Motorstorm is pretty much the best off-road driving simulation ever to grace a console. The physics are so accurate, yet altered for arcade like effect, and feel so right that the development team must have had at least a couple Physics PhD’s on staff to pull off such a feat. From the deformable terrain, to the vehicle handling, to the dirt accumulation, and the exquisite vehicle parts detail, it truly is an incredible piece of software from a technical standpoint. From a game standpoint, things are a bit different though as the presentation and overall experience lacks in a few key areas.
The physics truly are astounding.
The first thing you’ll most likely notice is that the graphics of Motorstorm are extremely detailed but don’t quite exude next-generation quality. Drivers have high polygon counts, every single part of every vehicle is expertly modeled, and yet the environments look pretty standard. Dust, dirt, and, mud grab onto your vehicle’s moving pieces as they rip away from rough driving and collisions, and yet all the vehicles look good but not great most of the time. The developers seem to have pushed all their processing power towards physics while leaving a bit to be desired in the overall graphical picture presented to the gamer. While everything looks good, I hope the sequel looks like the target renders.
Taking the bike for a drive.
The second thing you’ll realize is that the controls do take quite awhile to get used to. This isn’t your standard hold down the go button and power drift through corners game. In order to win a race you’ll need to constantly manage your speed and boost to keep yourself on the track heading towards the goal. Bouncing through dust, dirt, and mud requires that you ease off the gas from time to time and punch your boost while drifting through turns. With the R2 throttle held down you essentially tap the circle button and then hold down the boost as long as you can to power you through turns.
The crew.
With no on screen indicator of speed you also have to slowly learn which terrain types slow you down. Different textured terrain causes more or less friction while driving over it and the obvious mud seems to slow you down the most. Feeling out the ground types by seeing how your AI competitors deal with the same areas of the many tracks in Motorstorm really adds to the fun factor as well as the difficulty. That along with no on screen radar really brings a racing thrill to the game I haven’t felt in awhile.
Wait, how fast am I going?
At the beginning of every race the game will count down 10 seconds after which time you’ll be able to use your boost. As you hold down the boost button, flames will come out that back of your vehicle and the boost meter will slowly rise. Let off the boost and it slowly lowers so that you can then again use it. If you hold it down continuously the meter will eventually cross into the red, a beeper will sound, and your vehicle will eventually explode. Most of the time this is a bad thing but what’s hilarious is that sometimes you can actually use this to move ahead or even win a race. Depending on how long the game takes to reinsert you into the race, throwing your driver forward at mach speeds can gain you a few spots ahead although it’s impossible to determine when this will happen. The only time it’s an absolute must to explode is over the finish line. If you time your explosion just right you can fly from a close third to first by hurling your dummy driver at what seems like the speed of sound.
