Lococycle Review - Race down the highway on your quest for freedom and random movie quotes

Written by Brandon Hofer on December 07, 2013

Reviews: Lococycle is another crazy game by Twisted Pixel that is Road Rash-esque with a great personality but some repetitive gameplay.

Lococycle is Twisted Pixel’s first Xbox One game and it is met with mixed results. This is a game that doesn’t look all that great through trailers and even playing through the beginning of it I was afraid that Lococycle would quickly get monotonous and repetitive quickly. I’m happy to say that I was somewhat wrong here as the locations tend to change semi-frequently and the enemies you fight do get changed up through the game so you aren’t always fighting the same the same group of guys. That being said they are the same in that they work for the evil company in the game but there are some enemies that you can dispatch with using melee, some you can take out by blowing up their car on the road, some by throwing missiles at them and more. Lococycle is very Road Rash-esque and if you have been craving a new new Road Rash you might want to give this a shot. Unfortunately there isn’t any multiplayer here so once you get through the story there really is no reason to replay the game unless you want to try and clean up some achievements you might have missed the first time.

The story for Lococycle is pretty simplistic. The main character of the game is I.R.I.S., a motorcycle with advanced A.I. that can communicate with anyone, no matter the language and she can also read as well as watch tv and express wants and desires. One night she was struck by lightning and sent to see Pablo, the mechanic who has worked on I.R.I.S., played by Freddy Rodriguez. While Pablo is trying to figure out what is wrong with I.R.I.S. she notices a magazine he was looking at and then sees a television commercial for a freedom rally. She decides that she wants to be free and immediately begins to head across the country so she can attend the freedom rally, literally dragging Pablo along for the ride. Pablo’s leg is somehow stuck to I.R.I.S. and he spends the game being dragged behind her as you race across different environments and you can even throw Pablo to use him as a weapon during the vehicular combat. As you progress through the story you encounter different types of enemies along with some boss battle with S.P.I.K.E., voiced by Robert Patrick. The cut scenes are all live action which is pretty cool but it can be a bit jarring to see Freddy Rodriguez do his thing as Pablo and then switch back to gameplay. Lococycle is not really a pretty game but there are fun moments and is good for a few chuckles.

As you go through the game you are graded on how quickly you complete a mission, how much damage you take during the course of that mission and a few other factors. Depending on how well you do you will receive points that you can use to upgrade I.R.I.S. Upgrades include health, weapons, combat abilities and more. Additionally, you earn points that you can use in the garage which is where you can unlock exclusive videos, pictures, audio and general Twisted Pixel tomfoolery. The achievements on this game are pretty easy and the game is pretty short clocking in at a few hours, which means if you want you can add a quick 1,000 gamerscore during a single afternoon. Lococycle also has a great personality (as most Twisted Pixel games do) with a bunch of movie references that are thrown at you in random intervals but you will appreciate them nonetheless. I chuckled a bit when I was racing down a highway and I.R.I.S. told me that I would see some serious shit once she hit 88 miles per hour.

Lococycle is going to be a bit of a divisive game. The combat can get really repetitive if you let it which is why I tried to change things up whenever possible. When I first started playing this game I quickly feared it would get old quickly, however, the change in environments and the different enemy types was a welcome surprise. The personality I.R.I.S. has and the random movie quotes were entertaining but I don’t know if I can recommend Lococycle at its current price. It is a good game but there really isn’t anything special to it unless you really want to get your Road Rash fix. Or if you are an achievement hunter that wants to add a quick thousand to your gamerscore.