MotorStorm: Pacific Rift (Sony Playstation 3, 2008)

The original MotorStorm hit the PlayStation 3 with no holds barred. The game was an off-road racer at its core, but its heart was filled with chaos, destruction and more chaos. Oh, and also lots of destruction. While the game was great fun, it did have its share of problems, mostly with regards to plenty of waiting for content to load as well as only having a handful of tracks to race.

Evolution Studios has now returned to the dirt and mud with MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, but this time the studio also brings fire, water and foliage in tow. The game improves on most all of the major issues that I had with the first title, and proves that the MotorStorm franchise is no one trick pony.

The first game relied heavily on its dirt and mud deformation technology. As vehicles cut through the mud, it would leave tracks in the soil that other competitors would have to deal with, and this hook worked pretty well. Whereas the first title was situated out in the desert, Pacific Rift takes place on an island, and focuses on other elements rather than just the dirty stuff.


Click here to watch the video review.


Firstly, there's plenty of water present this time around, which has two effects. Driving through it will slow you down a great deal, which is obviously a bad thing, but it will also quickly cool down your engine. If you lay off the boost button while in the water, your engine can entirely cool off in a couple seconds. Alternatively, you can lay on the boost and essentially apply the nitrous for "free" and power through the water.

Obviously the bigger vehicles have a much easier time here, and in some cases the water is deep enough that only the biggest rides can even go through it safely. This is one part of the great mix of vehicle abilities, which I'll come back to in a bit.

The next of the major elements is fire, which is usually in the form of lava. This is nothing but bad for your lap times as touching it equals melted metal (read: death), even getting near it overheats your engine, and using boost will max out your meter very quickly.

What's cool here is that a lot of the fire-based levels also feature bits of water, allowing you to cool off your engine and gain an advantage over the competition, should you take a certain route. Some of these routes come with a tradeoff -- you'll be taking the longer path, but you'll be able to boost for longer. In this case, the vehicles that benefit more from boost are better served going this route, while rides that don't may want to stick to the faster path and take it easy on the boost button.


You'll catch plenty of air this time around thanks to the varied track design.
Lastly, foliage also plays a big part in some of the races. You'll see bits of vegetation all over the game, especially in a course based around a farming outpost. Bikes will get destroyed by the stalks, racing trucks can get by, but slowly, while the biggest rides will plow right over it. When the bigger vehicles run through the stuff, it'll stay smashed and the smaller rides will now be able to use the same path. It almost makes for a dynamic course layout, where the bigger vehicles can actually help out the smaller ones by paving a new, shorter path.

For the most part, the track design is excellent. There's at least double the number of courses this time around than we saw in the first title, which is great news for those of us who grew tired of playing the same courses over and over again. While those courses were

When the first motorstorm came out it carved its own racing type. It was one of the pioneers in physics based racing. With every track having lots of branching path, every branch suitable for a different class of vehicles.

Here they have taken it to the next level. Races are much bigger. Apart from mud you also have other obstacles for individual vehicles classes. Small vehicles will get stuck in plants and other terrestrial hazards. This time it is lot more than physics. Some people are complaining that vehicles slide more than the first one, it is intentional as it forces you to use hand brakes for a faster drift turn. Overall sense of speed has drastically gone up.

This game is still Motorstorm at heart. They have added tonnes and tonnes of extras to the game to make it feel very fresh. Things like lava tracks, water jets for faster cooling, high air jumps all add extra strategy. It is not just driving fast. You have to try out all the alternative paths and choose right one based on boost and cooling requirements.

So many behind the scene changes
- Explosions will destroy the guys next to you. You can do kamikaze on cliff edges.
- If you are small vehicle you can lap behind a big one to clear off the vegetation and pull off at the last second.
- Water shower is available only in paths that have more terrestrial danger for balancing. Either it is a rocky path or volcanic eruption.
More and more I play, I keep finding lot more interesting tweaks.

AI is also vastly improved. If you truly race well you will win. There isn't much of rubber necking. I also think the physics respond much better compared to the first one. Jumps and slides feel lot more natural. Graphics seem to be better than the demo. I think they have tweaked the xdr lighting. Every thing looks very polished. I havent seen any crashes or hangs.

There is twice as many race tracks as the original one. There is also an extra eliminator mode. Speed events are my favorite, it is like slalom race. Where the flags appear only after you cross the current one. So it requires lot more agility than just boosting the way through. It is like the old ATV games.

After play thing for an hour or so, when I tried MS1 it was a night and day difference. The new game also loads much much faster than the old one. The vehicle selection screen is lot more slicker and avoids the double loading screen. I love the fact they have added split screen. There is nothing more fun than pushing your buddy off the cliff. Using L1/R1 as action buttons makes the game much more fun.

Hope they keep us busy with more DLCs.

Get this game if you like
1. Great "FUN" car games
2. Incredible physics
3. Incredible varied gameplay
4. stunning visuals
5. A feel of a more 'open' world without getting lost. While only 16 tracks in total split among water, air, fire, and earth, each one changes comepletly based on how you race it, which paths one takes, and even which paths you CAN TAKE based on the vehicle you choose.
6. Did I mention day/nigh changes and stunning nightime races in the lava

Don't get this if:

You get really upset at a few low-rez textures
You want a "simulator"

The graphics are decent and the car selection gets bigger as the game moves on but I am always one for more realistic types of vehicles. There are some vehicles that can be selected that are pretty realistic but others just look a little to kid like. Multi player is great and online is good. There are plenty of career races so the game does not get old quick. Levels of difficulty are fair.

Over the years the Motor Sports genre of games has suffered. Motorstorm Pacific Rift takes everything from the first and makes it better.


-Pros-

The game has online multiplayer that for the most part runs pretty smooth and even features on-screen multiplayer.

Gameplay is fun and memorable

The 'feel' to the game is quite nice with the rough and tough environment with good map design and it'll get you settled in with relative ease.

Character and Vehicle customization is a nice touch and didn't even need to be included, but it was. Gran Turismo fans who are looking at customization to the max with their vehicle might be a little disappointed but look at it this way you don't need to customize something that will crash and wreck multiple multiple times.

Music selection is pretty good but you can if you want just put in the music from your PS3.


-Cons-

The game is very unique and does require some getting used too, because of this
you will crash A LOT and can cause some minor frustration.

There is no difficulty setting and to be honest the game is quite a challenge and I can imagine to some people this game being very hard.

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Overall Motorstorm Pacific Rift is a fun and very challenging game that should keep your attention for months on end. It is probably by far the best of it's kind and you should defiantly check it out.


The Final Score

Presentation: 3.5/5
Gameplay: 4.5/5
Design: 4/5

Final Score: 4/5

*PBXD