Posted by Josh Salem on July 31st, 2007

Evolution Studios, developer of such games as World Rally Championship, WRC 2, WRC 3 and 4 brings something new to the table, a racing game. This game however is a little different then what the UK based company has produced in the past as this speed demon is more about getting to the finish line first, by any means necessary.

To be honest, it takes a lot to get me interested in a racing game. In fact, the last game on four wheels I played for more then a week was Rad Racer on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I was a little skeptical at first about this title, but after taking it for a spin I fell in love with Motorstorm and found it hard to put it down. That being said, like all forms of love, it comes with its ups and downs.

Motorstorm, as one of the PS3’s more original and anticipated launch titles, puts you in an international underground mud-racing festival rave in the middle of a desert wasteland. Once here you have a variety of vehicle types and paint jobs to race with, each specializing in their own optimal terrain. You then take these dirt devils onto a small, but fulfilling selection of racetracks. There may be a low count of tracks to choose from but these are more than enough, as there are so many different routes and shortcuts that no two races are ever the same.

The game itself is a visual treat to watch or play with stunning graphics, amazing detail in both environment and model design, and remarkable landscape recognition so depending on what type of vehicle you drive, you know exactly where you should be at any given moment. Presented in high definition at 720p, this game is utterly beautiful. Throughout Motorstorm the player has a constant challenge with the first few races introducing the tracks, the vehicles and the mechanics of the game (it took well over two days before I even qualified for the second race!). A few tracks later, you enter the second tier where although the rides and tracks are repetitive, the extremely clever and vicious AI get a little trickier and a lot more aggressive, pushing you into walls and off cliffs whenever the opportunity arises. On the flip side, you get a better sense of how to race over time and eventually you learn how to push other racers to their doom as well, which always brings a grin to any sadistic gamer’s face. As your car or bike crashes, a slow motion rotating camera comes on that gives the player a fantastic view of all the little bits and pieces flying every which way. No matter how many times you crash, it never gets tiring to hear the screaming tires and busting glass.

Speaking of sound, Motorstorm went full throttle with their audio selection. The sound of revving engines in high quality audio from all directions and the distant sound of the turbo boost from the vehicle catching up behind you sound amazing, as they should for a next generation system’s flagship racer. Where this game really shines though is the selection of licensed music this game uses, everything from The Reverend Horton Heat to Nirvana, the music in this game is the perfect selection of fast paced hard rock to get any racer’s blood pumping and really gets the player in the right mindset for a game like this.

When controlling your big rig or ATV, there are two options available, players are offered the standard D-pad or analog steering with trigger button acceleration, much like any other racer with the added feature of a boost button (the boost can overheat and cause a fiery explosion if overused). The alternative to this control set-up is to take advantage of the Sixaxis controller and use the motion sensor to steer, tilting it right or left to turn, up and down to control your trajectory while in the air and so on. While the latter is much harder to control, it is the more innovative of the two and coupled with an amazingly stunning and bumpy first person view (complete with sun glare and blur effects), one could easily feel in the seat of a mud covered rally car hopping over canyon chasms.

Although the AI gets a little more clever and aggressive over time, it could never hold a candle to the ferocity of real humans around the world. Motorstorm offers online racing for up to twelve competitors on any track unlocked with any vehicle unlocked. The online play is much more competitive then its offline counterpart and shows little to no signs of lag while a dozen like minded drivers try to squeeze their way into a small tunnel near the beginning of a race. A recent update released September 4th, fixes a few issues including problems concerning online chat while playing so now as you push a small ATV off a cliff with your truck you can taunt as they explode into a ball of beautiful flames. The downside to an online racing game is that one must wait in the lobby for the current game to end before joining in the next race, and on some of the longer tracks, this could easily eat 10 minutes of your life away. If only the game was designed in such a way that the player can check out the cool extras menu and watch the development video depicting the creation of the game’s graphics and physics step by step while waiting for the next race to begin.

There were a few other off-putting characteristics to this game I found. The most noticeable is the lack of offline multiplayer or even a head to head option. The only way to play with another human is online, and then once you find a game you wish to join, you must play the ‘waiting’ mini game, where you sit… and wait. As well, there is a lack of racing types. Either you race online, or you compete for points to unlock new tickets or vehicles in career mode. If you wanted to race a specific course with a specific vehicle type, you had best know where that ticket is located. The lack of speedometer isn’t all that concerning as for the most part each vehicle is more then capable of winning a race, plus there may be so many crashes in a single race that you might not even hit top speed before the finish line. My biggest annoyance with this game however was the loading time. It loads the tickets you can race in, then it takes a while to load the vehicle selection screen, then you must wait while it loads each model (which doesn’t give any information besides the vehicle model’s name) and when you finally decide what car and colour you wish to drive, another loading wait occurs before the race begins. The upside to all this loading is when you crash out at the beginning of a race and opt to restart the track, there is little to no wait for resetting the race.

All this negativity aside, no one can deny the sheer fun and beauty of this game. The innovative controls and level design, the amazing treat for both eyes and ears, and the fulfillment one gets from a well designed explosion more then outweigh the substance lacking from this speedster. As a launch title for the Playstation 3, paving the way for future games in a genre that has little room for originality, Motorstorm is a magnificent example of how easily a work of art can overlook some simple features thought to be requirements in today’s gaming world.

Graphics: 4.5 / 5.0
Gameplay 4.0 / 5.0
Sound 4.5 / 5.0
Replay value 3.5 / 5.0

Tags: motorstorm, ps3, review