-Error reading from ESRB datastream- |
The main way Offroad attempts to navigate the problems in producing a deep ten dollar racing game is the explosion of beautiful terrain, cars, and maps. The terrain is the star of the show; however, as each environment you race in is as beautiful as anything you’d see in a DiRT or Forza game. No matter if you’re racing in the jungle, snow, or dessert, your eyes will be overflowing with beauty to digest. The only issue is clipping through bits of the terrain like arose plants and cacti. That being said, you can still destroy gates and fences placed strategically throughout the course and these obstacles can be a fun way to grief friends or other AI. They also don’t look too shabby being ran over by a truck going 140 MPH.
The cars in the game, however, leave a little to be desired. You have five separate classes to choose from, ranging from rally cars to pro lite trucks. From there you choose which real life sponsor you want to color out your car (Monster Energy Drink, etc.) There’s nothing excruciatingly bad about the vehicles, it just would have been nice to add a bit of customization that wasn’t just selecting your own sponsor. Maybe let us throw our own color or decals on it?
McGrath’s Offroad quickly introduces you to the three modes you’ll find your time being sank into, arcade, career, and online. Those choices are no surprise but only hammer down the lack of creativity and uniqueness found within Offroad that isn’t the look or controls. In career mode you have 23 races to go through, lasting about two hours in total. Though it’s only two hours of racing, the fact that you only have two race types to perform in (normal circuit and a point to point solo race against other peoples times) is very disheartening and while you can make it through the two hours without being sick of what the game has to offer, some variety would’ve definitely helped out in the long run.
One make or break thing within all racing games are the controls. The heart and soul of racing games is the controls and if you mess them up, your game immediately falls by the wayside. Thankfully, Offroad is far away from being pushed to the wayside. Its controls show a bit of uniqueness that other racing games don’t have, the tightness you experience when you turn and the looseness experienced when you’re going all out on a straight road. The creativity may be a bit disappointing but the well-crafted controls and the way they suck you deeper into a race is not.
One thing Offroad adds to the picture that some other racing games do not have is the ability to earn XP throughout a race and ultimately upgrade the speed, braking, etc. of your favorite sponsored car. The issue is they never go any further than that as this feature becomes less enticing as the game goes on and you become loaded with XP. If it would’ve been executed on further, the XP and upgrade system could’ve added a ton of depth to this game, but as it is, it’s just another bullet point for 2XL Games to say they have.
Jeremy McGrath’s Offroad is a ten dollar arcade game that seems so close to being a solid 40 maybe even 60 dollar full retail game .The art and controls are top notch and as good as you can find in any racing game out there currently. But the lacks of depth and replay value diminish the positives overtime. Diminished or not, the positives are more than enough for me to recommend this ten dollar experience to everyone, even if it won’t last you as long as some other racers will.
|
|
|
||||||||||||||
How do these ratings work? Click here for descriptions!