Imagine a post apocalyptic cityscape, perhaps akin to that seen in ‘Fist of the North Star’ or ‘2012’ and as desolate as that seen in ‘I am Legend’. You get the idea – broken glass, skyscrapers leaning vehemently on edge, a feeling of total dread, the lingering question ‘what on earth happened here’ filling your thoughts. Suddenly an earth shattering roar of engines fill the air, first one, then two, then you in your vehicle enter into sight. Hearing the rumble of another earth tremor on the way you hammer home your pedal to the floor and hit the nitrous oxide switch so you can enter onto a ramp that will leap you over a chasm of destruction.

Scenes like this are pretty common in Motorstorm Apocalypse; the newest edition to the Motorstorm franchise. From the moment you get past the somewhat lengthy installation and see the first introduction you realise that developer Evolution Studios wanted to bring something new and dynamic to the table. It is clear that they had had enough of the deserts, mud tracks and palm trees of their first two titles and now just wanted to mix things up a little which basically equates to just ‘destroying things’ because that is exactly what happens, oh and by ‘destroy things’ I mean a little thing by the name of earth…well a city…but can you blame me for capitalising on the dramatic moment?

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then the makers of Split Second should be well pleased; after all this is the very style of genre that they created therefore is the only other title that this can be compared to. However as great as Split Second is, it has been out for a quite a while now, players have been round the block a few times with it and are looking for something new. Thank the heavens Motorstorm is still a PS3 exclusive franchise. As the saying goes – Ha-ha-hee-hee Xbox owners.

Whereas Split Second allowed players to initiate the explosions that tear apart rivals, Motorstorm flings you into cataclysmic events where in every track the world is literally pulling itself apart. Hence tracks change from dramatically from lap to lap, buildings fall from the sky, earthquakes will rip open gaping chasms, and in a world where an ever more erratic population create civil unrest, the police are pushed into controlling the crowds with ever more questionable methods. Sounds a tad familiar? Well Sony thought so, enough to push back the release date significantly after the recent world catastrophes of late. Is this game art imitating life or life imitating art? You decide. In reality it is a tragedy and one’s thoughts can only go out to the families affected – some of which were Sony’s own developers.

The story behind Motorstorm is told this time through a series of gritty motion comics. In it we join the ‘Stormers’. These are a group of nutcases who have a lot in common with ‘Storm chasers’ but rather than chasing storms for perhaps scientific purposes this group are have actually heard about the impending disasters and are actually hoping that the unpredictable and inhospitable conditions will create the ultimate racing experience.

Enter then three lunatics…erm…I mean racers taking part in the Motorstorm festival: Mash; a rookie racer who managed to stow away on the festival’s ship. Tyler; a hard edged racer who likes to gamble on his races and is also member of a racing fraternity called the ‘Brotherhood’. Finally there is Big Dog; a veteran racer who just doesn’t give a damn.

In festival mode these three characters represent the game’s three difficulty levels; first you will play as Mash, then Tyler and finally Big Dog. Their cut scenes will show you how their stories intertwine. In festival mode you can’t choose which vehicle to use for each race, which is a shame but what this does mean is that you’re given a great introduction to the various types of vehicles on offer, and the different handling that each provides. Each character too has their own racing style; for example Mash who is an amateur racer has vehicles with a lower top speed but a higher grip, whereas Tyler tends to opt for Muscle cars with a higher power range and a lower grip meaning that you really have to squeeze that break to power-slide around corners in order to make it through.

There are a larger number of vehicles to play with in this title compared to previous offerings ranging from small dirt bikes and ATVs, right through to big rigs and monster trucks. New additions include super bikes, hot hatches, super cars and rally cars all of which have their own strengths and weaknesses. Bikes are quick and light and so can reach areas that larger vehicles can’t, but they can’t take much punishment from other opponents and are easily wrecked, while the trucks are slow but resistant to damage. As typical of Motorstorm there are multiple routes to the finish line and which route you take will depend largely on what you are driving and whom you are facing off against.

Sad to say but the handling in this game is nowhere near as good as that seen in Split-Second with the bike being especially twitchy; so twitchy in fact, that at slow speeds you will almost want to throw the joypad at the screen in disgust. However games players shouldn’t be deterred, for this title more than makes up it in terms of pure destructive mayhem.

There are nine different race environments, on which there is a base of 33 tracks featuring different disasters. These all feature a number of critical disaster moments that really do give each race a thrilling adrenaline rush, or will make your jaw drop; one out of the two. The ‘Skyline’ track is especially worthy of note as it sees you racing on top of skyscrapers in the middle of an earthquake and as some buildings fall they actually form or change the layout of track and may I impart a word or two of caution: don’t you dare miss that jump. Nevertheless, for all of its credit it does come at a price in terms of graphical finesse; this title is just a whole lot weaker graphically than that seen in Pacific Rift where there was shadows and realistic convulsive lighting effects.

However, This could be seen as a minor criticism as it does deliver and does so without a hint of slow down or motion blurring in order to achieve its aim of making you say ‘Wow’ and ‘Did you just see that?’

As typical of Motorstorm, this game is about how and when to use your boost. Rather than other titles where you are rewarded with it by driving into oncoming traffic for example, in this game you have it from the start. However, it overheats quite quickly and too much boost in one go will cause your vehicle to explode into a rolling ball of flames. Taking your finger off the boost button allows it to cool down as does driving through water. Boost can also be used to ram opponents off the road, but compared to other takedown systems such as Need for Speed Hot Pursuit this is a rather disappointing effort with little, if any thought gone into creating cut-scenes of your opponents spinning out of control.

I was pleased to see an enhanced game system and improved AI opponents. In previous Motorstorm games they would just be plain unfair and some would say that in a sense the whole franchise has been built on the whole ‘love to hate’ nature of the game. You could be in 1st place one moment, crash and end up in 15th all on the final lap. Those moments are gone, or are at least few and far between and I say that this is a good thing especially as owing to the nature of the game the likelihood is that you will crash and crash often, thus they wisely have made the re-spawn rate very quick and brought the AI level down a notch or two. This doesn’t mean your opponents are stupid, far from it, using shortcuts and boosts to keep you on your toes and the different characters give you a great introduction to the game and its mechanics.

What really provides strength in this title is the wealth of options for both online and offline play. In addition to Festival mode you later unlock Hardcore Festival in Wreakreation mode, which lets you replay the race against super-aggressive opponents. There are also Time Attack modes, with results which appear on global leaderboards; allowing you to compete for the best time with others online. Wreakreation also has the now standard Quick Race mode, letting you race a circuit with the vehicle of your choice. You can also select from three different racing types: standard races; and elimination; where the racer in the last position is periodically destroyed. There is also Chase, where you must maintain a certain distance between yourself and the race leader. Other options include managing the AI difficulty, number of laps, and whether disaster incidents take place. But honestly – would you really want to turn it off?

Quick races can be played locally with up to three other players via split-screen which makes a welcome return in this title and is something I think developers of late have long forgotten. So what if there is slightly less detail when you play split-screen? What I want is to be able to get my mates round crack open a beer and beat them in person rather than arranging to meet them online or having to play against some unknown individual who may even try and get to know me. This brings back the social element to gaming.

Online there is a really nice Perks system that lets you choose from a selection of three power-ups to use in a race. These include Swift Return, which gives you a quicker respawn to the track; Critical, which allows you to hold your boost for longer; and Cheap Shot, which lets you ram people using less of your boost. Each race awards you with chips, a form of experience points, which increases your driver level which in turn unlocks new perks. You can also unlock new player icons, driver avatars, and parts for cars, which you can use to customise your favourite ride for online races. I found that any customisation was purely visual, so no matter what I added, my vehicle performed the same. This is a bit of a let down especially when potentially it could offer the gamer so much and would have brought something new to the table.

If you’re one of those people lucky enough to own a 3D screen, well let me tell you that you’re in for a treat. As many of you may well know, I have had an issue with so called 3D games for quite some time now; and my argument has been that there is nowhere near enough content to warrant buying one. This is one of those games that could very nearly change my mind. I was lucky enough to play this on a 3D screen and although there was a marked drop in the resolution I was totally stunned by what I saw. Driving on the skyline track now literally brings an explosion of rubble down around you, water and mud which before would land on the screen and trickle down now appears to whiz past your face. This all creates a rare experience of fear and dread that I haven’t experienced in quite sometime. To be honest I had to play the game again because I felt sad when I completed it and the roller-coaster ride came to an end.

This is one of those rare instances where I would say 3D really enhances the experience, making each race even more that intense than it already is. Perhaps it is little wonder really, as this game was designed in 3D the same way a 3D movie is made for 3D; not like a 2D movie which has the 3D makeover bits added afterwards. If you check the history books, Sony did this same feat years back when they introduced Gran Turismo to the world at a time when many gamers thought racing games had had their day and thought the PS One was done for. Not so said Sony. I am as awestruck now as I was back then.

My Final Verdict –
Motorstorm Apocalypse is a joy ride of epidemic proportions. It’s fun to play, has jaw-dropping visuals and provides perhaps some of the most intense racing experiences seen on the PlayStation 3 of late. It does have a number of shortcomings that let it down, but these negatives are far outweighed by positives that this title has to offer. With the plethora of content and great multiplayer options Motorstorm Apocalypse is an incredible game that just needs to be played. In short I think it will go down a storm.

9.2 / 10

How does this game compare to others in its genre?

This is really hard as the only other game in its genre is Split Second, so the only other comparable game genre are those with big jumps and big air –

Equal to: Split-second

Better than: Nail’d, Pure, Motorstorm and Motorstorm – Pacific Rift