Review written by Playstation4.net staff member Jeff Cameron
Every once in a while a racing game will come along, that forces you to keep a white-knuckle grip on the controller the entire time. Motorstorm is that racer.
Motorstorm allows you to choose between several different types of vehicles including dirt bikes, rally cars, dune buggies, and even semi trucks, and then engage in an all out race to the finish.
Racing in Motorstorm is by no means an easy feat. The track design is really well done, with tons of twists and turns along the way. One thing you’ll notice right off the bat is that the mud will actually get churned up as the vehicles race through it, which will cause ruts and grooves in later laps.
The tracks all take place in a desert style motif, so expect to fly off a lot of canyons and flat tops as you slam into other racers. The racing gets hectic quickly as racers will usually knock each other off course going into the first turn. One way to curb this is to use the boost feature that each vehicle has. Holding boost will provide a burst of speed, but will also heat up your engine. Bring your engine’s heat indicator to the red, and you’ll be treated to a cut scene of your vehicle exploding into a fiery wreck. The boost feature adds a level of strategy to the races, as it soon becomes crucial to use boost at the right times.
Even though all the tracks take place in the desert, each one feels as if it’s bringing something new to the table. Each track has multiple routes, and even multiple levels of elevation to race through. This also plays into the different vehicles strengths and weaknesses, as you’ll want to keep a semi on flat ground, well a dirt bike is much better suited for the narrow paths and crazy jumps that racing high above ground will provide.
The graphics in Motorstorm are really something that every PS3 owner should see in action. The colours in the game really pop, and seem to jump right off the screen. The vehicles are all highly detailed, and look terrific even during the many crash sequences. The tracks themselves seem to come alive as mud and rocks fly everywhere with every turn. There are also tons of obstacles littered throughout each track that help keep the atmosphere alive, so you’re not left staring at canyon walls the entire time.
The controls in Motorstorm work well, although there aren’t many to master. This is the type of racer where you want to use the brake sparingly. Aside from the turbo, the only thing that takes some getting used to is actually controlling your vehicle. The controls tend to feel a bit loose, and more often than not applying slight pressure to the analog sticks can make your attempt at navigating between two boulders end in disaster.
This brings me to the one only problem with this game- it’s hard. While you should be able to complete the earlier tickets easily enough, the later tickets become a trial in ones’ patience. In the later tickets it’s all too common to crash once and feel like you had no real chance of ever catching up to the front of the pack. The level four tickets will probably only be completed by the most die-hard racers with a steady supply of Ritalin.
Once you tire of racing the increasingly frustrating AI, thousands of people are already racing online. Motorstorm has an online component that allows up to twelve racers to battle it out on any of the single player tracks. The online works very well, with practically no lag whatsoever. This will undoubtedly be what keeps gamers coming back, as its much more fun to pit your skills against real people than with the AI. The online menus are a bit on the sparse side, with the most noticeable omission being the lack of any leaderboards. Even so the online is a lot of fun, and what sane person would tire of ramming people off the side of cliffs, anyways?
Motorstorm is a frantic, adrenaline fuelled, mud-slinging, racer that rewards those that are willing to find the best shortcuts with the best vehicles. Its’ graphics are among the best on the PS3, and the online multiplayer is solid enough to keep gamers coming back for a long while. If you own a PS3, and have ever wondered what driving off of the Grand Canyon on a dirt bike would feel like, than this game is for you.
