In just a few short weeks, we’ve gone from having zero idea what to expect from Clutch, the upcoming open-world action-racing game from the new team at Maverick Games, to getting a deep look at its world, not to mention some of the cars in it, and what you’ll be able to do with them. On Thursday, the studio treated us to an hour’s worth of gameplay of the title, which isn’t due to launch until next spring.
Frankly, it’s a pretty comprehensive view of a game that, as Maverick’s Creative Director Mike Brown and Art Director Ben Penrose tell us during the stream, is still quite early in development for this sort of access. “I think for us, and the games we might have shown you in a past life, this is very, very, very early,” Brown, formerly a director on Forza Horizon, says near the end of the session. It’s worth noting that back in February, Amazon backed out of its deal with Maverick to publish Clutch, and this could be part of the studio’s bid to find new support.
Given the early state of the product, there are bugs, and team knows it, but it’s nevertheless impressive to take in just how much of the experience appears to be ready-to-ship, at least to the untrained eye. The lighting model, for starters, uses proprietary sky-capture tech that Maverick has integrated into Unreal Engine’s Lumen system, and it makes those Riviera nights look striking, even on a low-bitrate stream like this. Ditto for the car and character models, which we heaped praise on when we first saw the game.
CLUTCH // Early Gameplay Presentation 🔴 LIVE 🔴
Fair warning: If you want to go into Clutch next year knowing as little as possible about its story, then this stream probably isn’t for you. As it picks up from the literal start of the game, we see our protagonists get into a bit of trouble in nothing less than a Fiat Multipla, before a tragedy turns their lives upside down in the present day, and leads them to seek the services of some pretty shady-seeming individuals—not to say they don’t engage in some legally dubious activities themselves.
Instead of getting too deep into those major story beats, I’ll highlight a few of the more practical elements of the game that stood out to me. Clutch has traditional, closed-circuit races set in the Riviera R1K, the prestigious championship that forms the basis of the game’s story, as well as street races that aren’t decided by finishing position but instead, driving stylishly and satisfying requests from fans on a livestream. These races happen via underground meets, where you’re also able to buy the older cars in the game’s roster. Newer ones can be purchased through dealerships.
Yeah, the social media angle sounded a little cringe to me too, but it manifests in asking the player to take risks, Burnout– or Project Gotham Racing-style, and doling out score (in this case, viewer votes) for achieving what’s been asked. At one point in the footage, a viewer tells Theo, the main character, to drift, and when he does, he gets a heap of points for it.
The vehicle roster is noteworthy, not simply for left-field choices but also, seeing cars in contexts you wouldn’t expect for them. For example, there’s a winged E39 BMW M5 in a Riviera R1K race, jockeying for position alongside late-model Aston Martin Vantages and Porsche 718 Caymans. I must also commend the nerdy choice to let players use turn signals and flip between high and low beams, which will apparently have an effect on surrounding drivers and traffic, interestingly.
Also, when you switch from view to view in this game, the camera travels through the car and stops at each point, like you may remember from Colin McRae Dirt from back in the day; it’s not just hard cuts from the chase cam, to the bumper, to the interior. Neat!
Then there’s the very left-field stuff, like the integration of fictional podcasts, in the game, that help build out the world; it appears like these are optional to listen to. And if you thought that the harpoon mechanic was weird, allowing you to slingshot around corners faster than you’d ever be able to otherwise, there are five other similar technologies that you can mix and match on your vehicle. No clue on what they are, though.
If you don’t mind a few very early and light spoilers, it’s worth seeing some of what Clutch has in store in this stream. We even get a look at the open-world map at one point, giving us an aerial view of the game’s 1:1 recreation of Monaco, as well as the surrounding environment, since Monaco itself is pretty small.
Got a racing game you want me to check out, new or old? Reach out to the author: adam.ismail@thedrive.com