Eurogamer Expo Impressions – Motorstorm: Apocalypse
The world is ending, zombies are roaming the streets so what do you do? Barricade your house and arm yourself? Run away to a safer place? Noooooo, it’s time to get your race on muthaf….*ahem* Anyway that seems to be the concept behind Evolution Studios’ Motorstorm: Apocalypse, Racing around different tracks while everything around you is falling to pieces and zombies and violent men walk around waiting to be mowed down.
The big draw for Motorstorm: Apocalypse is not the giant spectacle that occurs during the game (though it certainly is something that will grab a lot of people’s attention) but its part of the games that are able to take advantage of Sony’s 3D technology.
The verdict? It’s nice but not necessary. It’s really noticeable (and effective) when objects are coming towards you. This covers flying bodies (victims of your hit and run) and pieces of derbies. But on the flip side, it does not add anything to the experience that you’d be missing if you didn’t have 2D glasses. In Motorstorm: Apocalypse defence, only one level was shown and it could be a taster of things to come, with the additional levels being even more eye popping. Still I would have to say that unless you have lots of spare cash and you must own 3D technology, it’s best to not go for it straight away.
The game itself? Well once you release that X is not accelerate but turbo (a mistake I made thanks to some misguided gamer who went before me), it’s very fun. The graphics – 3D or not 3D – is impressive. Sure your going so fast you won’t be able to take the sights in, but than again this is a game that looks better when your going at insane speeds with the buildings and roads crashing around you, explosions going off and the dust settling effects looking visually amazing. True, it would be nice not to have to be forced to see certain explosions/collapsing buildings in slow motion. But overall this is a game that’s likely to make gamers go “whoa!”
If there is one gameplay niggle, it’s that the AI is very good at catching up to you and yet it’s a struggle to get to the top 5, let alone first place, due to the potential to be screwed over easily. Hopefully Evolution Studios will implement have multi difficulties or at least balanced AI in Motorstorm: Apocalypse. It’s all good making a race challenging but making it mentally draining is not the way to go.
There’s a fair amount of work MotorStorm: Apocalypse needs, but it does have great potential and multiplayer – which as yet to be reported or tested – should be lots of fun.