It's difficult to say which is the more daunting: sharing the road with a vehicle designed for military operations in the Persian Gulf or trying to circumnavigate a motorist distracted by his cellular phone. Finally, these two dangers collide in Centerscore's Hummer Offroad Challenge, a rally racer based on the General Motors license. And while its open-ended design and good graphics can lead to some instant gratification, the game's small number of tracks and limited modes of play make it a brief ride.
In Hummer Offroad, you battle several other vehicles in a race to complete courses, regatta-style, by rounding a number of markers in a particular order. These races will send your suburban tank bounding over hill and dale. At first, you'll be saddled with low speeds, poor traction, and inadequate nitro capacity. However, by beating your opponents (or the clock) and winning prize money, you'll be given the opportunity to upgrade each of these aspects of your vehicle, thereby greatly improving your chances for success.
Upgrading your vehicle is the biggest incentive to keep playing the game. There's a certain strategy to the upgrade process, and each improvement has a tangible effect on gameplay. If you're slipping around on the ice level, you might want to buy better tire traction. Getting left in the dust? You'll need a higher top speed.
Hummer Offroad features three tracks, each of which is very large and takes place in a different locale. However, the game cycles through these three circuits only. As a result, you'll quickly tire of this limited selection of courses. For what it's worth, though, because off-roading is the name of the game here, you can reach your checkpoint markers in innumerable, unorthodox ways. For instance, catching air on rocks or smashing through snowdrifts will win you style points, which add to the cash you accrue at the end of the race. The differences in terrain between the levels will change how you race as well. For example, the low-friction environment of the snowbound track forces you to both start your turns earlier and lay off the gas a bit.
The game sports two basic game types: circuit mode, which pits you against computer-controlled opponents, and time trial mode, which, naturally, is a race against the clock. Either way, you'll race on the same tracks to reach the same checkpoint markers.
Hummer Offroad is shown from an overhead, isometric perspective. The graphics generally serve it well, save for the poor frame rate, which robs the game of the sense of immediacy that should accompany any and all racers. Sound is sparse and is generally restricted to the main menu, or it's restricted to bleeps that accompany the acquisition of money bags.
Hummer Offroad Challenge is not a particularly ambitious game. Aside from your occasional jump or nitro hit, it's a pretty bland racer. You can't help but think, though, that this is a multiplayer game without the multiplayer. Latency in such an offering might be prohibitive, but playing against the artificial intelligence on the same three tracks grows tiresome fast. Hummer Offroad is not without its thrills, but the lack of a variety means these thrills are short-lived.
