MotorStorm Apocalypse

By Reardon Jones

The third instalment in the MotorStorm series for PS3 is Apocalypse. The game sees a group of Earthquake chasers arrive on a crumbling continent looking for the ultimate thrill, racing through the dilapidated streets, beaches, underground railways and even roof tops to determine who is number one.

A slightly better instalment than the previous games, Apocalypse was pretty enjoyable as the adrenaline pumps through the controller trying to vie for the top spot. The game works off three difficulties each with their own story mode.

The Rookie: All you need to do is finish in the top five for each race to become MotorStorm member. Easy enough, this level also introduces you to the variety of vehicles you have at your disposal.  

The Pro: Gets a little trickier as you are introduced to one of the top five racers in the group. Needing to finish top three from here out makes things pretty annoying but I guess that's the challenge.

The Veteran: Follows the organiser of the event as he races through the streets setting up way points and avoiding the wrath of the military that declare the city and surrounding lands a 'no-go-zone'. As with pro you have to finish in the top three to progress.

Apocalypse has three types of racing modes.  Standard Race, Elimination and Stand-off.

The Elimination races were pretty intense, the racer in last place after every ten seconds is blown up, literately blown up.

Stand-off is a one-on-one race similar to the 'Need for Speed' out run mini games. You start out on an even line then all you need to do is get far enough ahead of your oppenent to win the race.  

The Boosts are back with nitro being the best way to get ahead, use it for too long and you blow up. Like Pacific Drift, water can cool this off making it more usable, Apocalypse introduces Air Cooling, which allows your engines to cool coming off a jump.

The only real offence you have during these races is the ability to boost into each other maybe causing an opponent to crash. For a game called Apocalypse I was kind of expecting more. The natural disaster incidents that occur during some levels are pretty cool but their isn't enough of them and they become a bit predictable.

The game has some problems that make for frustrating gaming. Loading times are quite long between races and even longer when in story mode, all I wanted to do was jump straight into the action!

The other annoying aspects of this game is no map, no opponent locations or track layout.

Some people might really enjoy this however I found it frustrating especially when the game only advances when you obtain a certain position.

Still a decent enough game that does provide some awesome racing moments, however not consistently enough for me to keep playing.

Game: MotorStorm Apocalypse
System: Playstation 3
Developers: Evolution Studios
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Rating: 70%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)