RDS - The Official Drift Videogame

My first instinct when loading up RDS was to reach for the wheel, and honestly, that instinct was right. This is one of the few indie racing titles where the investment in a proper steering wheel setup - separate pedals, a handbrake axis if you have one - pays off in a way that feels genuinely earned. The physics engine, built on Nvidia PhysX, communicates rear-end grip loss in a way that a gamepad approximates but a wheel actually expresses. Keyboard players are welcome, controller players will manage, but wheel-and-pedal pilots are who this game was built for. The core loop is deceptively simple: carry an angle, target the drift cones placed on each corner apex, and hold that line as long as physics and nerve allow. Getting the rear to step out is easy - a light throttle tap and a quick steering input and you are sideways. Holding a clean 45-degree angle at the cone without spinning out or straightening up early is where the skill ceiling lives, and it is higher than the entry point suggests. The tuning system supports that ceiling well. You can adjust suspension geometry, wheel alignment, camber, and tire pressure independently for front and rear axles, swap in any of ten engine variants with their own weight and sound profiles, and strip the car down to cut mass. It is not Assetto Corsa deep, but it is specific enough that two different builds feel genuinely different to drive. The track roster covers locations drawn from real-world drift venues in Japan, Russia, the USA, Canada, Germany and elsewhere, and each one ships with multiple layout configurations. Some are point-to-point mountain runs, others tighter technical circuits, and there are open drift parks for freestyle practice too. All locations unlock from day one, which is a sensible call for a game where route knowledge is half the battle. Day and night cycles plus weather variables mean air temperature and asphalt temperature affect your grip, which sounds like a minor sim detail but actually changes how you tune between sessions. Online is where the longevity argument gets complicated. The multiplayer runs on a ghost-car model, meaning other players have no physical collision mass, so rammers are a non-issue - a smart call that keeps competitive sessions clean. Tandem drift mode is present and works well when you find a partner at the same skill level. The scoring system, however, has a known frustration: players who spam short repetitive micro-drifts on straights can farm points in ways that feel cheap against someone running a clean full-lap line. It is the kind of exploit that rewards grinding a pattern rather than actual drift craft, and it sours ranked sessions for players coming in with style in mind. With a relatively modest online population, you may also find lobby times vary by region and hour. That said, the ghost-time leaderboards offer a solid offline target when the lobbies are quiet. For the casual crowd asking whether this is a good Saturday night game: it depends on your setup. There is no split-screen and no couch co-op, so four friends around one PC is out. Online multiplayer with a group of friends in separate rooms works fine and is actually fun once everyone has the hang of the drift mechanics. Newcomers should expect a short but genuine learning curve - this is not a kart racer where the car corrects itself - but the physics are forgiving enough that a new player will be sideways and smiling within the first twenty minutes rather than spinning out in frustration for an hour.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

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