24 out of 24 people found this review helpful.
Pure Fun: A Category 5 Motorstorm!
Date of Review: Jan 2, 2008
The Bottom Line: A great game with a wonderful soundtrack that backs up a well-produced game. Pure racing fun, that's well produced.
Going the Distance
It was an overcast, rainy day. I sped along the muddy pass in my four-wheel drive; the canyon walls whisked by me. Turn after turn, faster I went. Sliding through the curves, hoping my tires would keep some grip. Left, then right, the mud kicks high into the air. Extreme bumps and drops jolt my vehicle. Lurching up down and sideways, it's hard to keep going straight. A sharp bend approaches, but before I can turn, I glance left - what's that?? Boom! I'm rammed from the side by another truck! No way! I honk, then I hit the boost button and pull away. The woosh of the booster takes over through the turn, and the track ahead appears to close in. I'm careful not to overheat the engine, so I release the boost just before the red line. Wait…what was that?? I just ran over an ATV!! But hold on, now what's ahead of me? Uh oh! SMASH!!!! I skid right into a boulder in the middle of the road! Hey, who put that there???? In an explosion my vehicle breaks apart into a million pieces. The slow motion view of my limp body launching out of the drivers seat comes into view. Limbs flailing about helplessly, the lifeless human form flies through the air. With a grunt it hits the ground, head bouncing on the dirt.
No Worries.
Three seconds later I'm back in the truck with Nye a blemish on me or the truck. Push the gas and vrooom! Off again. I only lost 1 position. It was the ATV I ran over earlier. He got his revenge. If I hurry, maybe I can take back the lead!
It's just another day at the Motorstorm races. An action-packed, exciting, and addictive arcade-style game for PS3.
Game Concept
While there's no real characters (other than you), the setting of the game is at a highly attended off-road festival somewhere in Monument Valley on the southern border of Utah. It's a free-for-all event in the thousands, attended by no doubt the best and worst of off-road motor racing humanity. The event is huge. Helicopters fly around. People are camped out all over. Between races are daredevil vehicular exhibitionists, rock concerts, and camp fires. There are scenes of rag-tag motor-head bandits doing all kinds of stunts and tricks for the crowd, and sometimes with the crowd. Although you can't actively participate in any of this, it's fun to watch behind the game menus. When combined with the great rock music, these scenes really get you pumped up for the racing ahead.
Objective
The object of the game is simple: race and win. As you win, you get 'tickets' to race in the next event. While points are awarded for first through third place, the main way to move ahead is by winning. Points will help you gain new vehicles, and you can play ahead to other races when they're unlocked to gain points and thus access to better-suited vehicles to go back to a race you're struggling with. That's the 'plot', plain and simple. The focus is on the racing.
Visuals
The real fun of the game of course is in playing it. And part of this fun comes from the outstanding visual effects and scenery. With 720p resolution, the high definition capability of the PS3 is well utilized. All the available tracks, rocks, and cliffs come alive with sharp detail. All visible objects in your way are real obstacles, and every fallen-off part from the car ahead of you (or your car) can be hit. Dust and dirt are everywhere, and if the chase camera is at the right (or wrong) angle when you hit the dirt, it gets all over the lens (it disappears after a few seconds luckily).
For the vehicles, minute details such as glowing brake pads as seen in games like DiRT don't exist in Motorstorm, but the details that are needed are there. Every touch, bump, and non-fatal crash causes visible damage. As your car or truck gets banged up, pieces and parts fly off, and sometimes the doors swing open.
Sounds and Soundtrack
The sound effects in and of themselves are standard and not necessarily outstanding or remarkable. They are basically what you'd expect from a suicidal off-road vehicular racing contest. No engine sound, metal crunch, or explosion noise goes missing.
What is outstanding however is the great soundtrack that accompanies the game. With 21 songs included, (plus 2 with the latest update), the soundtrack perfectly fits the racing. Most notable to me is the inclusion of the song 'Breed' by Nirvana, which while 'old', is timeless for this kind of mood, and it fits the game like a glove. Other artists included are Monster Magnet (Powertrip), Queens of the Stoneage (Medication), and the Reverend Horton Heat (Big Red Rocket of Love).
With the latest update are two additional tracks from Elite Force (Devil's Crossing) and Jiffster (Beat the Devil).
Game Play and Experience
Vehicles
Once you select one of your available races within your ticket event, you choose a vehicle for that race. Initially, there are 2 or 3 choices of ride within each of seven vehicle categories. The categories are:
-Dirt bike motorcycle's
-ATV's (All Terrain Vehicles)
-Off-road buggies
-Off-road trucks
-Mudpluggers
-Rally cars
-Big rigs
A Real Free-For-All
What makes this game particularly unique is that there is no standard classing of vehicles as you might see in other racing games. True to the free-for-all attitude of the fictional Motorstorm event, in most races any vehicle can race any other vehicles, with only few exceptions on certain races where the game limits what you can choose to race. In general, rally cars can race against motorcycles, trucks race against ATV's, and big rigs race against everybody.
Lack of Tracks but Lots of Routes
Initially, lacking classes may sound boring, but what makes the game really interesting is that while each vehicle performs differently, each vehicle also has a shot at winning each race. The reason is one of the game's biggest strengths (which is also its biggest weakness – discussed later): the available tracks.
It's obvious that the game developers spent a lot of time on each track. Every course has multiple routes that you can take as a racer. Each route is more or less suited to each type of vehicle. So the key is in choosing the best route for the vehicle you're in. For instance, you could try to take a big rig up a narrow cliff that has a shorter route to the finish, but you'll probably fall off, costing you time.
Dynamic Conditions
Another great aspect of the game is that the scenery changes as you go through it. When you hit something and move it, it stays where it landed when you go by again. Also on your second pass through a track, you can see the previous tire marks of yours and other racers previous attempt through the mud, including parts of any cars that may have fallen off and are now in your way!
Sixaxis Control
In addition to the normal racing controls on the PS3 controller, the vehicles can also be steered using the motion sensing Sixaxis controller. This makes the game even more fun and challenging, especially with the motorcycle which requires some amount of precision and speed. It really helps you get into the game.
Negatives
As noted above with the tracks, it's obvious that a painstaking level of detail was put into the game. And since Motorstorm was one of the first few game titles for the PS3, the realism of the tracks and game experience probably left the developers short on time to add more tracks. After the first level or two, you've basically raced every track there is, I think about seven. While the event conditions vary such as rain, time of day, and even night (you can see stars reflect off the hoods), after a while, the tracks lose some excitement.
Online
Motorstorm offers an online option as well that can be a lot of fun. Logging into the various Motorstorm servers around the globe allows you to view races or host your own. If you host your own, you can set things like the track, vehicle restrictions, the time of day, the number of laps, and who can join, meaning only those people in your friends list (who own Motorstorm), or the world. For some smaller races, voice chat is available sometimes for the usual online trash-talking-while-racing pandemonium (chat messages go out to all racers in that race).
To join a race, it's best to find one that's marked 'Idle', and join it. Then you have to wait up to two minutes for the host to start the race. Then you choose your vehicle, and gameplay is the same as offline racing – except that drivers user names display over their vehicles.
The only problems I've noticed with online play, are that sometimes I get knocked off the server and have to re-join, and that the entire game seems to slow down sometimes inexplicably, but probably when people's connections slow down or cut out.
Conclusion
A driving simulator this game is not. While the vehicles are responsive, there's almost nothing realistic about the racing except for the scenery. Mac trucks can jump over cliffs, motorcycles can fall 100 feet with no damage (if you land it correctly). Plus, every vehicle has a booster for unlimited amounts of nitrous (although the engine will blow up in a huge fireball if you don't give it time to cool off).
What the game really is, is an all-out off-road arcade adventure game that's a blast. It's pure rock-em' (awesome soundtrack), sock em' (motorcycle or ATV drivers can punch or knock off other riders), rip-roaring fun. The only thing the game lacks, is more tracks, but it allows so many variations of the tracks it has, that you won't get bored with it anytime soon. Plus, when the tracks do get a bit redundant, you can use that knowledge to try to dominate in online play. Overall, it's a great game for what it is: brutal off-road racing fun.
