User Review : MotorStorm: Apocalypse

Motorstorm Apocalypse is here and if you thought the others had attitude just wait till you see this

Motorstorm Apocalypse

So Motorstorm Apocalypse finally blows up over the line and into my PS3, and straight off I am happy to say that Evolution has done a superb job in perfectly refining the handling and physics system while keeping the feel of Motorstorm and still delivering a fresh and new package that no Motorstorm fan will want to miss. What makes it doubly great is the fact it sucks in most anyone who tries a few laps on it, however in trying to innovate some questionable decisions were made the good news is Motorstorm Apocalypse pulls most of these off with the same brutal charisma of the previous Motorstorms, wanna see what I’m talking about check this out http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Technical stuff

Good news with the technical aspects is that the game maintains a perfect frame rate not once throughout the singleplayer did I experience any framerate drops and that’s quite an achievement with the massive environments that can come down on top of you at any time. Screen tarring also has a good mark as I did not notice any screen tarring throughout my time playing Apocalypse. The driving has been tweaked slightly and feels slightly heavier than PR but its easily adjustable to get use to and you’ll find yourself into it after the first lap

So thumbs up for the performance but how does it look, the art style continues with Motorstorms destructive look except this time it’s really getting to stretch its legs with cities and buildings falling around you as it happens, the game still doesn’t have the widest variety of art because it’s based in the city but each track looks distinctively different and as multiple races happen on the same tracks before/after chaos has already happened you’ll find yourself surprised at how much different routes there are and how many have closed off added to the morning to evening lighting and tracks look good and varied and keep you on your toes

I played through the story and multiplayer switching between my Duelshock 3 controller and my Driving force GT pro steering wheel and the good news is both provide an enjoyable race experience with no advantage of speed with either though it has to be said its more enjoyable with a steering wheel in your hands and the force feedback keeping you in check, however the reason I note this is actually a bit of a glitch/technical issue playing with the wheel is fine going from race to race is fine going from anywhere back to the main menu is disastrous. No idea why but whenever you try and return to the main menu with the steering wheel in it causes the PS3 to crash, it’s not 100% of the time but most of the time, from trying to leave a multiplayer or singleplayer match to coming back from the vehicle customize screen it would crash the PS3 majority of the time, something to note if you are going to use the wheel (hopefully fixable by an update)

Gameplay (singleplayer)

The singleplayer (Festival) is where most will probably start there adventure on Apocalypse and what’s this an actual story is in place? Yes. Powered and pushed on through motion comics these scenes in themselves don’t add much, the characters are fairly flat and it doesn’t take itself all that seriously (probably a good thing) and provides humor throughout. It won’t float every ones boat but it does actually provide an important purpose. The festival takes place over 2 days with about 40 races all told but from the perspective of 3 characters this means you actually play through and over the tacks again at different time periods, this is cleverly weaved into Apocalypse track design as each track changes over the 2 days and this allows you to see what happens to each track and experience it as new as you replay them over the singleplayer. Hats off to Apocalypse for trying this and the story being there pays off leading to a few big finales and an evolving track design which keeps everyone on their toes

There are a good variety of vehicles to use from dirt bikes all the way through to monster trucks and 3 of each of these classes if that wasn’t enough there is full customization on each individual vehicle only aesthetic but it does add a lot being able to change out most of the parts, stickers, coulors and art designs on the cars mean you can get lost in creating your own personal vehicle, it doesn’t allow for complete free design instead a large bunch of pre designs of each part of that vehicle, so you can have any bumper with any tail lights with the body in any coulor with any vinyl design, added this to the personalization option, which allows you to change how scratched, weathered and grungy the car is, and you get thousands of combinations, unfortunately most parts have to be unlocked through leveling up in multiplayer and has to be done for each vehicle as they all have individual parts, there’s nothing hard about this but a lot of time is can take to unlock the level 3 class of vehicle and then the parts before you can really make it your own, once you do you can take these into online races or time trials and quick races. Festival races can only be done in the class given to you

The difficulty increases as you proceed, and some races are distinctly harder than others however very few give you a big problem of hitting the qualifying position. This is because of the AI, they’re not exactly clever but do well as opponents, crashing out at times and are not afraid to hit you and then when you push it they do as well. It keeps the game fun as victory almost never seems impossible however in certain races the 1st prize almost is. At this moment there are only 2 races I have not got gold on (one because I was tired the night I was doing it and didn’t want to try it again) one of is insanely difficult and my time has improved 30 seconds through retries and there still just ahead of me, so this game has some challenge. Even if your masterful at the festival the special event ‘hardcore challenges’ are on another level these sit next to the time trials which are great and fun for practicing and learning the versions of the tracks, the hardcore however provide extreme difficulty these are unlocked by coming first in the festival races your given a target time instead of having to beat the AI and it will take a lot of practice so be prepared for the challenge. Don’t panic though these are completely avoidable and the platinum is possible without these even so I’m glad they were put in as it provides something to really challenge players without scaring others off

Finally let’s get on to the collectable cards, these are silver floating cards strategically placed all over the tracks in the festival mode there a fair size but can be a pain to hit, overall there’s 150 and easily the most annoying trophy on the game – to collect all. This took me a good few hours of combing through the tracks and I did not enjoy hunting these through, if you are going to and don’t enjoy searching though I recommend looking at a guide (ps3trophies.org walkthrough for the cards is good) even still it will take you a while, the good news of this is that they’re often placed in alternative routes and little cut throughs that help you learn the faster ways around the track overall this wasn’t really a necessary addition but its good at how it’s been implemented still a little bit of annoyance to find all the cards but that’s nitpicking

Multiplayer

Onto the multiplayer and Motorstorm has taken a rather FPS styled look at MP don’t let that confuse or put you off as it works extremely well, when you go to play online it uses a match making system to put you into a game, from here there’s a bit of a wait until a countdown appears and then a vote for the track comes up and a countdown for that next comes selecting your vehicle. Then comes choosing your perks. Yes perks, these are quite typical but do not overly effect the gameplay so much and there is no real unbalanced perk set up that I’ve found, swift return is probably one of the best (and you start off with it available) this halves the time it takes to return to the track after wrecking.

Then comes placing your bets, this is for a single race and you bet on who you think you’re going to beat the higher level and better they’ve done in previous races means more XP you will get for actually beating them, this is a great incentive as even if you know you can’t beat everyone placing a bet against someone at your level and beating them gives you a good satisfaction of winning and a nice XP bonus, after the race there’s a chance to continue your ‘hotstreak’ and allows you to risk the XP you just won in order to up the ante and win more, it increase by .25% every win, so after you win a bet and earn 1000XP and bet it again the next race you will earn 1250XP that gets added on to your bonus pot (betting rates vary) the streak ends when you cash in the experience by not risking it for the next race or when you lose a bet, which loses everything you earned in that bonus pot. It’s a fun gameplay mechanic that keeps it interesting even if you are struggling to win a race. After betting the race starts

Racing online is immense fun as you’re against real opponents who are trying to win, XP is earned in almost every way, drifting and getting big air as well as wrecking opponents all earn you XP this means that you can really go on and just have fun racing and still level up easy enough. Added to this are the accolades and medals which give you even more bonus points for completing a challenge a set number of times E.G drifting the most in the race will get you the ‘lateral thinking’ accolade and once so many of these have been achieved the medal for ‘lateral thinking’ is unlocked earning more XP with this racing because so much fun that it can keep you glued for hours and you can race and earn XP online and off (though at half) with a friend in splitscreen a feature many fans appreciate

There are a few minor problems, there is a lot of waiting around in the lobbies with all the countdown and then the load time and waiting for other players, this isint a huge problem but it can leave you itching to get back in. Some games drop in the lobby or during the match which is frustrating as you lose all your XP and any bets etc you had. Bets can be a specific pain with this as if the driver you bet on beating leaves at any time during that race you lose your XP you would have gained and the streak you were on, very frustrating when you lose a lot of XP unjustly for that and at the moment it happens often with dropped games and some rage quitters, these are a pain but don’t detract too much from the overall experience though I hope for an update that changes the loss of the hotstreak online is still fun and mostly lag free, only one game did I have where everything was slowing down or players seemed very laggy and that match dropped out later on

Conclusion

Overall then Motorstorm is a great game for many people and a simply amazing game to others, the actual racing is superb and fun the tracks are great the overall entertainment and awestruckness that comes from narrowly dodging a falling building or airplane coming in over the top of you makes it an epic game with huge scope and great replay ability if you’re a fan of racing games do yourself a favor and pick this game up and if you liked the old Motorstorm but were unsure if it was worth buying it defiantly is Apocalypse offers a huge amount of gameplay fun features plenty of things to do and an all round fun experience. As usual any questions about the game or anything I’ve missed out leave a comment and I will get back to you with the answer and if you want to get a bit more hyped or see some of the stuff I was talking about check out this montage http://www.youtube.com/watc... hope you enjoyed and that this was helpful thanks for reading