Ride to Hell: Retribution, one of the worst video games ever made, somehow had a spin-off in development known as Route 666, and footage from an early build has already surfaced.
Although the world of video games still hasmorethan its fair share of problems, the quality of games has frankly never been better. Sure, we get aConcordandMindsEyehere and there, but we’re mostly met with stellar releases pretty much everywhere we look.My god, that wasn’t the case just ten years ago.
Back in the PS3 and Xbox 360 era,there were a ton of unbelievably bad games released, but there’s one that most would agree is the worst of the bunch. That game is Ride to Hell: Retribution, which released in 2013 tocatastrophic reviews that left it at a whopping 19 on Metacritic. It seems some people thought there was life left in the series, though.
Oh, to be back in the days of Xbox Live Arcade
As pointed out on the GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit by Redditor TanFlo1997, a sequel or spin-off set in the Ride to Hell universe was apparently in development shortly before the release of Retribution. The cancelled game is called Route 666, and it was seemingly asmaller-budget Xbox Live Arcade spin-off set in the same world as Ride to Hell.
The development build of Route 666 that revealed such a project even existed was found by Dusk the Crow on the Media Oasis Discord community. Route 666’s build was dated for April 2013, a few months before the infamous launch of Retribution in June of the same year, which likely killed the project outright.
Route 666 was apparently only a few months away from being finished, but Retribution was so bad that the developers must have just decided to not bother.
The working build of Route 666 was shared on Hidden Palace in the last 24 hours,and videos and screenshots of the spin-off have started making their way on YouTube and Reddit. The game’s tutorial mission shows that it’s styled after comic books and seems to be entirely focused on driving and fighting other bikers.
Achievements for Route 666 have also been discovered, giving us a bit more of an idea about how it was going to play. It seems that one of the core gameplay mechanics was building up your own gang, as each biker seems to have its own class, such as a sniper, a medic, a brawler, and a gunner.
Having watched the footage myself, it’s tough to argue that Route 666 should have been released. It’s got pretty much the same cringe-worthy vibe as Retribution did, with gameplay that’s somehow even less interesting. Still, it’s always great to get a glimpse of games that could have been.
