PITWALL

Created by a Belgian F1 enthusiast, Frank Van Laere, Pitwall is quite an unusual game on a very basic level of simulation. From the beginning in 2004, the game was a bit controversial - while it was fun to work on different details of your team, there were huge differences when compared to other similar games. First of all, the key to success of your racing team in Pitwall lies not in the inspired grand plan, leadership or clever strategy for the race, but in development. What does that mean? It means that you begin with a low quality car, you hire a designer, you hire mechanics and work on improving the construction. Sounds good, right? But there is one snag - that is the only way to improve your car.

You can hire better drivers, you can figure out a better ways of planning the pitstops during the race, but overall, it is all down to the improvements of the car. In the past, there were several levels of the part quality, but now (since 2018) each part is described by the percentage value. Also, new version of the game uses points to determine the progress in different fields - administration, manufacturing, development and commercial side of the business.

I guess you already noticed what is missing from the game - there is no car setup. At all! You improve the car parts (strangely enough, you work on airboxes and sidepods separately, also you manufacture your own gearbox) and your mechanic, together with the drivers, work out the perfect setup themselves. Interesting idea, but it takes away a part of the fun from the game because all you have to do is to choose the tires, work out the fuel consumption and... that’s about it for the race weekend.

Pitwall was always a bit controversial, with time the game interface and the game engine have improved, although they move into a strange direction, and it is difficult to imagine what will happen next. There are some very good ideas put into the project, but the whole thing stumbles upon the lower hurdles, like keeping the players involved.

Rating: 3.67 / 5 based on 3 votes

★★★★☆