It doesn't reach the benchmark in visuals like its predecessors,but its a spectacular bombardment of threats and thrills
Contains: Moderate Threat and Mild Violence
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Motorstorm: Apocalypse takes a different approach from it's predecessors, in the way it incorporates some form of plot to chain the races you participate in. It's a bit of an abstract storyline with the absurdity of the premise becoming clear immediately, though the overall haphazardness and motion-comic-style of watchable cutscenes interspersed between each race with little importance indicate that Evolution Studios (who were behind the first two games in the off-road racing series) won't want you taking anything remotely serious at all. The game takes place in an apocalyptic urban area called The City, based on the West Coast of the United States, which is enduring the throes of a massive natural disaster all the while a Motorstorm racing festival is underway. Told from the perspective of three participants (each representing a difficulty level of gameplay) these competitors will each see different parts of the catastrophe unfold over the course of the three day festival.
The most notable change from previous entries is that Motorstorm: Apocalypse abandons the typical off-road racing through natural environments to focus on an urban setting much more akin to on-road racing (well, most tracks anyway). The game consists of more than 40 tracks that can be altered from active catastrophic earthquakes threatening to transform the city into a pile of rubble. The tracks can change in real-time; as helicopters crash through buildings, bridges can buckle and twist, structures collapse, and rifts open up beneath vehicles as you drive, and the game does a nice job of inviting you to closely observe the major explosions and track transformations in slow motion via a tap of the button. Ultimately, this constant level of destruction ensures most laps will unfold differently, and unpredictably, from the last, where last ditch reaction times are crucial to avoid an unfortunate accident. As if the apocalyptic events of the next few days aren't enough to deal with as you race for your life to survive and win your way through to live (and race) another day, other challenges also present themselves. If there's one thing worse than mother nature, it's human nature. The City houses two warring factions of interfering people who vie for survival, known as The Crazies and Dusklite. The Crazies try to impede the progress of the racers as they loot broken buildings, break into fights on the streets, steal cars and try to slam racers off the road, and attack you with firearms and fire bottles. A private military company known as Dusklite attempts to enforce order and their involvement creates additional hazards for racers to overcome such as helicopters firing missiles directly in your wake.
There's a wide variety of vehicles that range from looming big rigs, high-speed muscle cars, agile super bikes and crowd-pleasing monster trucks that allow you to utilise the numerous routes around each track that benefit that particular vehicle you must use to qualify for the next stage. For example, the large and heavy mudpluggers favour thick mud to skid around the environment with ease and without issue, whereas the quick but weak ATVs would much rather find higher and drier ground away from deep mud and water that will slow them down very abruptly, even with the added momentum of full use of boost. Carefully using the boost is crucial for every second you take advantage of it, and pretty much every other second you waste it, and the collapsing levels provide ample opportunities to further maximise the potential of your boost supply. Water cools down your engine, whilst fire will increase the rate in which the temperature gauge moves to critical if you continue to apply boosting power. Spotting points of interest will help you avoid the latter, since resisting the urge to go faster is tough when every second counts in a city ready to drop off the face of the Earth. Thrown Molotov Cocktails that smash on your vehicle can create a brief problem, just as much as exploding property will cause heated hazards; whereas keeping a look out for broken water pumps or pipes down a derelict street or keeping to shallow pools in a sewer system will give you a chance to hold the boost button for longer periods of time all the while your vehicle is wet.
Races can turn exciting almost immediately after being given control of the wheel, usually because of the unfolding events around you, but sometimes because you just happen to be racing across buildings way up high that are under duress from the earthquake tremors, and that are also very tricky to navigate. The core racing mechanics are adequate as long you don't want to pull off drift manoeuvres which can occasionally, and obtrusively, cause you to spin too far and instigate a respawn. Most vehicles handle well but you'll find that vehicle handling can sometimes feel a bit heavy, forcing you to clumsily collide with the environment as you attempt to find a suitable route around the ever-changing course. But despite these slight drawbacks that can negatively impact you once the challenge increases towards the latter stages of the story mode, Motorstorm: Apocalypse keeps things entertaining by presenting so many opportunities to crash others and be crashed as the pendulum swings backwards and forwards as the competition and survival instinct hits fever pitch with tracks constantly under a barrage of explosions and persistent threat of the current disaster. With so many racers battling it out on the tracks, you'll no doubt seek the chance to ram them into obstacles, but because it gets so chaotic and confined in instances where you drive through tight spaces, you'll find it just as gleeful to force drivers temporarily to the back of the pack, just as much as you find yourself thwarted by the environment as it alters around you, providing proceedings with a very delicate balance and intensity to preserve your space at the front because you know in the back of your mind that one slip up could set you back many positions. Fortunately, the game is never too demanding of your skills unlike it's exceptionally tough predecessors that made later races almost impossible to qualify, and so regaining places in this familiar yet very different experience is never too steep a task to complete, as you witness your opponents being wrecked by each other and the surroundings just as often as you find yourself hurtling into concrete or flying off into the sea.
Given the graphical capabilities that the Playstation 3 has to offer, and given the stunning visuals of the previous entries in this racing franchise, it might be a little distracting at first to note that the quality isn't quite passed on to the same standards. The sandy desert locales of the first game, and the luscious jungles and beachside vistas of its sequel were breathtaking to behold, so it's a bit disappointing that the graphics here don't offer up the same visual delights that were highlights in previous entries. There are reasons for that however, and it all boils down to keeping a silky smooth framerate so that you aren't frequently hindered mid-race. There is so much occurring on-screen at a time that the visual side of the graphics department must be sacrificed for technical reasons. Not only do the tracks change sporadically on future laps of races, but there is masses of action unfolding all the time, with glass smashing on buildings under pressure from tremors, tonnes of random objects being ragdolled around the surroundings after a violent explosion, people fighting their cause for either faction in the background of the mayhem, and much, much more as you tunnel a path through the epicentre of the disaster that ultimately, and understandably, slightly restricts the full graphical prowess that we know the system is capable of, and has proven to us in the past. But don't me wrong, this sequel is still a good-looking game that has immense amounts of detail to the various tracks, and features an admirable framerate that never falters.
The intricately designed track layouts ensure an abundance of high-octane moments incur upon events, and despite being visually less striking than expected, you'll be fully immersed for much of the ride while it lasts as the entertainment value bar is set reasonably high because of how much action is happening everywhere you glance. It won't take long to reach the end of the festival, and there won't be any drama during the cutscenes that fill in the loading time gap between each race, but there's a lot of energy and anarchy on the circuits; where earthquakes tear up roads and even tornadoes hurl yachts towards you, and you'll frequently find your reflexes tested whether by the track transformation that happens only yards away or by other big threats that do everything in their power to turn you into a fiery ball of twisted metal. It's unfortunate that you can't select a vehicle of choice to fight back against the apocalypse in the festival mode, or even change the colour of the provided vehicle for that matter, but customisation options are available when you aren't in perilous circumstances in quick play. The destruction may be brutal, but the difficulty curve is kinder, as to complete the selection of races or elimination events doesn't require a top podium finish to progress onwards, and the online leaderboards make more competition out of the day if battling raging super-storms and fiercely dedicated factions trying to hamper your every drift and boost application wasn't enough to quench your energetic appetite. Placing first does unlock the hardcore version of that race in Wreakreation mode, where you'll be facing extremely aggressive opponents should you want more of a challenge, and it's important to note that in this additional mode you can select what vehicle you'd like to tackle the day's frenetic activities with. In conclusion, you can blast through Motorstorm: Apocalypse in a myriad of ways, but ultimately within an afternoon, although it offers enough solid racing action and adrenaline-fuelled thrills to ensure you're time is well spent in this apocalypse, even if it won't go down in history.
Story - 2/5
Characters - 2/5
Gameplay - 4/5
Graphics - 4/5
Sound - 3/5
Controls - 3/5
Atmosphere - 4/5
Enemy AI - 2/5
Length - 1/5
Replay Value - 3/5
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OVERALL SUMMARY - 8/10
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Good Points: Racing through an unfolding full-scale disaster provides entertainment value and visual thrills, Creative track designs that often transform lap after lap, Core racing action is frantic and challenging.
Bad Points: Visually less striking than its predecessors, Shallow and needless storyline, Festival Mode restricts you from choosing your vehicle and customising the one provided.