As a rule I never start a franchise if I don't own the first game, so here I am reviewing the 3rd PS3 entry in the Motorstorm franchise without having played the previous games, I guess sales get the better of us all.
So what is Motorstorm? Motorstorm is a Playstation exclusive racing franchise developed by Evolution Studios that centres around off-road racing featuring vehicles such as dirt bikes, ATV's and various assortments of trucks. The games have a habit of showcasing the mayhem of off-road racing to the point of pure insanity by producing outrageous tracks, having aggressive A.I and a large reliance on the environment to help you win races.
Motorstorm Apocalypse isn’t a departure from the series roots as such but due to the ever increasing insanity of each title is more of a natural progression for the series to take. As such the game doesn’t take place off-road but instead in an urban area simply called 'The City'. The twist of course, if you hadn’t quite guessed by the name is that the city is tearing itself apart with natural disasters such as tornadoes, earthquakes and huge lightening storms making the urban aspect of it more off-road due to the fact that the city is falling apart as you race around it meaning literally anything can replace the track at any given point making it one of the most unique and intense racing games in recent memory.
Apocalypse's story is set out rather differently to anything I have seen before. There are 3 different stories to play, but each of them represents a difficulty, starting with 'Mash' who represents the Easy difficulty, going onto 'Tyler' who represents Medium and 'Big Dog' who represents Hard. You are automatically put into Mash's story to start with and then have the option to choose Big Dog or Tyler after completing the campaign. The races in each campaign aren’t the same though, they each use different tracks, opponents and cars to each other giving you 3 distinct campaign modes in 1 racing game, the only downside is that these campaigns only last around 2 or 3 hours each depending on whether you wish to finish 1st each race and collect all the 'Collector Cards' littered around the track.
Anyway, the Motorstorm Festival this time round is being hosted in a dying city being torn apart by natural disasters, lawless inhabitants and some form of police force. You drop in in spectacular style in one of the best openings to a racing game I have ever played and use the city as your playground for its final two days on the face of the Earth before the planet literally swallows the thing. Luckily its a racing game and the story is never gone into more than this otherwise there would have been way too many questions to answer.
Motorstorm's gameplay has always been about dumping you in a random vehicle from the ones available in the game, giving you a track full of other contenders all using the other cars in the game and letting the mayhem commence. You need to strategically use your boost and pick your race routes carefully as some are specifically designed for smaller vehicles and some designed for the bigger ones and trust me, picking the wrong route can mean the difference between winning the race and seeing your ride go up in a twisted fireball whilst your driver is crushed below a truck.
You must use the environment to your advantage, water will cool your boost bar so it can cool down and recharge quicker, fire will fill your boost bar meaning you cant use as much boost for a short while, dirt will kick up mud to hinder the smaller vehicles and inclines will totally fuck over the larger vehicles if you don’t get enough speed up. You must know the tracks well to be able to conquer the competition. In Apocalypse this is never more vital with the racetrack crumbling around you, you need fast reactions and a good eye for routes that will get you out of a tight spot in the shortest time possible whilst also being aware of other shit hitting the fan around you.
Apocalypse is an arcade racer party game through and through, short tracks with fast and frantic action with a strong emphasis on multiplayer. The A.I never quite cuts it compared to a real life opponent but they come damn close to it, they will try to ram you off the road and react to the ever changing environment just as a real player would, they even crash every now and again!
With this playstyle Apocalypse is easily one of the most enjoyable racing games this generation. I vividly remember in a race relatively early on seeing a military helicopter get hit by a missile, spin wildly out of control and crash into the track barrelling towards the oncoming drivers, only a few streets later an earthquake made the road collapse and bring down a skyscraper on top of what was the track leaving you trapped underground for the rest of the lap. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face if I tried, I had never seen such mayhem in a game before and it was simply amazing.
Of course all this destruction needs to look good and my god does it look good. The game runs at 30FPS and in 1080P, its mind blowing that you never see a drop in frame rate or resolution with all this mayhem, not once, its unheard of in the entire game! It looks great too, with some awesome dynamic lighting, shadow effects and natural weather implementations such as storms and tornadoes each of which look monstrous and highly detailed. Saying the game looks good is an understatement, yeah its not the best looking title on the PS3 but it is certainly one of them.
The soundtrack is equally good, regularly alternating between heavy rock music and something that sounds like Skrillex on steroids. It compliments the game's atmosphere perfectly...chaotic and very very loud. The game is an A/V champion, perfectly showcasing great graphics and sound design.
So Motorstorm Apocalypse...worth a buy? Definitely, a must own if you like racing games and own a PS3. The campaign's will last you roughly 7 hours total, not including the collectibles. The multiplayer is extremely well made with a system similar to that seen in Blur, which is one of the best multiplayer racing games this generation. Up to 16 players can race around this world falling apart in 3 gamemodes.
Motorstorm Apocalypse is arcade racing done right and racing fans owe it to themselves to pick this game up.
Motorstorm Apocalypse : 9/10
+Insanely Fun
+Easy To Pick Up, Hard To Master
+Amazing Scale
-Very Few Cars
-Can Become Frustrating At Times
