Star Wars: Galactic Racer Reviews Are In: PC Gamer Gives It a 76 and Eurogamer Praises the Burnout DNA

By CriticalPixel · 2026-10-02

Star Wars: Galactic Racer reviews went live this morning, four days before the game lands on Steam on October 6, and the early read is better than most licensed games ever manage. PC Gamer scored it 76 and said the run-based structure shakes up the racing formula more successfully than the open world of Burnout Paradise did. Eurogamer went further and called it "just wonderful stuff", a racing treat for Criterion fans and a surprisingly fun Roguelite campaign on top. Both reviews keep circling the same name, because developer Fuse Games was built by ex-Criterion people who worked on the Burnout series, and it shows from the very first corner. Pair that pedigree with the Millennium Falcon side of Star Wars, all rattling panels and sparking droids, and you get a launch worth paying attention to.

Official Steam screenshot from Star Wars Galactic Racer

What the first reviews say

The Eurogamer review opens with a story about asking Criterion co-founder Alex Ward about the series driving model, then admits the game clicked on the first corner of the first race. The reviewer pressed the Burnout boost button on pure muscle memory, got the same jolt, and felt at home. The details back that up: the crash cam still swoops backwards to catch tumbling wreckage, takedowns are still called Takedowns, and boosting at the right moment can still flip a race. Eurogamer also loves how the game leans on junky, malfunctioning technology, from the thump you feel when you switch boosts to the pre-race ritual of flipping switches like an X-Wing pilot. It is set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, with droids, desert planets and a faux-Williams score doing the Star Wars heavy lifting.

How it actually plays

You pick between landspeeders, speeder bikes and skim speeders, then race across planets that each have their own rules. Icy worlds cool your Ramjet, toxic worlds corrode you if you linger over acid lakes, and desert worlds bake you until leaving the boost off starts to look smart. Speaking of boost, there are two: the Afterburner is the safe, rechargeable one, while the Ramjet is much faster but pushes you into a redline zone where an alarm sounds and, if you hold on too long, you explode. That is a nasty little risk-reward loop and it gives every straight a decision attached to it. The campaign is a Roguelite built across three acts, and PC Gamer describes picking your next event from a map of nodes straight out of FTL or Slay the Spire. Lose the final race of an act or crash out of an eliminator and you go back to the start of the act, though unlocks carry over so your next attempt gets easier.

Around the races you spend credits on parts, core upgrades and abilities like ion bolts, vents, concussion mines and autopilot, and the builds can get gloriously dumb. Eurogamer's reviewer stacked Afterburner and autopilot upgrades until they were almost always boosting and almost never steering, which worked right up until they had to drive without autopilot and rammed into walls all day. There are also multiplayer tours, arcade modes, themed mini-tours and a little Pod Racing, plus flashback races as Sebulba that PC Gamer says steal the show from the new cast. That is a lot of content for a racer and it suggests Secret Mode wants this to have legs beyond the first campaign clear.

Official Steam screenshot of racing in Star Wars Galactic Racer

Where the 76 comes from

PC Gamer is not blindly glowing, and the complaints are specific. Track readability is the big one: the reviewer crashed repeatedly because they could not tell a white ice outcrop from white snow, or a brown boulder from brown sand, and wished for more lights on certain corners. Autopilot is called both overpowered and flawed, steering into tunnel walls, clipping a roof after a jump and driving straight over a concussion mine, which the review expects to be patched post-haste. Takedowns also matter less than expected, because this is a proper racing game rather than a string of crashes. Then there is the story, which sets up a hateable rival in Kestar Bool and a decent cast, only to fizzle when the credits roll, with characters repeating dialogue before the finale. A 76 for a game that is fun but rough around the edges sounds about right.

Price, release date and the preorder deal

PC Gamer lists the expected price at $60 or 50 pounds, and the Steam page confirms Fuse Games as developer, Secret Mode as publisher and an October 6 release. There is already a way to dodge the full price: Wario64 flagged a Steam preorder at $44.99 on Newegg with the code STARWARS, and the Deluxe edition at $64.99 with the same code. Note that the post is tagged as an ad, so it is an affiliate link, but the discount is the part that matters. Saving about 15 dollars on a $60 racer before the launch is a decent deal, though with reviews already out there is no reason to preorder blind anymore. Wait for the first patch if autopilot bugs you, or grab the code if you trust the Criterion lineage.

Community reaction is still thin

Reaction from players is limited so far, and I will not pretend there is a consensus. The two reviews above are the only independent verdicts I could verify this morning, and one of them gives no numerical score in the text I read. The preorder post pulled strong attention, but that says more about the discount than the game. Expect the picture to sharpen once the wider review pile lands and real players weigh in on the track readability and autopilot complaints.

Official Steam screenshot of a race scene from Star Wars Galactic Racer

The CriticalPixel take

I like where this is heading. Star Wars racing games have lived in the shadow of Episode 1 Racer for decades, and a studio with real Criterion blood choosing a run-based structure instead of a bloated open world is a smart bet. The Burnout comparison will sell it to a certain crowd, and the two-boost system sounds like the kind of idea that keeps races tense. My worry is the same one PC Gamer raises: an arcade racer that makes you crash because the track is hard to read is a lazy kind of difficulty, and an overpowered autopilot that sometimes steers you into a wall is a balance problem Secret Mode should fix fast. A flat ending is forgivable in a racer, but it is a shame when the characters are the best part.

If you are a Burnout fan who has been waiting years for someone to bring back Takedowns, Star Wars: Galactic Racer looks like the one to watch on October 6. If you want a polished story or flawless tracks, give it a patch or two. Either way, Fuse Games just handed Star Wars a racing game with an actual personality, and that is more than the license has offered in a long time.