PURE Posted by Joe Anderson on Sep 22, 2008 12:37 (Sep 22, 2008 12:37) |
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Disney have always been famed for their wonderful animations and of course Mickey Mouse, but until now no-one would really have associated them with dirt bike racing, would they? Anyway with the help of Brighton's Blackrock Studio's, Disney have managed to do just this and with the release of Pure they now have a very impressive racer with their name on it. Blackrock Studio’s are certainly no strangers to racing games, having produced the popular ATV Offroad series. Pure however takes an altogether different approach from ATV by providing you with an all out action racer that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
The main aim of Pure is to get yourself through the World Tour mode by winning as many races as possible, the World Tour is made up of 10 stages, which increase in difficulty the longer you play. During the stages there is a mix of racing, sprinting and freestyle. While racing obviously explains itself and sees you trying to finish first in a pack of 16, Sprint has you attempt to manoeuvre around shorter tracks with tighter bends, also with the aim of finishing in first place. Freestyle is different in that there is no finish line, basically the aim here is to get the best trick score before the time runs out. To help you on your way throughout the different tracks in Freestyle mode there are plenty of jumps not to mention power-ups that you will battle your opponents to grab. Different power-up’s include instant Special Tricks, one that doubles your score for a short amount of time, and a fill for your boost. The Freestyle events are probably the most fun out of the three as they provide you with plenty of entertainment and frantic action. The games controls are thankfully fairly easy to get used to, to initiate a jump you simply pull back on the left trigger and then push up when you are ready (the game calls this pre-load), you can then steer which ever way you wish in mid air and also pull off tricks using the relevant face button.
There are three levels of tricks that you can pull off, each of which is assigned to a face button, although only one of these is available at first you will soon unlock the others by pulling off tricks and filling the blue Nitro bar at the bottom of the screen. The Nitro bar can also be used for boost, so if you are falling behind in a race this will give you the option to catch up, however using Nitro will come at the cost of your trick level, meaning you will have to fill the bar up again before you can use the more impressive tricks.
Tricks are very flexible in that you can use a combination of tricks when you are in the air, you will also be graded on your moves with fresh, stale or tame being assigned depending on how many times you’ve attempted the move. Fresh tricks will give you more boost, so there is incentive to mix it up a bit rather than using the same moves time and again.
While World Tour makes up the majority of the game, the single player experience also includes a time trial event, where you can try and set new records on your favourite tracks and also a single event mode, allowing you to either practice or re-enact former glories. The game could perhaps have included a bit more to bulk up the single player experience however the world tour should provide enough entertainment to keep you busy for a while.
The multiplayer modes offer even more value than the single player, everything you can do in single player is included, as well as Freeride mode were you will compete in different areas of the game (such as racing/freestyle) in order to get the most points, with the overall aim of winning. This is a great mode as it plays to everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. Thankfully the online mode really is a great addition to this game and there is no doubt you will spend a lot of your time here should you own this game. Graphically the game is fantastic, although there is no damage done to the vehicles, you will still be able to collide with opponents and knock them off course. Visually the developers have done a great job, the environments all look fantastic and are spread with plenty of hazards throughout such as large jumps and long, deep muddy puddles which hinder you as you speed around the larger bends spread throughout the game.
To be honest I wasn’t really sure what to expect of Pure, however having now played it I have to say that I am very impressed, so much effort has been put in to the game and the result is an all out excellent racing experience that keeps you on the edge of your seat all the way to the finish line.
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