MotorStorm
Score: 70% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment America Developer: Evolution Studios Media: Blu-ray/1 Players: 1 (1 - 12 Online) Genre: Racing/ Racing (Simulation)
Graphics & Sound: Beautiful. Gritty, dirty and absolutely beautiful. I'm not the type of person that seeks out the perfect place to "mud ride" or jumps into a car held together with duct tape and metal strapping and roars off cross-country, but I can appreciate the dedication to detail that was lovingly instilled into the graphics in MotorStorm. You can expect to get dirty and banged up in this one; with the Havok Physics Engine inside and totally fictional and generic vehicles, expect to see both incremental vehicular damage and crashes that no one could walk away from. These spectacular crashes can be ogled at by hitting the Pause button and using the right analog stick to move the camera around in a "Matrix-esque" way. Try it out. Hit pause and then go examine the pieces of wreckage. Too much. You'll have two views to choose from - a third-person view and a hood view. When using motorcycles, you get a far view and closer view, but they are both third-person views. My guess is this was because it would be pretty much impossible to have any clue what you were doing if you saw what a motorcycle driver would see when racing on these tracks (and bouncing about). The music is a pretty nice selection of rock and alternative tunes that are befitting of MotorStorm's desert concert theme. These tunes are also generally nice for listening to while whipping your vehicle around a makeshift track over unforgiving terrain. And, while the music may provide some inspiration, the sound effects will actually provide guidance. Case in point, the sound effect of your engine whining when you use boost for an extended period provides an aural cue that you're in danger of blowing up your engine (and your vehicle). The meter will also visually start shaking to reinforce this warning, but when the meter starts shaking, you don't have much time left, so the sound is a much better indicator.
Gameplay: I love racing games, and although I prefer pavement to dirt (or at least prefer to avoid sheer cliffs), I do find MotorStorm to be very enjoyable. However, if you've played the demo, then you pretty much know the whole story, as far as gameplay is concerned. There are different tracks, each with their own unique features and challenges, but the gameplay is pretty much select the vehicle of your choice from the vehicles they allow you to use for the given race, then try to be the first one across the finish line. Different events limit your vehicle selection, forcing you to increase your skill with all of the vehicles. Completing events will unlock others. MotorStorm provides a solid gameplay experience, but doesn't provide too much variance on the theme. Another aspect of MotorStorm that I found disappointing and demo-like was the fact that you have no sense of "Identity"; when you select between different motorcycles, for instance, you will see that the riders themselves are switched out as well. In other words, while in most games you choose who you want to play as, or you create a character or you're thrust into the game as a particular character... in MotorStorm, your character is likely to change each time you play, each time you choose a different vehicle - which you have to, by the way, since the different races are delineated by the vehicles you are allowed to select from.
Difficulty: There are no difficulty settings to choose from in MotorStorm; it's just you versus the desert... oh, and then there are the other racers who want to help you find the quickest way down from the cliffs. The lack of difficulty settings means you're going to have to practice, practice, practice. In MotorStorm, this takes the form of simply playing the game. There is no "practice" mode, per se, but you can restart races without penalty. One thing that has a definite affect on the difficulty is your selection of vehicles. The different vehicles handle differently, so you'll need to determine your favorites and use them when possible, but to proceed, you'll eventually need to master them all. If you find you're having problems staying up with the pack, you might be using a vehicle that's too slow. If you have problems controlling your vehicle, then you're probably riding a motorcycle. Argh, are those things difficult to control!!!
Game Mechanics: I must say that I was a bit disappointed to discover that a first-person (or helmet-cam) view was not an option for the motorcycles. In my opinion, offering two third-person views instead of a first person view when using the motorcycles is a cop-out. Yes, the view would be all-over-the-place, but no more so than if you were actually there... which I think is the point of first-person views, yes? When I played the demo of this game in a large electronics store with a very boastful name, I was immediately captivated. The graphics were awesome and the terrain was interactive. MotorStorm had a great deal of potential. When the game came in for review, I snapped it up - anxious to be amazed in the way that the demo had amazed me. Unfortunately, instead of developing the game into a game as amazing as the demo had been, it was simply made into a really big demo. It feels as though the demo was reworked to give a few more tracks and had a story "painted" on a bit. The final result is a game that offers everything the demo showed... and not much more. Different races are delineated by restriction, rather than augmentation; nothing new is added, you simply are restricted as to which vehicle types you can use. The demo did what it was intended; it showed the meat of the game. However, most games would have added a "Career" mode or a game element where you purchase or trade out vehicles. Instead, MotorStorm provides a demo-like gameplay experience... awesome graphics and sound, but with no sense of investment on the players part; with the exception of unlocking tracks, there is no sense of progression in the game. The most annoying aspect of the gaming experience provided by MotorStorm, however, are the load times. It takes a long time to load each race and even to just load the vehicle models when choosing a vehicle. I understand that there's a lot of detail and therefore, a lot of data, but the load time is distracting; especially when there is no option provided to save some of the data to the hard-drive. Some additional forms of optimization should have been used here. In the end, the gameplay is just what the demo showed off. If you loved the demo, you might like MotorStorm - just don't expect any surprises. Surprise.
-Geck0, GameVortex Communications AKA Robert Perkins
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