Driving Me Insane
A lot of focus has been placed on the tracks so far, and that’s because they are the focus of the game with the vehicles themselves somehow being shifted lower down the list of things to design properly.
The racing mechanic is pretty simple; you drive around, you have boost that can be used to go faster (or trash other cars) and you spend most of your time managing your boost by cooling your car in water, or by lifting off of the throttle in the air as over-boosting results in a giant explosion. As stated earlier, you will race a range of vehicles that go from superbikes, chopper bikes and dirt bikes to buggies, street racers, trucks, ATVs, muscle cars and more – each with their own distinct pros and cons.
This is where my major gripe with Motorstorm: Apocalypse presented itself and why I said that the vehicles were put lower on the list of things to do properly. Even though I was marveling at the crazy environments, cool music and overall appeal of an apocalyptic-themed racing game, it only took so long until I realised that I wasn’t really enjoying the driving of the vehicles themselves.
With a few exceptions, namely the wonderfully fun and nimble ATVs, most of the vehicles actually handle exceptionally bad and in a manner that serves to work against a game that tries so hard to be ludicrously fun. Most of the vehicles feel cumbersome and heavy mixed with what feels like two sets of traction, on and off, resulting in a constant scenario where most of them will understeer really badly resulting in you skidding outwards into a wall or if that doesn’t happen its only because the vehicle has lost traction and spun out. Bad-ass top speed drifting like the sorts from Hot Pursuit, Burnout and even some modes in Dirt 2 are nowhere to be found here.
This unnatural and unpleasant core driving mechanic can then be added to levels that involve a lot of jumping, bouncing, obstacles and tight areas and what you have is a driving experience that is destined to be as big a disaster as the environment that it’s set in.
The Package
Motorstorm: Apocalypse is also very hit and miss when it comes to its presentation. From a design and technical perspective Motorstorm looks like it was given half effort at times and full effort at others. The menus are slick enough and bounce to the vibe of a really great sounding set of Dubstep tracks but with loading times that aren’t as great, some big differences in tracks and some very odd motion-comic moments, you might sometimes wonder what on earth they were thinking.
Vehicles look pretty good but are nothing to write home about, and as I said earlier with regards to the tracks some impress more than others. I can seriously show you footage of one track that will make you say “eh, it looks OK” to footage of other tracks that will make you say “OMW what is this game it looks INSANE!”.
My mind also couldn’t help but think back to the E3 2005 target render video of the first Motorstorm which showed amazingly cool looking car destruction that got everyone so excited. Three PS3 games into the future and I crash into a wall only to have a metal rod or two fall off the front of my buggy and have it become surrounded with a few puffs of repeated explosion sprites that look nothing short of very low budget. As I said, hit and miss.
On the plus side, I found the sound to be really fantastic, the vehicles sounded great and the soundtrack did its job perfectly. Having the same actor (Steve Blum) who voices Motorstorm’s Bulletstorm’s protagonist (also Wolverine) doing the voice of Big Dog this week had me constantly worried that at some point in the motion comic, Big Dog was going to suddenly call someone “Bub” and then leash them towards him and boot them into a wall of steel rods.
P.S: If the motion comics are anything to go by, the apocalypse is apparently chock and block full of very, very hot women who also happen to like racing.
Conclusion:
Motorstorm: Apocalypse is, unfortunately, a not-so-great core driving-mechanic wrapped up in a pretty, nice-sounding package. As much as you might enjoy the overall appeal of the game’s crazy locations and vehicles, the faults of its core driving elements will catch up with you sooner or later.
If you have always been happy with the driving elements in Motorstorm and want a new, fresh take on the franchise, then crazy apocalyptic races through crumbling cities will surely be your thing. Everyone else (who doesn’t already own them) may want to take a look at some of the very good competing arcade-racers from last year instead.
Scoring:
Gameplay: 7.5
Motorstorm can be incredibly fun at times, but incredibly frustrating at others. It’s clear that an overhaul of the core-mechnics would make this something special.
Design and Presentation: 8.5
Great overall feel to the game and the visuals can be stunning at times, but not always. Campaign rolls out well and its technically sound to boot.
Value: 8.5
Campaign mode with three stories to play through, 4-player split-screen, solo challenges, leaderboards as well as online matchmaking mean that fans of Motorstorm will have a lot to do for quite some time.
Overall: 8.0
Sometimes it’s great fun and sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes it’s pretty and sometimes it isn’t. So for some people I’d recommend it, but for some people I wouldn’t.
Last Updated: March 9, 2011
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