Previews// Motorstorm Apocalypse

Motorstorm has always been a no-holds barred racing game that's stuck to the unpredictable tracks of nature. From muddy islands to snowy peaks, the series has been the king of off-road. For its inevitable third iteration, Evolution Studios has set the infamous Festival racer in a city, calling it an “urban-based off-road experience.”

It sounds like a bit of an oxymoron at first, until you hear the name of the game: Motorstorm Apocalypse. This isn't just any old city – it's an abandoned, self-destructive city, riddled with earthquakes and littered in debris and collapsing structures. I guess if you're driving along a street that's eating itself alive it ceases to be an 'on-road' experience. And it is a location that is deemed, by the Festival organisers' standards, the perfect location for some classic daredevil racing.

You'll be racing against more than just the urban landscape. At the start of the game, you see vehicles old (all of the nine classes from Pacific Rift are present) and new (including a muscle car, super car and superbike) arrive on the isolated city island's beaches in loading ships. This kicks off the new storyline that has been intertwined into the single-player Festival mode. It promptly ends with a race for survival as players attempt to get off the island before it all sinks into the ocean.

The level I played (which will be the same as the demo on show at E3 next week) was set towards the end of the 48-hour Festival timeline, with the city crumbling under the forces of its own self-destruction. Rather than a lapped track, this city-based race was a point-to-point event, with flying helicopters holding girders symbolising the start and finish lines. The natural disasters that have struck the land so far has made the concrete road uneven and challenging to drive on. Handling-wise, it's almost as if I was racing back on that tropical island in Pacific Rift.

A mere six seconds after the race starts, a huge oil tanker smashes through the tall concrete wall on the left, and swerves around the track to distract the sixteen racers. A quick look at the back reveals a few random blokes clinging onto it, controlling the vehicle's motion as it crashes into any racers that happen to be in its way.

Turns out the city isn't completely abandoned after all – these renegades are known as 'Crazies,' and they don't like you using the island as a race track. So on various courses, they will plan impromptu traps such as wrecking balls to ruin your fun. Comprised of a group of former civilians that want to take the city for themselves, the Crazies are in a heated war with another armed force – the Private Military Company.

These guys were originally tasked with protecting the most valuable assets of the city from looters like the Crazies, but eventually power went to their heads and now they greet any MotorStorm racer with a hail of bullets. At times they will even call in military choppers to fire rockets up your bum while you try to stay in pole position. Between these two warring groups and constant earthquakes, there's a lot to worry about.

It's not so bad that it's overwhelming, however. Rather, various catastrophic events occur one after the other, while the level design allows you to always know which direction you're supposed to be going in, even when the track changes and deforms itself right in front of you. After the oil tanker goes away, the track continues in between two skyscrapers – which are falling apart as the player approaches. A button prompt appears which, when held, pans the camera to fit the destruction on the screen.

[Continued...]

Don't forget to read our interview with Evolution lead designer Paul Rustchynsky.