Any new console needs an eye-catching racer to get people’s attention, few other genres allow developers to visualize panoramic views and use physics and graphical effects to excite the eye. Motorstorm allows you to pick from seven different vehicle classes, including dirt bikes, ATVs, rally cars, buggies and trucks, online play and smooth visuals to die for. Developers Evolution Studios made their name with the (mostly) well-received WRC rally games on PS2, but Motorstorm is a very different experience with arcadey, almost Sega Rally-type handling (no bad thing), and it took a while but I suddenly realised that despite a lack of traffic this game felt like Burnout: Offroad might feel (again, no bad thing).
Thankfully racing allows for the vehicles to get mixed up and you can take on a lineup of huge offroad (Dakar rally-style) trucks on a tiddly ATV or MX bike. Obviously contact in this case would be bad for you (although you can give another biker a swift backhander as you pass!), so the wide open, free-roaming circuits allow plenty of room and several different routes on each and every track, some of which offer significant short cuts, but are better suited to a certain vehicle type because of the width or type of obstacles in your way. Bikes and quads are better sticking to the more elevated routes whilst the big trucks can plough through the muddier lowlands quite happily. Although never too hard to win races (tidy driving and neat power sliding will usually see you through), learning the different vehicles’ highly varied and believable handling as well as the track layouts themselves (have a good look explore!) is key to success in Motorstorm. There’s no scrolling map to help you, so you’re going to need to have to explore, especially if you want to beat anyone in an online race, as everyone seems to know the optimum routes and which vehicles are suited to each track/route.
There are only 8 tracks but they’re extremely long, with some laps taking 3 minutes or more. The solo game is rather set and pre-defined, and gradually piles on the difficulty to the point where it’s actually quite nasty, and in the end wasn’t particularly satisfying and feels like little more than a primer for the online racing.
Online races work well with 8 players or more making for some hectic racing. The lobby system is a treat and you can configure races just about however you want, and stark contrast to the single player game. The voice comms are crisp and clear and you’ll be tempted into trash talking as you punt someone off a cliff or into an obstacle and zoom through to victory. The choice of routes and the sheer scale of the circuits mean that you won’t always be in touch or in sight of you opponents, but thanks to optional “catchup” my races still always seem to feature an exciting section or a close finish, and with few instances of lag it’s one of the best implemented and most fun racers I’ve played online since Project Gotham 2 on the Xbox. There are already tournaments organised and a thriving online community of Motorstormers, so if online racing is your bag you could do a lot worse.
The game looks great throughout, with immense draw distances and highly detailed vehicles, drivers and riders. The vehicles can be almost reduced to their component parts with a heavy crash, and they are simply the best crashes this side of Burnout, and a good demonstration of how the PS3 can handle detailed graphics and random physics. The tracks get deformed as races progress as well, and wrecked cars and all kinds of other debris will get spread around, including ruts deepening in the muddy sections.
Motorstorm is a superb looking game that provides some truly fun moments, and is probably a must if you like your online racers. A less than inspiring solo game and no splitscreen mode means in loses a couple of points, but as always I'm sure developers Evolution would have made a deeper game if time allowed.
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