Motorstorm Pacific Rift (View comments)

Posted by: Nikolas Mason

With the launch of the Playstation 3 came the launch of a new racing series known only as Motorstorm. The game gave you a varied selection of cars, anything from dirt bikes to rally cars, racing trucks to old semis. With a brutal style of racing, very detailed desert setting, and great vehicle physics, Motorstorm quickly made a name for itself as one of the best racing games available for the PS3. Everything wasn’t perfect, however, as the game seemed to be lacking in several areas. For starters, and my biggest complaint, it had no local multiplayer. If you’ve read my past reviews, you should know by now this is a major pet peeve with me. Along with that, the game also featured very long load times and very little variety in the maps.

Motorstorm Pacific Rift fixes all three of those problems. The load times are much faster, notably when selecting your vehicle, there are now twice as many maps to race on, all of them very distinct and varied, and best of all: split screen multiplayer. Pacific Rift throws the same violent racing style from the first game onto a tropical, volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean, along with a lot of new vehicle styles and game play modes.
Pacific Rift is beautiful. The island is extremely detailed and every course has a very distinct style. From forests to beaches and volcanoes, and even an abandoned sugar plantation and mountain top observatory, Pacific Rift is far from lacking in the location department. All of the different locations feature unique game-play modifications, such as if you’re driving in a wet area with a lot of water, you’re able to cool your engine off and boost for much longer periods of time. But if you’re near volcanic lava, your engine heats up very fast, allowing for much shorter boost periods. These of course also have their opposite sides. Some vehicles can’t make it through deep water, so in an attempt to cool your engine down, you could drown yourself completely. Also many of the courses with lava feature showers that you can drive your car through to cool the engine down.

Along with water and fire, the game features a lot of vegetation. At times the course can seem completely overgrown in some areas. Smaller vehicles can have a lot of trouble making it through, getting caught and stuck on plants, where as larger vehicles, such as the new monster trucks, can plow right though. Along with the course obstacles are also the course paths. Every course has multiple paths, all made up of different styles. The road could fork into three paths, one path going into deep mud that only larger vehicles can drive through, another path going up to a narrow ledge that only smaller vehicles would be safe driving along, and the other course could have water or lead to a big jump. Finding which course is right for your vehicle mostly involves a lot of trial and error, as there is no perfect route.

Along with the new locations and vehicles, Pacific Rift features several different modes of play. The first and most basic mode is just your standard race mode. You are up against 15 other drivers all fighting for the first place spot, usually in two laps. Besides this mode, there is also the Eliminator challenges in which every few seconds, whoever is in last place blows up, slowly narrowing the race down to one driver, and your job is to make sure that driver is you. This can be rather hard at times, especially when stressing that you’re in last place and the screen flashes at you warning of your impending death. But still, it’s a lot of fun. The third and least fun of the game styles is the Speed challenges. In this mode, you must race against the clock to hit checkpoints. In standard arcade style, each checkpoint earns you a few more seconds and you must hit them all without running out of time. This can be quite challenging however as the game only shows you one checkpoint at a time. With all of the different paths you can take on the course, it is very easy to miss a checkpoint, causing you to loose the challenge.

Besides the gorgeous locations and great selection of vehicles, possibly the best thing Pacific Rift has to offer is local multiplayer. Noticably missing from the first game, split screen multiplayer adds a lot of replay value to this game. You can play with up to four of your friends locally against 11 computer racers in either standard race or eliminator modes. Along with local split-screen, Pacific Rift also features online play, which much like the first game’s very basic race against up to 16 other players.

Pacific Rift presents itself very well. All of the locations are extremely detailed and varied, the colors are all very vivid and the lighting is almost always perfect. The sound effects really make the game feel more intense, along with the loud, rowdy music that plays, fitting the style of the game perfectly. On the downside, however, the controls seem to sometimes be inconsistent. At times the controls are too sensitive, making a small mistake turn into a large crash, or the complete opposite, and they aren’t sensitive enough, making you miss a turn that could have gotten you ahead in the race.
Over all, Motorstorm Pacific Rift surpassed my expectations. Fans of the first game will love this one, and fans of racing games in general would surely enjoy the fun and different style of racing Motorstorm provides.

Sound: 4

Graphics: 5

Fun: 5

Replayability: 5

Gameplay Mechanics: 4

Verdict: