User Review : Motorstorm:Pacific Rift

The muddiest just got muddier.

'Evolution'. The very name of the creators of the title at hand. And you could say 'evolution' would be the perfect way to describe Motorstorm Pacific Rift. You see when the original Motorstorm released on the 23rd of March 2007 everyone who laid eyes on it had their jaws firmly stuck to the deck. It was a complete revolution to what we saw on the PS2 or X-Box. But fast forward a few years and that wow factor has well and truly evaporated. (Thanks Killzone 2 and Uncharted 2) But that's not to say Pacific Rift is a bad game. Oh no! No it isn't. In-fact its the most entertaining racer I have played alongside Burnout 3.

And here's why.

Pacific Rift's strongest asset is without a doubt its blood pumping intensity that has you on the edge of your seat throughout the entire game. The leading contributor to this fact is the ruthless, hate-filled AI. You would swear your playing online the whole time with the way the AI reacts in such a humanly way. Make a mistake and you will be rammed of the edge of the cliff quicker then you can say 'can we be friends'. Lag behind in a race and they simply don't give a $h!t. They aint going to slow down and allow you to catch up like you seem to see in other race titles. The only way to get back into it is quality racing and picking your routes wisely. Which brings me to the next strongest point of the game.

Track design. One of the originals best features was the track design and more pacificly (pun intended) its well thought out alternative routes. Well in Pacific Rift we have even more marvellous track design complimented by alternative routes with in the alternative routes if that even makes any sense at all. And like the original these routes are not built for everyone. The new monster truck class will have a hard time fitting through the niche tunnels while bikes will breeze through, however if your name is 'obstacle' and a monster truck is veering down on you, get out of the way! But if its just a bike just stand there and take that little bastard out. Its this very 'racing to your strength' scheme that will have you thinking constantly until the very second you cross the checked flag.

Whilst the original was a real eye opener to what the PS3 could potentially do down the line it still had its fair share of indiscretion's. Short single player campaign, no split-screen multi-player, and no variety. Well Evolution has answered those criticisms with aplomb. We now have a decently long Festival for single player. We now have 4 player split-screen for those with friends, and thanks to the new setting we have variety which can be weighed in tonnes.

The single player festival is made up of 4 sections. Without sounding like a Captain Planet freak here, the 4 sections are Earth, Air, Fire and Water. And I'm pretty sure your old enough and ugly enough to know what they all stand for. And no longer are races just getting from point A to point B before everyone else. There will be eliminator events, speed runs (rally) and races with a difference. For example finishing a race with in a pre determined time or finishing a race with only the chance of crashing once or twice. These different events alone would have made up for the lack of variety of the original but what really trumps it is the 4 elements that I mentioned. Particularly the Fire and Water stages.

If you are to win in Pacific Rift you are going to have to accelerate first of course but your also going to have to use your new best friend. Boost. No longer can you use boost as a friend with benefits. You can no longer just keep tapping it while you go on to win. Evolution has made this impossible unless you what to exploded into thousands of different coloured pixels. Now Boost is like your wife. Precious and should never be abused. So when you hit the fire and water stages have this in mind. Riding through water will call down your boost meter but will slow down lighter vehicles and driving near lava in the fire stages will cause the boost meter to rise there for giving you least boost. It makes for a very nice risk reward system which works in tandem with the track design.

Presentation wise, its still no E3 05 trailer. Heck its barley changed form the original. Yes they have expanded their pallet and the mud does look gorges and the vistas are still postcard worthy but you will often be greeted with flat, low res textures on some tracks and when you have a 8 car pile up things will start to crawl a little in terms of frame-rate. The sound seems to have been recycled form the first as well, which in no bad thing by any means, but a bit more effort with things would have been nice. Music wise, well it doesn't matter what I think. With the smart inclusion of custom soundtracks the subjective rating of music is gone. Nice little feature that is hugely under appreciated.

Criticisms are few and far between. Graphics are a little 50/50 as stated, and while you can change the decals on your vehicles along with your driver there is still no real sign of mods which would add more personal attachment. And how cool would a destruction derby type mode be. Even something like a crash junction (see Burnout) would have been enough. Evolution should also look to Pure for inspiration it terms of being able to pull of tricks when you pick the ATV or bike classes. Also Some of the steering is a little iffy as well. All classes have different ways in which they react when you push them. Some of them React as you would expect but some just seem to slide around like they are on ice skates or hover boards from the future.

Overall its arguably the best off-road racer out there. Evolution listened to its fans and rectified all mistakes made in the first to create a more complete and robust game. If you love mud (women mud wrestling doesn't count) petrol fumes, or just a good time, well then this deserves a place in your library.

**Note: Never played it online**

GA22A©