Gravel is a game displaced. It's a competent and occasionally pretty pick-up-and-play arcade racing game at its core, but it has the whiff of a game released in the wrong era – a scent it just can't shake. A 2018 rendition of '90s ambition. Gravel certainly channels the spirit and straightforward simplicity of Milestone's own 1997 arcade off-roader...
Gravel is a game worth playing for despite its technical shortcomings. Although the result is generally good and promising, it is still affected by a very rough graphic background and an excessively simple game development.
It is certainly not difficult to find faults in Gravel, but most of them are easy to forgive. It's a great feeling to put the pedal to the metal and just enjoy some great arcade racing. Rarely has a racing game been this fun and varied, although It could – and maybe should – have been better in a lot of ways.
While Gravel has issues like strange collisions, cars literally merging into each other and some issues with shadows, there is a lot to say about it. There's a wide variety of racing types, tracks and cars to use. Almost everything is fast paced and entertaining and simply gratifying. Simply put, Gravel is a very good arcade style racing game and Milestones...
Gravel may be visually inferior to other modern racers, but what Milestone has achieved mechanically and creatively deserves to be praised.
