Author: random515
Title: MotorStorm Review
Posted: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at 4:59 am
Ripping along a rally track at breakneck speed while frantically dodging other vehicles (or just smashing into them if you happen to be driving a truck) sounds like a lot of fun, right? Well, it certainly is, but it does wear thin fairly fast.
The above mentioned breakneck speed weaving is the main premise of MotorStorm. The game takes place at the fictional MotorStorm Festival in Monument Valley, where suicidal drivers gather to fly around eight different tracks in a series of off road races.
This could have easily been just another fairly generic racing game, but developer Evolution Studios have made this game unique with both a huge variety of types of vehicles – you can choose to race in a rally cars, big rigs, dirt bikes, ATVs, racing trucks, buggies and mudpluggers – and the ability to race differently depending on what type of vehicle you are driving. If you are driving a light vehicle, such as an ATV, you are better of taking the higher ground, which is typically filled with tight turns, narrow ledges and huge jumps; things not suited to the bulkier vehicles. Conversely, if you are racing in one of the heavier vehicles, you are better off taking the lower ground which is characterised by muddy sections and obstacles that you can simply smash through. This variety adds a interesting facet to the gameplay, and also stops anyone racing on bikes or ATVs from being too often crushed by the larger vehicles.
The tracks themselves are often treacherous, and in some cases, downright impossible. The slightest error can send you flying off a jump at just slightly the wrong angle and shooting over a cliff to your death (thank God for respawns).
And it’s not only the cliffs that make the racing dangerous. Your opponents will do their damnedest to stop you from winning, which usually involves smashing into you. Avoiding them and trying to get them back is a lot of fun, and so it is a shame it doesn’t happen that often. Despite most of the promotional videos depicting spectacular crashes between vehicles, it doesn’t happen as often as one might think, although it does happen more on higher difficulty levels. Most of the crashes will be because of you accidentally hitting walls, of overusing your boost ability and blowing yourself up.
Speaking of the boost ability, it is an integral part of the game. Without it, you will have a hard time beating your opponents, so it is necessary to master its use to win. Mastering its use generally means learning not to overuse it, as if you boost for too long, your engine overheats and your car explodes.
Although the single player mode is a lot of fun, it wears thin fairly quickly. There’s only one game mode, and although there are eight fairly lengthy tracks (and with multiple paths through each one, they are even lengthier), it usually only takes a few run throughs to memorize to twists and turns of each one. Winning races earns you points, which you can use to unlock new races and occasionally a new vehicle, but that’s about it really. The only incentive to keep playing to so you can keep playing. There’s no real goal, or rewards to work for. The new vehicles you unlock are in actuality no different from the other vehicles in the same class; the changes are purely aesthetic.
The style of the game is very well suited to online play, and with up to 12 players able to tear it up around a track at the same time, there is a great opportunity for anarchy. One of the most annoying things about MotorStorm’s multiplayer is that you can’t play if offline; there is no splitscreen mode.
MotorStorm’s AI seems to be based on a ‘rubber banding’ principle, which allows computer controlled racers to easily catch up with you regardless of your racing performance. As I mentioned before, it also makes your opponents deliberately crash into you more often on higher difficulty levels.
Visually, MotorStorm is stunning. Everything about each of the tracks and vehicles is incredibly detailed and just looks great. Even the driver models are excellent, something you can really notice when you drive a bike or ATV. When you crash, you can see very realistic damage on your vehicle, bumpers bend or come off, metal panels end up hanging on by a few bolts and paint gets scraped and chipped away. You won’t be too disappointed about you paint job, though, as your vehicle will get completely covered in mud fairly quickly. The paint even splatters onto the screen, which, although adding an element of realism, does get annoying at times as it can obscure your view.
The audio is also excellent. The roaring of the engines and the realistic crunch of metal in a crash all make you feel almost like you’re there. The game’s soundtrack is also good, with a selection of tracks from artists such as Nirvana, Wolfmother and Kings of Leon. Each of the tracks fits with the game’s hectic gameplay, and they all serve to heighten the intensity of the races.
MotorStorm is at first a lot of fun, features a great racing mechanic and fantastic visuals, but it doesn’t have a lot of features. It has a lot of untapped potential, and could have been more than it is, which is a shame. Overall, it is good, but the shallow gameplay keep it from being great.
The Good:
- Fast, fun and hectic racing
- Excellent visuals
- Great audio and soundtrack that really fits with the game
The Bad (and The Ugly):
- Shallow single player mode that gets old fast
- No split screen multiplayer
- Annoying ‘rubber banding’ AI
Overall: 8/10
- By Ira Herbold
Sponsored links:
Buy MotorStorm on Amazon or its sequel, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift.
