Repetitive tracks
The career mode sees you competing in dozens of races against 7 AI opponents, all intent on bashing you out the way by any means necessary and reaching the finishing line in pole position. As you win races you're offered sponsorship by one of the four organisations involved in the sport, which basically unlocks different ship classes, allowing you to pick and choose each craft - all which have specific strengths. Each ship has a number of attributes associated with it, ranging from acceleration to handling, so it's a case of working out whether you prefer the likes of a light craft that may be more difficult to handle, but will be faster around the sharp turns or a heavier craft, which will be easier to handle and less susceptible to damage, but may leave you lagging at the back of the pack.During races you can earn combat points by launching an arsenal of weapons at your opponents. These points can then be spent on upgrading and customising your craft by purchasing the likes of new wings that make your ride more stable or a new hull that makes your ship faster. These customisable ships can not only be used throughout the single player campaign, but can be brought online to compete against human opponents.
Click for larger image
Click for larger imageThe tracks themselves become fairly repetitive because the majority of races consist of completing four laps around fairly short, circular tracks. It would have been far more exciting if the developers would have concentrated on longer, well designed tracks rather than focusing on the quantity of tracks. The environments do look the part, as you twist and turn through canyons, valleys, forests and lakes, weaving in and out of narrow gaps avoiding bumps in the terrain and jagged rock faces, but aside from the occasional shortcut, it's fairly easy to predict where the turns are going to come due to the lack of invention in the design. This does make the game accessible, perhaps for those who are new to this genre, but if you're looking for a real challenge from the circuits you'll be sorely disappointed.