Motorstorm is a thrilling, occasionally frustrating racer.
Motorstorm: Pacific Rift is the video game equivalent of someone shining a flashlight in your eyes and screaming in your ears. It keeps you on the verge of sensory overload from start to finish with its loud music blasting out of the speakers and its beautiful environments screaming past almost too fast to see. If you are looking for an adrenaline rush of a video game, look no further: Pacific Rift will be the PS3's biggest sleeper hit of the year.
Motorstorm's gameplay hasn't changed much since the first outing, and it really didn't need to. The R2 and L2 triggers feel great when accelerating and decelerating, respectively. The X button is used to boost, but if you boost for too long your vehicle will go up in flames. In order to keep this from happening, it is possible to drive through shallow water, which cools the engine and allows the vehicle to boost longer. Hot environments, such as volcanoes, have the opposite effect. And that's it. It's this simplicity in control and concept that will make Pacific Rift so appealing to a wide audience, but it hides another layer of depth. Each of the eight or so vehicle classes in Pacific Rift have totally different stats, and each of the tracks has multiple branching paths to accomodate these differences. Lighter vehicles are suited well to high paths, while big rigs can plow through deep mud with ease. This balancing act, combined with mostly clever track design, make Pacific Rift a blast to play. However, if there's one problem with the controls (and really, the game as a whole,) it's the screwy steering. In order to get around sharper corners, it is necessary to use your boost halfway into the turn in order to propel your car the rest of the way around. This is due to the fact that every vehicle except for the motorcycle has a horrid turning radius. Most of the time this doesn't put a damper on the races because it is possible to accomodate for the wide turning radius, but sometimes it seems like the steering just shuts off altogether. A few times I've pressed the left stick all the way in one direction and even let off the gas, but my car didn't even budge, launching me straight into a wall or off a cliff. It doesn't happen too often, but it's extremely frustrating when it does.
Pacific Rift does not seem a terribly lengthy experience, but if you want to finish the Festival Mode (the game's main single player mode,) you will have to play and likely replay a long ladder of races. Coupled with the free play mode, the fun online play, the trophy support, and the downright amusing racing, I can see Pacific Rift lasting well over 20-30 hours for arcade racing nuts. For the rest of us, PR's thrills are enough to warrant 10-20 hours of gameplay. It's a pretty well rounded package.
Pacific Rift's presentation, as mentioned before, is insane. The mixture of mostly loud liscensed music and the great sense of speed is enough to keep you on the verge of a headache while you play. The music selection is fitting for the game, but if it's not your style you can always make use of the custom soundtrack feature, which works flawlessly. The graphical presentation has improved since the last outing, if not by much. Since the original Motorstorm was such a looker, the graphics are more than good enough. Car models are amazing, as is much of the scenery. The mud effects in particular demand notice. Some of the ground textures don't actually look like, well, ground, but overall this is a beautiful game.
Pacific Rift's great graphics, sound, and gameplay make it one of the best racing games of this generation. It is an intense thrill ride from start to finish, even when it can be a little difficult. Classify this one as a must buy.
Graphics: 9.5/10: One of the best looking next gen games. The sense of speed makes sure that it's barely possible to see where you're going before you crash; in other words, it's thrilling.
Sound: 8/10: A pretty good liscensed soundtrack that fits with the theme of the game. Whether or not it's actually good is up to your taste in music, but custom soundtracks are supported.
Gameplay: 8.75/10: Simple to play, but with a few inticacies that keep things interesting. Sometimes the steering just gives out.
Entertainment: 9/10: Fast, loud, and exciting, Pacific Rift delivers on the entertainment.
