Prepare yourself for post-apocalyptic dune buggies from hell, complete with foul-mouthed Scottish goggle-wearing dwarves and monster trucks with missiles! Think car wars with a splash of detail and a tidal wave of carnage.

Set in yet another 3D post-nuclear blast zone, Bandits: Phoenix Rising casts you as Fennec of the Wolfpack gang, fighting for a piece of fat-cat city, the fabled Jericho. Your vehicle is an improvised dune buggy/dragster, complete with jet engine, armor, and a whole lotta firearms. Your enemies range from small buggies like yours to freakish Bigfoot monster trucks. Vehicles can be customized over time and it really matters what you pick, as the game’s varied objectives require that you select the right loadout to win in particular situations.

Using typical first-person–shooter controls, you can make your battle-buggy turn and stop on a dime. This lets you focus on slinging missiles or dropping mines instead of worrying about troublesome game-world physics.

Vehicles can have multiple weapons, and you’ll gain new ones over time like the Shredder and the death-dealing Excavator. There are 13 weapons in all, including the aptly named Sharkbite pulse cannon and Rattlesnake mine dropper. Firing these toys just feels cool, and each weapon produces serious kickback. When you unlock the medium and heavy vehicles, you can load up with six of these death doctors at once.

The sensation of speed is terrific. The AI is decent, though most attackers use S-weave approaches or basic circle-and-shoot tactics. I encountered a nasty bug that occasionally caused the framerate to drop into the low single digits (the only way to clear it is to restart the game), and multiplay tends to degenerate into overblown jousting. But there’s nothing else right now that so successfully combines first-person ferocity with four-wheel velocity.

Overall, Bandits is a worthy purchase that offers 20 or so high-octane missions. Don’t be ashamed if you find yourself gleefully yelling along with dialogue like “Eat crap, flaming craphead!”
— Matthew Peckham