DIRT Showdown
Reviewed By Stephen Pastic
The DiRT franchise has a crack at mixing things up with a more arcade
racing feel than its more rally-centric siblings. They say
that change is as good as a holiday, but whether it's an enjoyable one
or not is an entirely different matter altogether. So, has
Codemasters pulled a successful spin off, or is Showdown destined to
spin out?
Okay, one thing you will not have to concern yourself with here is
anything that comes close to even rhyming with the word "story".
DiRT Showdown gets straight to the point and
simply presents the player with a bunch of races and events, and
thankfully doesn't feel the need to provide any kind of framing device
as to why. When so many racers in this genre of late have
felt the need to shoehorn in some awkward rationale for cars going
fast, Showdown makes a good first impression in seemingly understanding
its target audience better than most.
In terms of its overall presentation DiRT
Showdown is perfectly serviceable, but nothing to write home about
either. Differing weather conditions on certain tracks help
to give a bit of graphical variety, and the in game audio raises no
major issues (aside from potential clashes with personal taste on the
music side of things). Controls are easily accessible even to
newcomers, and players will have little excuse to blame a poor
performance on anything other than their own input - in fact, the
controls are forgiving to the point that many corners in the game can
be taken at full speed without letting up on the gas at all.
Career mode will have the player working
their way through events which vary between straight racing, to
demolition derby style matches and everything in between.
Domination (post the fastest time on as many segments of the track as
possible), Eliminator (every few seconds last placed car is eliminated)
and 8-Ball (tracks which feature criss-crossing traffic patterns) make
up the more traditional racing fare, whilst Rampage (ram the hell out
of other cars), Hard Target (avoid other cars trying to ram you), as
well as simply bashing other cars off an elevated platform comprise the
more aggressive fare.
Situated somewhere between these are the
"Hoonigan" events which have a more stunt driving feel to them where
the player will often be tasked with completing certain objectives as
quickly as possible. A simple unlock/upgrade system is also
present as you work your way through the different tournaments
throughout career mode.
A new feature called "Crashback" allows
players to hit RB immediately following a crash, triggering a
Burnout-esque slow motion replay. Players can then adjust the camera
angle and upload the clip directly to YouTube - a good idea, but in my
experience the crashes weren't really varied enough to really warrant
this kind of feature being as prominent as it is. No doubt,
there will be some ridiculous things that will come out of it, but
while the implementation was fine, I can't help but feel that most
players will not get much from this addition.
The multiplayer side of things does two things right in particular -
firstly, split screen is actually supported! Once taken for granted,
split screen multiplayer in any kind of title has become something of a
rarity, and it is nice to see a developer not throwing all of their
multiplayer options online. Another cool little feature is
the ability to issue specific challenges to friends whether they are
online or not - probably something only the ultra competitive will get
much use out of, but should make some interesting little rivalries as
friends consistently attempt to 'one-up' each other.
My biggest criticism with DiRT Showdown is
just that the package as a whole feels really shallow. Even
the demolition derby events, which are quite fun at first, lose much of
their lustre after the first few repeats. Whilst the attempt
to include many different gametypes yet maintaining the element of
accessibility is a good idea in theory, DiRT Showdown unfortunately
ends up feeling a little more like a mini-game collection than a stand
alone title.
It must also be stated quite simply that the
in game announcer is a douche - assuming you do not regularly wear a
cap slightly off to the side of center, you will quickly be put off by
this 'bro-tastic' dude and his cringe worthy commentary.
Finally, as with many sports and racing titles, DiRT Showdown features
tons of in game advertising - however, in this case even all of the
cars are covered in branding with no option to choose even a simple
solid colour. In fact, selecting your vehicle pre-race
literally consists of choosing your make of car, followed by which
sponsor's paintjob you would prefer.
DiRT Showdown is not a bad game. It performs everything
competently, and for a casual pick up and play audience, there is fun
to be had here. It just doesn't really do anything terribly
well either. This, coupled with a lack of depth makes it all
the more difficult for DiRT Showdown to stand out in the crowded racing
genre.
Rating:
70%
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Game: DIRT Showdown
System: XBOX 360
Developer/Co-Developer: Codemasters
Publisher: Codemasters
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