Experience the insane urban festival from three unique perspectives
The main Festival mode sports a rigidly linear set-up, typically involving a set number of races over the space of two days across each of the three difficulty settings. The main reason it feels quite restrictive is that you can't progress from each race until you've landed a top two or three position. It doesn’t get off to a particularly thrilling start either. Rookie mode is so easy you can die a dozen times and still get over the finish line first. However, by the time you’re onto Veteran mode, the courses are fraught with eye-popping set-pieces that ensure you’ll be re-setting your vehicle frequently and banging your fist forcibly with every frustrating crash. Somewhere in the middle, perhaps in Pro Mode and the beginning of Veteran - when the A.I. isn’t so aggressive - MotorStorm: Apocalypse really hits its sweet spot.If you do manage to stay on your vehicle for any sustained period of time, avoiding real-time environmental deformation on the grandest of scales, it’s an electrifying ride. And even if you don’t, the thrill of the chase and the speed in which you move across the tracks never fails to excite. Nonetheless, it can be frustrating when the smallest error in judgement knocks you off course due to the loose handling of a vehicle or the unpredictability of the environmental changes. Similarly, the A.I. can be so unforgiving that one error in a race can immediately knock you back from first place to last. MotorStorm: Apocalypse can be quite inconsistent in this respect, sometimes tossing you back in the middle of the pack when you crash, and other times putting you at the back at the rear. Like previous games in the series though, it’s all about knowing the course and trying to learn its layout well. The first time you play through each track you are going to crash, probably quite frequently, but as get to learn where the environment changes, and discover the optimal routes, it’s quite a buzz swerving, swaying and jumping through all the mayhem.
Track design is absolutely insane, with multiple pathways through each map offering plenty of opportunity to try and tactically outwit your competitors. You’ll race across roof-tops on a speed bike; down a shore-line as a tsunami hits, swerving out of the way of grounded vessel; and right through the centre of buildings as they crash to the ground. Technically, it’s brilliant and visually it’s a real treat to see such impressive destruction occur while you try to focus on the path ahead. Nonetheless, it's sometimes difficult to retain that focus because around every corner there's something impressive to see. Having had the privilege of playing MotorStorm: Apocalypse in 3D, there's no doubt that Evolution Studios’ racer is the main game so far on PlayStation 3 that really does take advantage of the technology and bring the action crashing into your home.
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