Caged Element is betting on a new generation of arcade racing fans with Grip XR, a high-octane sequel to the developer's 2018 spiritual successor to the Rollcage franchise. The studio has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the project, and a playable demo is already live on Steam.
Grip XR pushes the formula into even wilder territory. The game's centerpiece remains the big-wheeled, inverted-gravity car design that lets vehicles race on ceiling and walls at eye-watering speeds exceeding 1000 km/h. But the sequel adds a new mechanic called Crank: auxiliary boosters flanking each vehicle that trigger instant flips left or right, enabling players to snap onto walls, reach alternative routes, and blaze through shortcuts with what Caged Element describes as "quick and steezy maneuvers."
The developers are acutely aware of the original Grip's missteps. "We are well aware of there being issues with Grip's tracks, and we will do our best to not make those same level design mistakes again," the studio said in its Kickstarter pitch. The sequel promises tracks with better flow and reduced punishment, shedding the dead-stop obstacles and instant-death pitfalls that plagued the predecessor. Higher difficulty maps will still test driving mastery, but the overall design philosophy shifts toward encouraging experimentation rather than punishing exploration.
Grip XR expands the arsenal of weapons and elevates Carkour, the platforming-inspired mode from the original. Level design tools are being imported and improved from Caged Element's work on Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freaks, bringing workshop functionality that lets the community build and share custom tracks.
The original Grip: Combat Racing emerged from an unlikely origin story. Rollcage enthusiast Chris Mallinson tracked down Robert Baker, a programmer who worked on the 1999-2000 originals at Attention to Detail, and pitched building a spiritual successor. After a failed Kickstarter attempt and a Early Access stint, Grip launched in 2018. Now, two decades past the final Rollcage sequel, Caged Element is trying to expand that niche audience into something more sustainable.
Author Emily Chen: "Caged Element is smart to acknowledge Grip's design problems head-on instead of pretending they didn't exist, and the Crank mechanic could genuinely reshape how these tracks play."
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