1nsane (PC, 2001) - Review - Dirt, Damage, and Dial-Up Legends

Imagine an off-road playground where physics refuse to stay in their lane and every hillcrest feels like a dare. That’s 1nsane, Codemasters’ gloriously unhinged 2000-era racer that drops you into a series of sprawling arenas stitched together by a wrap-around world map. One moment you’re threading a nimble buggy between Mongolian snow mounds, the next you’re steering an eight-wheel Behemoth—half truck, half Cold-War fever dream—through Saharan dunes, its articulated chassis flexing like a mechanical centipede. The game treats objectives like party snacks: checkpoint sprints that reward creative line-cutting, king-of-the-hill bouts where the scoring zone packs its bags every thirty seconds, capture-the-flag showdowns that let you warp across map edges and stage head-on ambushes, and pathfinder chases in which a single active gate turns the player pack into roaming wildebeest. Car bodies crumple, doors dangle, headlights pop and swing on ragged wires, yet the damage model rarely ejects you—limp over the line with two flat tyres and the scoreboard still applauds your stubbornness. Under the mayhem sits a surprisingly crisp suspension and tyre simulation: gravel, shale, mud and loose desert sand each feed their own slip angles, so swapping a feather-light Hopper for the heavyweight Dune Master changes every braking point you’ve learned. Online, 1nsane was the first testbed for Codemasters’ original Multiplayer Network, hosting dial-up brawls that somehow kept forty-plus vehicles synced well enough that replay files became LAN-party lore. Even today, the GOG release launches on Windows 11 without complaint, and fan servers keep the Gate Hunt ladders alive with custom Dakar skins, lunar-gravity tracks and widescreen HUD patches. Boot it up, crest the nearest mesa at sunset, and you’ll see why this cult classic still throws dirt in the face of younger, prettier rivals: here, victory is equal parts driving line, physics gamble and anarchic grin.