WE RACE: Immersive Webcomic by Ferrari

Do you like fast cars, a post-apocalyptic world, technology and immersion? Well we at Nerd News Social do! We came across a webcomic series created by one of sexiest car companies in existence, Ferrari.

WE RACE is an online webcomic with motion and sound effects, dedicated to all the fans of racing and speed. It stems from a combination of a passion for racing and the world of comics. It was created from an idea by Scuderia Ferrari (the racing division team that competes in Formula One racing), written by screenwriter and comic writer Giulio Antonio Gualtieri, and drawn by Gianmarco Veronesi.

Upon entering the site, everything seems very mysterious. Even with the title being “WE RACE”, its not quite clear what this is all about. Scrolling down you will see a very general description that basically states that this is a narrative anthology with different story arcs and different protagonists which it’s stories are laid over a complex new world, all set in different times with different themes, but the shared alternate universe will connect and bring it all together. Like I said… mysterious.

Scrolling further down you see a small timeline starting with the year 2057 with an ENTER button and the tagline “Season Zero — The toughest race is against ourselves.” Then 2058 “Season Two — Coming soon”, and lastly 2095 with an ENTER button and the tagline “Season One — The future of racing”. Then a small Ferrari logo and it’s very well known sponsors and suppliers. Intrigued? I am!

TRAILER FOR WE RACE 2057 

TRAILER FOR WE RACE 2095

Now you are faced with a decision. Do you start in season zero with WE RACE 2057 which has 4 completed chapters and an ending, or in season one with WE RACE 2095 which currently has 1 chapter available and 5 more coming? Well, me still not knowing at this point what I’m getting into, I start at season zero. ENTER!

On this page you get a very cool animated teaser trailer and finally find out some actual information. That the Earth has “transformed”, it’s basically unrecognizable, and you will meet two young men who will be the main focus of this part of the story. With one more click you can finally get into chapter one OR you can scroll down and do a bit more background digging into the characters, the newly transformed Earth, and the amazing cars and tracks they will be riding on.

I jumped right into chapter one where you are thrown into a specific point in the story right before a big race. I found that I was very visually and audibly pleased. Not only are the illustrations top par, the webcomic uses what is called Parallax Scrolling. Which basically means, as you scroll down the vertical comic, cues are triggered giving background music and sound effects while specific graphic layers move across the screen. This is a great use of technology to make the reader feel more immersed into the chapter.

After diving into and finishing the first chapter, although I enjoyed the immersion, I thought to myself that the story in chapter one felt a bit flat, the race ended way too quickly (this review is longer) and I’m not sure why a world in disarray has racing as the most important thing being reported on. It also felt like it had the common red vs blue team dynamic wherein the red team rider was a hot head dying to be number one, and blue team rider was calm and collected and the number one rider. I know it’s just chapter one, but I had way more questions than usual with a first chapter, I felt like I had to be missing a lot of information.

At this point, instead of going onto the next chapter, I did the background research by checking out the bonus content. This helped a lot in me understanding who was who in the story, why the personal dynamics were important, that the cars did have some great tech under the hood, and that the other chapters race tracks looked amazing!

When I, too quickly, finished up the next few chapters and eventually reached the end, I couldn’t believe it when it said “The End.” It was for sure not an end and I felt a bit disappointed because of all the research I did to understand the story, I was left with such emptiness. I’m hoping that whenever WE RACE 2058 chapter two comes out I get something that fills this void, but somehow I doubt it.

This time, before jumping into the comic portion of We Race 2095, I decided to go into the background information. We learn a little more about the world, in that this year in 2095, it’s 150 years after the Earth “transformed” for the first time and now the Earth has “transformed” again in that it’s no longer the post-apocalyptic land we saw in 2057. We also find out that racing has evolved and there is a new rule: all cars must be equipped with self-driving capabilities. Which means, the cars have personality and are programmed to win! The pit crew views and helps out with a VR headset and specialized chair outside of the car. But can these new tech-heavy cars be better drivers than humans?

Chapter one of 2095 felt a lot stronger in the way of storyline and relationships with the fun factor of dealing with these cars with personalities. I had a great time with this chapter but sadly there is only one and we still need to wait for the other five chapters in this section to be completed to really form an opinion.

So, for the classic “in conclusion”, I’d say for sure check it out. It’s a quick read with some amazing visuals using fun Parallax Scrolling cues. It’s also a fun site to interact with in the additional information section infographics. As for story, don’t expect anything groundbreaking in chapter zero 2057 but it seems like in chapter one 2095 there is some great potential, just have to wait for the rest of the chapters.

Check out the comic here: https://weracecomic.ferrari.com/en/

Let us know what you think of these types of immersive comics? Are there any others you know about?

Facebook Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.