H-Craft Championship is a Science Fiction racing game, developed by Irrgheist [1]. Irrgheist is a German game development company founded in summer 2006 by Michael Zeilfelder and Philipp Lossack. H-Craft features over 28 racetracks, 4 different gaming modes and 3 Hovercrafts.

Game Modes

Championship
The Championship mode is like a big tournament. It is split in 3 parts with 4 quarters and 3 races in each quarter. Each of the 4 quarters has a requirement you have to meet to get to the next quarter. Also you are unlocking new tracks for the other modes. Each track you race in the Championship mode will be available in the other Game modes as well.



Arcade
The Arcade mode is for playing single races with the number of opponents, the difficulty, the track and the number of laps. You can only play Tracks which are unlocked.

Time attack
The Time attack mode is for playing races without opponents but against the clock. Within the Time attack mode there are two Sub modes. One of the Sub modes is the Hotlap mode, in which you race as many laps as you want, trying to beat the lap record. The other Sub mode is the "Timerace", in which you try to beat the Best time on a number of laps. In both Modes you can add a "Ghost"-Racer which shows the lap record time.



Rivals
The Time attack mode is for playing races without opponents but against the clock. Within the Time attack mode there are two Sub modes. One of the Sub modes is the Hotlap mode, in which you race as many laps as you want, trying to beat the lap record. The other Sub mode is the "Timerace", in which you try to beat the Best time on a number of laps. In both Modes you can add a "Ghost"-Racer which shows the lap record time.

Installation

The linux version comes with a GUI-Installer which looks like the Windows Install-Shield installers. The installer is easy to understand and works fine. You just have to choose the directory in which you want to install H-Craft Championship. After the installation the installer asks if a icon to H-Craft should be placed on the desktop - this also works fine.

Gameplay

First Impression
The First impression of the Game is that it is very hard, but with some training lessons it is really fun to play. At the beginning (in the Championship mode) it's not easy to stay on top of the road, but after a few races you know how to handle the H-Craft better and better.

The Championchip Mode
The Championship Mode is the best part of the Game. It is very hard to win a race and get some points for the ranking, but after you've won the first race you can't stop trying to win the second course. You'll become addicted! While playing the Championship the Game gets more and more difficult at the subsequent races.



The Arcade Mode
The Arcade Mode is great if you just want to spend a few minutes playing and don't want to continue the Championship Mode.

The Time Attack Mode
The Time attack Mode is great to practice on various racetracks to see how you can get through the track perfectly. You can also download ghosts from other people and try to beat them. This is great, because this way you can see if you can beat other players, see how they go through the racetracks or learn some tricks, for example how to go through certain curves.

The Rival Mode
The Rival mode is sadly the lowlight of the game. Racing one after another is not that much fun, because it's just like racing singleplayer against a ghost. For lanparties a real multiplayer mode to play over the network would be much better - racing together at the same time is definitely better than racing alone against some ghost.

Graphics

The Graphic is solid - nothing very special and exiting. The Game shows a few nice particle effects while playing (for example the fire from the engine) and the weather effects (rain, snow). Anyway, the game looks nice, even if more details on the racetracks and the h-crafts would be possible.

Handling of the H-Crafts
You need to get used to the handling of the h-crafts, but after playing some time it is great and is really fun.

Input Devices
The hovercracts can be controlled by a keyboard but it is much more precise to use a dual analoge controller, like the "Logitech Dual Action" joypad. That's working out of the box and it enables very precise steering with e.g. the left analog stick and accelerating and breaking using the right one.

Summary
H-Craft Championship is a nice game for people who are not searching for the greatest graphics but for a good gaming experience (keeping in mind, that this is a game from 2 independent game developers and sold as a budget game).
Trying to make the perfect race and beat the ghosts of other people is really motivating. The championship, arcade and time attack modes are well done and motivating. The rival mode is not as good as the three other modes, because with 4 people playing after another by racing against a ghost is not the best solution. A real network multiplayer mode would be great here..

References

(1) Irrgheist Homepage