Radical Heights
Radical Heights was Boss Key’s take on the Battle Royale boom, packaged as a loud, neon-soaked third-person shooter that leaned hard into an exaggerated 1980s game show vibe. Drop into large matches, scavenge gear, and try to be the last survivor, but with an unusual twist, money mattered as much as weapons.
 | Publisher: Boss Key Studios Playerbase: Shut Down Type: Battle Royale Modes: Objective-based Release Date: April 10, 2018 Shutdown Date: May 14, 2018 Pros: +A distinctive cash-driven economy that carries over. +Strong throwback soundtrack and committed ’80s theming. Cons: -Clunky movement and inconsistent shooting. -Rough visuals with awkward physics. -Unstable, unfinished, bug-prone experience. |
Radical Heights Overview
Radical Heights is a third person Battle Royale that clearly aims at the same audience as games like Fortnite, but it tries to stand out through an aggressively retro presentation and a meta-progression hook built around cash. Matches support up to 100 players, and the core goal stays familiar, survive the chaos and outlast everyone else as the play area and pressure force encounters.
Where Radical Heights attempts to differentiate itself is in how it treats money. Cash earned during a match is not just a score counter, it is a persistent resource that can be banked and brought into future games. In practical terms, that means players who stick with the game can start a match with the ability to buy weapons and items from vending machines placed around the map, rather than relying solely on early looting luck. On paper, it is a clever idea, giving each round a light sense of long-term planning.
The moment-to-moment action is still built on looting guns and gear, managing your route through the map, and taking fights when you have the advantage. The game also sprinkles in mobility and spectacle, including bicycles you can ride to cross streets faster or just lean into the whole sports-show atmosphere. There are even cycling race style events that can break up the usual Battle Royale rhythm and encourage players to take risks for rewards.
Radical Heights Key Features
- 100 Player Battle Royale – Drop in, gear up, and use positioning and gun skill to be the final survivor.
- Cash is King – Earn money during matches and use it to unlock cosmetics like outfits and hairstyles, with cash also acting as a meaningful in-game resource.
- Peddle to the Metal – Get around using bicycles found throughout the environment, adding a different kind of mobility to rotations.
- X-Treme Early Access – The game launched into Early Access in an openly rough state, with many unfinished edges and instability that were hard to ignore.
Radical Heights Screenshots
Radical Heights Featured Video
Radical Heights Review
Radical Heights is best understood as an ambitious concept that arrived before it was ready. The visual identity is immediate, bright colors, arcade-styled UI, and a soundtrack that tries to sell the fantasy of a televised, extreme competition. That presentation is arguably the most consistent part of the experience, and it gives the game a personality that many Battle Royales struggle to establish.
Unfortunately, the actual feel of playing does not match the confidence of the theme. Movement can come across as stiff and unreliable, which matters a lot in a genre where peeking, strafing, and quick repositioning often decide fights. Shooting similarly lacks the crisp feedback players expect from a competitive shooter, so engagements can feel messy rather than skillful. In a 100-player format, those small issues stack up fast, because you are constantly repeating the same fundamentals, looting, rotating, fighting, and any friction in those basics becomes hard to overlook.
The cash system is the most interesting design choice. Saving money across matches creates an incentive loop beyond “win or lose,” and vending machines offer a way to convert that persistence into immediate power. It also shifts the early game dynamic, because a player with a healthy bankroll can potentially gear up faster than someone starting from scratch. In a polished environment, that could have been a strong identity for Radical Heights, giving it a strategy layer beyond pure scavenging.
The problem is that the title’s Early Access state made it difficult for that identity to land. Visual quality is inconsistent, textures and physics can look and behave strangely, and bugs undercut confidence in everything from movement to combat outcomes. Even when a match is going well, the roughness can pull you out of the experience, and in a Battle Royale, players need to trust that losses come from decisions and execution, not from instability.
As a historical footnote in the genre, Radical Heights is interesting because it shows a studio trying to pivot quickly and bring a novel economy mechanic into a crowded space. As a game to recommend, it is hard to separate the good ideas from the unfinished execution, especially given its very short lifespan.
Radical Heights System Requirements
Minimum Requirements:
Operating System: Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit)
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K / FX-6300
Video Card: Nvidia GTX 660 / AMD Radeon 7870
RAM: 8 GB
Hard Disk Space: 6 GB
Recommended Requirements:
Operating System: Windows 10 (64-bit)
CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K / AMD Ryzen 5 1600
Video Card: Nvidia GTX 1060 / AMD Radeon RX 580
RAM: 16 GB
Hard Disk Space: 6 GB
Radical Heights Music & Soundtrack
Coming soon…
Radical Heights Additional Information
Developer: Boss Key Productions
Game Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Lead Designer: Cliff Bleszinki
Reveal Date: April 09, 2018
Steam Early Access: April 10, 2018
Shutdown Date: May 14, 2018
Development History / Background:
Radical Heights was the second project from Boss Key Productions, the studio founded by Cliff Bleszinski. Bleszinski is widely recognized for his earlier work at Epic Games, where he served as design director and helped shape major series like Unreal and Gears of War. In contrast to the long runway Boss Key had with its first release, LawBreakers, Radical Heights surfaced with almost no lead time, it was revealed on April 9, 2018 and hit Steam Early Access on April 10, 2018.
That near-immediate reveal-to-release approach was notable, and it also helped explain why the game felt so raw at launch. Even by Early Access standards, Radical Heights entered the public eye in a particularly unfinished condition, especially considering it came from a studio with significant resources and experienced leadership.
Radical Heights shut down on May 14, 2018, roughly a month after its Early Access release.