Review: MotorStorm (PS3)

MotorStorm (PS3) is an exciting and extreme take on off-road racing, and is the best PS3 launch title

Pros: Great graphics; manic gameplay; multiple routes; it feels off road
Cons: limited online; limited tracks; “by the numbers” single player game

MotorStorm is an off-road extreme racing simulator with cars, buggies, bikes and trucks. Races feature up to 16 competitors and may include vehicles from different classes or all one class. The racing is manic, frantic, exciting and huge fun. All the vehicles feature complex damage effects, and the “bullet time” crashes are truly spectacular. Pile-ups are common and are complete carnage!

All the vehicles can utilise a Nitro Boost, which gives you a temporary speed boost, complete with flames! This is carefully balanced by having limited use before it blows your vehicle up – often with spectacular results. You can control the vehicle with the SixAxis sticks or use the motion sensitive tilt support; but to be honest it is complete cack, so don’t bother.

Many tracks feature multiple routes that are optimised for the vehicle being raced: flat and muddy for trucks; high and jumpy for bikes; bumpy and twisty for buggies. The tracks themselves are littered with pot holes, debris, broken vehicles, destructible buildings and the odd cliff! You really get the sense of “off road” as you struggle to control you vehicle bouncing over these dessert landscapes squeezing between other vehicles and hazards.

The graphics in MotorStorm are excellent, with real time damage, plus mud, water and dust accumulating on your vehicle and obscuring your view. The environments are all dessert locations, but are varied enough between quarry and cliff-top locales to have some distinction. The animations, particular the “bullet time” crashes, are brilliantly done and really had a sense of fun to the carnage - the biker damage is particularly gruesome.

As is the norm with “extreme” games, it features an over-the-top college rock sound track – it is perfectly fine and suits the aggressive style of racing. The sound effects are also good, particularly the sound effects from the nitro boost and during one of the frequent crashes.

The online game has the usual competitive race modes, whilst the single player is a pretty straightforward series of race events. The game does feel like it lacks a bit of depth in terms of race variety, but future free DLC looks like delivering some additional modes and features.

MotorStorm plays like a dry version of WaveRace (N64 and Gamecube), which is high praise indeed. The sense of ‘balancing your vehicle on the edge of stability’ is very similar to the Jet Skis physics in WaveRace and just as satisfying. It can be argued that the single player is a little short and one dimensional, but the sheer fun and excitement of the off road racing more than makes up for it. MotorStorm is the best PS3 launch title and the first “must buy” for any PS3 owner.

8/10