It has been a long time since we have seen quad-bike racing game any platform. We have had rally games (DiRT 2) and we have had ‘invitation’ games (Forza 3), but nothing from the near-suicidal sport of ‘dune’ racing. So I feel privileged to see THQ have gone to the effort of produce another one. But after their poor effort in early 2008 with Untamed, can this latest title improve the image of the sport in the videogame world, or is it the real way to say goodbye to a genre once loved by many?

 

Reflex invests in a brand new control system, the left thumbstick controls the basic movement of the bike, while the right thumbstick controls the driver’s movement on the bike. So if you are turning left, by turning both thumbsticks further to the left, the quicker and sharper the turn will be. This can also make sharp turns easier, and controls your speed while going over bumps. For example if you are approaching a big jump. When you are about to take off, pull down both sticks to get maximum height, and then push both forward equally to level the driver out for a smooth landing.

 

 

The controls takes some time to get used to, however if you are about to fall off your bike, you will get an on-screen prompt telling you which way to move the right thumbstick before you fall off. It’s all very well planned, and pretty much perfectly executed and it really does add to the atmosphere of driving the real thing.

Reflex also boasts a new trick system. By jumping off a ramp as explained above, you can then press the LB button down while moving the right thumbstick three times in any mix of directions to perform an airborne stunt. You can usually string two together without crashing down, but the faster you go, the more you can string. It’s just a shame that unless you are in stunt challenges none of it counts towards anything, not even a special reward.

 

Reflex sports several game modes, first up is Moto Career, which is ok but not great, here you have three championships unlocked from the beginning with one race unlocked in each, so the natural thing would be to complete one race to unlock the next, however the unfortunate truth is even in the first championship there are only three of twelve races you can actually unlock in that category before you need to move on to another. While this has something to do with your racer rank, it looks very tacky, and the fact you have to go back to an older championship before you progress to the harder races is insane. Also, the second championship involves you completing various free modes challenges, however you need complete gold on all these challenges to unlock the next one, which is a harsh play owing that every other championship with racing doesn’t require you to do this.

 

The next mode is Quickplay, which allows you to play either a race with/or against other MX and ATV vehicles in stunt runs and freeplay exercises such as flag collector or several other challenges. It equally serves no purpose since none of the points or wins go towards anything apart from an online leaderboard which you can achieve via Xbox Live play or Career Mode anyway.

 

 

The Xbox Live play isn’t even that good either. It took a good five minutes to get into a match, because it takes hours to connect. Even when I did get a good connection, the time frame was too extensive.

 

Graphically, the game has had an overhaul, but nothing graphically defining. There is still an awful lot of brown and grey in the game and not enough reason why. The mud for example is so dusty it doesn’t really stick to the bike, and wet mud is so rare it really doesn’t have a point. If your screen got sprayed with dust it would be different altogether. The crowds are at least animated and the umbrella girl is a little ‘hotter’ than usual, but it’s not a great improvement. The soundtrack is still very trash rock, though it fits the genre well.

 

What Reflex does is introduce new gameplay mechanics which, rather than hoping it will be improved over time have gone out and made sure it bloody well works first time and it does, oh so well. So while things do look up for the gameplay the developer it has left some of the other vital ingredients of the game lagging behind massively.