Motorstorm (PS3 - 8) Quick Review
It's been a while since I did a review out of my PS3 portion of the library. I'd just recently completed the career pyramid in Dirt, but still had an itch for racing that needed scratching, so I grabbed this one off the shelf. It's exclusive to the PS3 and has been praised since it's release, but I wanted to see if it was all for nothing, or all backed up.
The Good
- Wide Selection of Vehicles. Motorstorm actually holds the Guinnes World Record for most variety of vehicle types in one racing game (at least at the time of writing this it does). You can choose from bikes, ATV's, dune buggy's, rally cars, big rigs, mud buggers, and racing trucks. The coolest part of this is that they all compete in the same races at the same time, so you get to see how they all handle against each other. Which leads me to...
- Multiple Routes On Track. These aren't your typical races in MotorStorm. While the generic layout of the track is one big lap, there isn't just one set way to travel. Each different car handles better or worse on different terrain, and it's up to you to figure out where your vehicle should go. Bigger vehicles can slop through mud a lot faster than bikes, but bikes can reach the higher terrains more easily and take advantage of the ramps and jumps between canyon gaps. It's really cool to watch unfold, seeing all the vehicles split up and converge later on down the road.
- Big Fields. Most racing games (with the exception of NASCAR) only hold six to eight drivers in each race. It wasn't even until more recent years that Mario Kart started putting 12 racers in at once. In MotorStorm, you can get up to 15 cars in a single race (let it be said that there are also dual races that are only you and one opponent). It makes the races more filled with action, and especially so right of the start when you have 15 cars trying to slide through the same turn.
- Real Time Damage. A small but cool detail of the game, whenever you or anyone else crashes, your car will remain where it met it's end for the duration of the race. Just like other pieces of debris on the track will stay where they are unless they are hit and moved somewhere else.
The Bad
- Small Track Selection. While the tracks themselves are fun, there's not a huge selection of them, with the game clocking in with only nine tracks. Nine! That's only two more tracks than there are vehicle types. It kills the variety in the game because you always visit the same places, sometimes practically back-to-back. It's nice to have multiple routes to take through the tracks, but that detail only goes so far.
- Dreadful Load Times. This is by far the worst feature of this game. Everything takes soooo looong to load up that at points it seems like the game has outright frozen on you. And it's everything in the game, not just loading up the races. Even loading up the cars on the selection screen takes a bit, and the paint jobs for each specific car. It can definitely feel like you're spending more time on the load screens than in the races.
Is it Worth it?
This one is a tough call. The racing in this game is fun. You can crash and watch your car fall to pieces in slo-mo, you can send your opponent careening off the edge of a cliff into the unknown below, and the scenery itself is jaw dropping. But the minimal track selection and the dreadful load screens are pretty big setbacks for this one. And yet, it's only a $5 purchase from your local GameStop, so in the end you definitely get your values worth from this one, but not much more.
There are two further games in this racing series (three if you would like to count the PS Vita release as well), so there may be redemption for this series with the later titles. We shall see at some point down the road on the blog!
If you watched my Behind The Scenes Episode 3 video on YouTube, you'll know what tomorrow's Quick Review is. If not, you can watch it here if you're unable to wait until tomorrow.
The Good
- Wide Selection of Vehicles. Motorstorm actually holds the Guinnes World Record for most variety of vehicle types in one racing game (at least at the time of writing this it does). You can choose from bikes, ATV's, dune buggy's, rally cars, big rigs, mud buggers, and racing trucks. The coolest part of this is that they all compete in the same races at the same time, so you get to see how they all handle against each other. Which leads me to...
- Multiple Routes On Track. These aren't your typical races in MotorStorm. While the generic layout of the track is one big lap, there isn't just one set way to travel. Each different car handles better or worse on different terrain, and it's up to you to figure out where your vehicle should go. Bigger vehicles can slop through mud a lot faster than bikes, but bikes can reach the higher terrains more easily and take advantage of the ramps and jumps between canyon gaps. It's really cool to watch unfold, seeing all the vehicles split up and converge later on down the road.
- Big Fields. Most racing games (with the exception of NASCAR) only hold six to eight drivers in each race. It wasn't even until more recent years that Mario Kart started putting 12 racers in at once. In MotorStorm, you can get up to 15 cars in a single race (let it be said that there are also dual races that are only you and one opponent). It makes the races more filled with action, and especially so right of the start when you have 15 cars trying to slide through the same turn.
- Real Time Damage. A small but cool detail of the game, whenever you or anyone else crashes, your car will remain where it met it's end for the duration of the race. Just like other pieces of debris on the track will stay where they are unless they are hit and moved somewhere else.
The Bad
- Small Track Selection. While the tracks themselves are fun, there's not a huge selection of them, with the game clocking in with only nine tracks. Nine! That's only two more tracks than there are vehicle types. It kills the variety in the game because you always visit the same places, sometimes practically back-to-back. It's nice to have multiple routes to take through the tracks, but that detail only goes so far.
- Dreadful Load Times. This is by far the worst feature of this game. Everything takes soooo looong to load up that at points it seems like the game has outright frozen on you. And it's everything in the game, not just loading up the races. Even loading up the cars on the selection screen takes a bit, and the paint jobs for each specific car. It can definitely feel like you're spending more time on the load screens than in the races.
Is it Worth it?
This one is a tough call. The racing in this game is fun. You can crash and watch your car fall to pieces in slo-mo, you can send your opponent careening off the edge of a cliff into the unknown below, and the scenery itself is jaw dropping. But the minimal track selection and the dreadful load screens are pretty big setbacks for this one. And yet, it's only a $5 purchase from your local GameStop, so in the end you definitely get your values worth from this one, but not much more.
There are two further games in this racing series (three if you would like to count the PS Vita release as well), so there may be redemption for this series with the later titles. We shall see at some point down the road on the blog!
If you watched my Behind The Scenes Episode 3 video on YouTube, you'll know what tomorrow's Quick Review is. If not, you can watch it here if you're unable to wait until tomorrow.
