways of Sumo Newcastle’s bloodsport, which – sure enough – arc like gleaming ribbons between the dilapidated office blocks. It takes our eyes a moment to adjust, to really take in the arresting mishmash of black-andyellow hazard stripes, industrial meatgrinders and flatscreen adverts that make up the circuits.
It’s an intriguing backdrop to a game that is at least as idiosyncratic in its design: an on-foot racing game that equally conjures memories of Mario Kart, SSX Tricky and The Running Man. Through these recycled cities, clone-jockeys pilot human bodies with reckless aplomb, all for the entertainment of a morally depleted crowd of spectators. Anything for a break from the strained reality of everyday life. “It’s blood and circus for the masses,” Willans says. “It’s the return of Caligula’s Saturday matinee, with all the bells and whistles.”
The game’s gladiatorial bodycount is fed by the advancement of cloning technology, and the STEM-Links allowing anyone to commandeer these bodies. “For the wealthy, this might be immortality,” Willans says. “You might have five clones in the wardrobe, where you’re like, ‘Oh, my lungs have packed up – right, swap into the next one’.” In 2066, then, life is cheap. And on the track are plenty of hazards just waiting to prove it. “The tracks themselves are about spectacle and unpredictability,” Willans explains. “We’ve got all kinds of wonderful things that will cut you up and decapitate you in various fun ways.” These include flying
