Toronto Thumbs

REVIEW
Pure

If you like racing games that are fast and full of stunts, chances are you’ll dig Pure, the off road ATV racing and freestyle game from Blackrock Studios. You don’t even have to be a fan of ATVs but it obviously does help.

The game essentially has two styles of play, both of which require different styles of bikes. The Freestyle mode of play puts heavy emphasis on stunt performance while the Sprint mode features shorter tracks where the object is to get from start to finish as quickly as possible (it’s a race, after all). Pure also features a 16-player online racing mode if that’s the kind of thing that you’re into. Split screen multiplayer is unfortunately not a part of the game, but considering the graphic quality of its scenery it’s understandable the developers wouldn’t want all that detail crammed into a small portion of screen real estate.

There are a few tutorials to get through before being able to get into the game properly, but they outline all the basics you’ll need to start mastering jumps and tricks. In the Freestyle races, the courses feature forking and alternate paths, some of which have higher jumps than others. The more stunts you perform per race, the more stunts you unlock. Each consecutive set of stunts is more complicated then the previous and requires additional time to pull off. Landing tricks is another talent altogether, as one minor flub-up will result in a decrease of the Thrill Bar (which is the boost and trick metre, but with a fancy name). Ideally, you’ll eventually get to the point where the Thrill Bar is full for most of the race.

Because the Thrill Bar is a gauge for both boost and stunts you can perform, it becomes a balancing act when deciding whether or not to use the quad bike’s boost. On one hand, it could mean the difference between a first and third place finish, but on the other hand, if used too frequently, you won’t be able to pull off fancier tricks and stunt combos. It’s an interesting way to balance out how people play the game. You can either be a speed demon or a stunt master, or just a little of both.

Another cool aspect of Pure is its Garage interface. This is an options menu where players can build their ride piece-by-piece and component-by-component depending on how they want their bike to perform. Bikes that are good for Freestyle events aren’t going to be good for Sprints, and vice versa. It’s therefore important to have one bike for each type of race. You can use ones that are already made or, if you’re into tweaking every single component for maximized efficiency, that option is also available.

There are several options to choose from for each part of the bike, so the results of the final product are practically endless. New components are also awarded depending on how well you perform in each race, and going back to the garage after every event to tweak your bike some more is not out of the question. Bike parts can also have custom design patterns, colours, and sticker placements.

Pure also has six different riders to choose from and each of them has his/her own special move and riding styles. I haven’t particularly noticed that different characters control differently from one another, but the fact that each character has a unique special trick is enough to warrant trying all of them at some point.

In terms of controls, at first the bikes do seem to slide around a lot. The control sensitivity is definitely greater than your standard car racing game. But once you become accustomed to the fact that subtle leans on the stick work well, things should be somewhat easy going. I, however, always seem to wipe out a lot during the first lap of any given race. Thankfully, since the game has a very arcade feel to it, players who wipe out are placed back on the track shortly after their rag doll bodies are shown flailing around helplessly (which is entertaining in itself). Pure has over 30 tracks to explore – and exploring is a big part of the racing experience in the game. While alternate paths through the terrain may not necessarily result in shortcuts, there’s a lot of beautiful scenery to check out if you can take your eyes of the trail long enough without wiping out.

What it all comes down to for me, however, is the fact that I can race and perform stunts while listening to whatever music I want to (though the game does have some pretty rockin’ tunes of its own). As long as the racing is fun and challenging and I can listen to Electric Six while playing, I’m guaranteed to like the game.

Posted in PC, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360 |